He leaves without a backward glance. A moment later, his heavy footsteps plod up one of the staircases.

“So, tell me,” Tanq says when he’s out of earshot. “What’s going on between you two?”

“Nothing.”

She raises a delicate eyebrow. “Don’t bullshit me.”

“We met just a few days before we found you.”

“But he’s hot, right?”

I study her carefully. Tanq regards me with open curiosity, not challenge. A slight smile quirks the corner of her mouth.

“Scorching,” I concede. “But truly, the apocalypse has been all I can handle. I woke up from a coma and realized the world had died. I haven’t really been thinking about . . . romance stuff. Besides, Shawntelle—that was my best friend—would have warned me off of him; she was suspicious of jock types. Well, she had other reasons too. Like, she used to say that white women fetishize . . .” On second thought, I don’t care to let Tanq in on all the late-night talks with Shawntelle about race and racism, privilege and activism, allies and friendship. They were hard talks, and precious. Just between Shawntelle and me. So I say, “Why? You into him?”

She rolls her eyes. “Of course not. Not my type.”

“You prefer women?”

“I prefer no one. Tried sex a couple times. It was boring and messy.”

“Then you definitely shouldn’t do that again.”

Tanq narrows her eyes at me. “Usually, when I tell people I’m ace, they say I just haven’t met the right person.”

This is another kind of test. There’s no such thing as “normal” sexuality, Mom used to say. “My mom would tell you there’s no rule that says you have to want sex.”

I half expect her to respond with something disparaging about my mom. Instead, she says, “I read this science fiction book last year about a group of people who return to Earth after a disaster in order to repopulate it. I keep thinking about it. Like, what if everyone thinks it’s my duty to . . .”

So that’s it. “Tanq, if you come with us to Sandusky, and we meet people who want to have sex with you and won’t take no for an answer, I’ll punch them in the face. Trey would too, I bet. ‘No means no,’ he says.”

“Really? He says that?”

“He said it when I insisted on chasing after you even when you told us to get lost.”

“Huh.” She hunkers down into the sofa, arms around a pillow.

“I’m going to follow Trey’s example and get some sleep,” I say, getting to my feet. “I really hope you join us tomorrow, but neither of us will force you.”

She doesn’t meet my gaze as she whispers, “I’ll think about it.”