She was proudly embarrassed, and a little excited about the kiss before today. Now she was mortified. Avoiding Atlas sounded like a good idea.

No wonder Tina didn’t like her. Romy felt guilty for overstepping the boundaries. She’d read enough Earth material to understand relationships were mostly monogamous. And from her observations, the people in the settlement seemed to stick to one person.

Romy scanned a document on tidal measurements in the 2020s. Every piece of information she’d read from 2020 to 2040 documented the same trends—rising water level, increase in temperature, spread of disease, loss of animal species, and the inevitable, astronomic loss of human life. A piece of paper she’d scanned yesterday detailed the death toll. Most were from low socioeconomic areas. Many died from disease, most from malnourishment.

Placing a book titled Marketing for Dummies to one side, Romy’s eyes landed on a squashed poster below it.

The rubber band snapped as soon as she touched it, cracked and dried from age. The poster unfurled and excitement burst within her as she saw what it was.

A map!

A swishing collapse sounded behind her. Romy turned, expecting to see another toppled column. But her heart raced at the soldier dressed in camo holding a gun in the doorway.

She dropped the map, purposefully clumsy, so it floated down out of view.

Romy recognised the soldier. It was the pale, black-eyed man who had looked at her strangely in the entranceway that day Atlas refused to give her another task. The man had been following Tina somewhere. The only reason Romy remembered was because he was looking at her in the same creepy way right now.

“You scared me,” she said, smile firmly in place.

The man had the kind of wiriness that could either be weak or incredibly strong. As his black gaze swept over her from head to toe, her instincts screamed it was the latter; that this man was not someone to be messed with.

The gun dangling within easy grasp did nothing to dispel her uneasiness.

“I was told you were in here,” he said.

Romy said nothing. Did Tina tell him? Was that why he was here? Was Tina laying down the law?

She waited for him to get to the point.

“I have a few questions for you.”

Romy smiled again, deciding to play the fool. “You need a reference? I’m afraid I might not be much help until I’ve got this mess sorted.”

The man smirked, sauntering closer. “No. Not a reference.” He tilted his head to the side and settled on her chest. She wore a white T-shirt today. She’d been self-conscious putting it on because it was made for a child. His look made heat fill her cheeks.