ᯓ★ Marriage was supposed to be hard.

The apocalypse made it harder.

Not because of the walkers, not because of the food shortages, not even because of the constant threat of dying.

It was people.

People were always the problem.

⋆˙⟡ —

You learned that when a new survivor joined the group.

His name didn’t matter.

Only the fact that he wouldn’t leave you alone.

At first it was comments.

standing too close, finding excuses to talk to you.

You always shut it down immediately. Always.

Because you were married, because you loved Drew, because the guy made your skin crawl.

Unfortunately—he didn’t seem to care.

Every time you told him no, he’d laugh like it was a joke. Every time you walked away, he’d follow.

It got worse. Slowly. Annoyingly. And the entire time you kept it from Drew.

Not because you didn’t trust him. Quite the opposite.

You knew exactly what Drew would do.

Drew wasn’t perfect, he was sarcastic, impulsive, stubborn.

And if he found out some guy was bothering his wife? There would absolutely be a fight.

A bad one.

The group couldn’t afford that. Not now.

So you kept telling yourself you’d handle it. You’d always handled yourself before.

Then one afternoon everything went wrong.

The camp was mostly empty, people were out scavenging, others were on watch.

You were organizing supplies inside one of the abandoned buildings when the guy showed up.

Again.

You immediately sighed. “Seriously?”

He ignored the obvious annoyance in your voice. “Where’s your husband?”

You rolled your eyes. “Hopefully somewhere far away from this conversation.”

The guy laughed. You didn’t.

Then he stepped closer.

You stepped back. “No.”

The word came out sharp. Immediate. Usually that was enough, usually people listened.

This time—they didn’t.

Before you could move away completely, he grabbed your arm. Trying to pull you toward him.

You shoved him back instantly. “What is wrong with you!?”

The guy pulled you in, you panicked when his lips met yours.

Then somebody had appeared in the doorway.

Drew.

For a second nobody moved. Nobody spoke. And somehow that silence felt worse.

Because from where Drew was standing—he hadn’t seen everything.

Just the kiss part.