Fighting to Survive (As the World Dies #2)(53)

Snagging a box of Marlboro Lights, she tucked it into the plastic bag she was using as a shopping cart and headed to the far side of the room where gloves, hats and scarves were grouped. She needed a new pair of gloves, preferably leather.

Coming around the corner of the aisle, she found Katie on the floor going through boxes labeled “Women’s Dresses”. She looked frustrated as she dug down to the bottom of one of the big bins.

“Needing a new dress?” Nerit asked as she began to look through the box of gloves.

“I got it into my head that I need one for the party tonight,” Katie confessed. Next to her was a very sexy pair of high heels. “I found the shoes, but no dress.”

Nerit pulled out a pair of soft leather gloves and began to try them on. “Nice shoes.”

“Yeah, I think they belonged to one of those women that got eaten in the dining room. I asked Peggy about them and she said they were found kicked under a table in a hall. She thinks the woman took them off to run easier. Lucky for me, they fit.”

Nerit flexed her hand in the glove and pretended to fire a gun. They were a little stiff, but leather did tend to soften up and mold to fit. “So, what brought on this need for a new dress?”

Katie looked up at her, her expression a little embarrassed, but a glow seeming to emanate from her face. She looked happy.

Nerit grinned. “Oh, Travis.”

Katie laughed. “That obvious, huh?”

With a slight nod, Nerit said, “Well, yes, if someone was paying attention. You’ve played it very low-key. He has been far more obvious.”

Yanking another dress out, Katie looked at it, then sighed.

“This town wasn’t the hub of fashion,” Nerit said.

“Yeah, I noticed.” Katie pulled out another box and began to look through it.

Nerit slid the gloves into her bag and walked over to a box filled with Halloween costumes. It had been part of the overstock in the grocery store that had been taken in soon after this had all started. She began to look through the items, her mind twirling ideas around.

“What color do you like to wear?”

“Purple. Lydia always liked me in purple or blue,” Katie pulled out a plain navy dress several sizes too large for her frame and sighed.

Drawing a purple sorceress outfit from the box of costumes, she looked at Katie. “Like this color?”

“I am not wearing a Halloween costume.”

“If we can locate a sewing kit, I can modify it,” Nerit assured her.

Katie stood up and looked at the dress. “Really?”

Nerit nodded. “Oh, yes. It won’t be as fancy as anything from Versace, but I can make it work.”

“I’m desperate. If you think you can do it, I’m all for it,” Katie said with excitement and quickly began to look for sewing supplies.

Nerit laid the dress down on the floor and began to turn it this way and that, thinking hard, ideas flicking in and out of her mind, trying to figure out what she could do.

“I am glad that you are moving on,” Nerit said thoughtfully. “Letting go is always hard.”

“I wasn’t sure I could,” Katie confessed as she found some small sewing kits in a basket. “Honestly, I still suffer some guilt over moving on from Lydia.”

“I had three husbands. I understand very well,” Nerit assured her. She was very happy for Katie and confident that she and Travis being together was a good thing, but she also knew that Lydia would always be a part of Katie and never truly fade away

“I’m doing better than I was,” Katie decided. “Accepting it more.”

“It’s a journey,” Nerit agreed. “Just take one step at a time.

Katie walked back to Nerit and knelt beside her with the sewing kits. Nerit looked up into the younger woman’s face and could see an unspoken question in her eyes. “Yes?”

”Can you make it a sexy dress?”

Nerit smirked and nodded. “Oh, yes. I can.”





4. The Stage Is Set

Travis stood up and stretched. His eyes were growing weary and he could no longer concentrate on the plans he was working on for walling in Main Street. It had reached the point where he needed to take a break and not think about it anymore. He stretched again and felt the pleasant burn of scratches on his back. It had been a long time since he had worn any. It felt good.

Pushing the office door open, he moved down the hall, running his hand over his hair. It wasn’t until Katie had left that he had realized they had made a major mistake. It had been awhile since he had been with any woman and when he had been, it had been in a monogamous relationship where she had been on the Pill. Since Katie had spent the last decade with a woman….

Of course, it wasn’t really an excuse. Their first time together they had both had condoms ready to go.

Stepping into the hot afternoon air, he had to wonder if maybe they hadn’t done it subconsciously. His thoughts were definitely in the realm of forever. He was done looking. Katie was it. And maybe in some sort of Darwinian way, he was trying to secure that relationship with a child.

“Peggy, I am here to protest my treatment as a citizen of this city and the shoddy way that I have been treated since I arrived here in this fort that I did not vote on building. I was kept in that garage for over an hour being checked for bites. No, I do not allow anyone to bite me. I told this vampire once…”