Princess

I guess I'm one of the lucky ones.

When the asteroid hits and the world falls apart, I'm seventeen, and my dad buys us a place in an underground bunker. We're supposed to be safe down there, but we're not. Gradually, I lose everything until all I have left is a bewildering relationship with a stoic, unknowable man.

As one of the guards in the bunker, Grant has lurked in the background of my life for years, teaching me to defend myself, making sure I'm safe, and infuriating me by treating me like a sheltered princess in a tower. I don't even know if he likes me, even after we end up in bed together. All I know is that he's always there beside me--during the bleak half-life of the bunker and the hostile, unfamiliar world we discover when we finally come out of lockdown.

Maybe one day he'll open up. Let down his walls. And maybe eventually our days can be about more than surviving. Maybe I am one of the lucky ones, but right now all I have left in the world is him.