Page 23 of Anyone But You

“Five minutes, and then we need to keep moving.”

“Thank fuck,” Josh whimpered, plopping down on a log for respite.

“I wouldn’t do that if I were you,” Victoria said as she wiped her forehead with the bottom of her shirt, revealing her soft belly and belly button ring.

“And why not?” he asked childishly.

“Because bugs love living in those hollowed-out logs. There’s no telling what might be in there—ants, termites, beetles, spiders—”

“Shit!” Josh yelped, jumping from the log and slapping at his legs. “Fucking fire ants! Just get it over with and kill me now!”

“Don’t tempt me, kid,” I mumbled as I observed our surroundings. Our food search hadn’t been as successful as I’d hoped. Everything we’d come across was, at the very least, questionable. I thought we’d hit a minor jackpot when we stumbled across some fallen coconuts. However, Victoria warned us that fallen coconuts had to be carefully examined for cracks and damage due to the potential risk of contaminants. I spent the next thirty minutes cracking open brown coconuts that all proved to be spoiled.

We’re off to a great fucking start, and at this rate, we’ll have to rely on what we can catch out at sea.

“Are you all right, Victoria? I haven’t heard much from you. Usually, I can’t go more than ten minutes without hearing a complaint.”

She shrugged.

“I think I should’ve taken advantage of the free gym membership in my employee package and cut back on the donuts.”

“Way to take personal accountability,” I praised playfully.

“How much further will we walk in this direction before doubling back?”

I sighed and placed my hands on my hips. “We need to go as deep as we can. Returning to the beach without fresh water isn’t an option.”

“We might have an alternative if we don’t find water,” Josh offered.

“And what is that?” I questioned, keeping my expectations low to avoid disappointment.

“We were carrying cases of water on the jet. There’s a possibility that there might be some water bottles floating around the wreckage. We planned on returning to the wreckage to scavenge for supplies anyway.”

“How many cases were there?” Victoria asked.

“Six. They were 32-count.”

“That could last us a while if we’re conservative,” she spoke wistfully.

I shook my head. “I’m not trying to be an asshole, but we shouldn’t get our hopes up and should remain focused. If, by some miracle, we find some bottles floating at sea, wonderful, but we must keep our expectations in check. More likely than not, that won’t occur.”

“I don’t see how you worked for him. He seems like such a Debbie Downer,” Josh complained to Victoria, trying to get some sympathy points from her or kiss her ass. It was difficult to tell. The boy seemed to have a kiss-ass nature about him.

Victoria glared at him, and I’d expected her to hurt his feelings with one of her snarky remarks, but I was sorely disappointed when she said, “I wouldn’t lean against any trees if I were you.”

“Why not?” Josh asked.

She scoffed. “For the same reason I told you not to sit on the log. “Let’s get moving.”

I followed and fell in step beside her. “You could’ve defended my honor back there.”

“There was nothing to defend. It was a valid inquiry,” she expressed. “I’d work for the devil as long as he paid me a fair, livable wage with benefits.”

“I pay you a fair, livable wage.”

“My point exactly.”

We continued our lighthearted “bickering” while on our hunt for water as a way to keep distracted. Josh complained that he felt left out of the conversation, and Victoria told him he should be grateful that he was breathing.