Chapter 55-Floating

Chapter 55: 55-Floating

"What was that?"

Aymara walked down the hallway toward her room, but she wasn’t entirely sure her feet were touching the floor.

Her cheeks were burning, absolutely burning, and she lifted both hands to cover them, as though that could somehow cool the heat spreading across her face.

It was just a kiss. A tiny kiss, a peck on the cheek. Something so innocent that children could probably exchange it without thinking twice.

So why was her heart behaving as though Nathaniel had just confessed his undying love to her?

Aymara pressed her palms against her cheeks. "Calm down."

Her heart ignored her. It was beating far too quickly. She lowered her hands and continued walking, only to catch her reflection in one of the large windows lining the hallway. She stopped.

Her face was pink and almost red. Aymara stared at herself in disbelief. It has been a long time since her feeling were stirred so and she blushed deeply.

"What’s wrong with me?"

She turned toward the window. Outside, the apocalypse was still raging with merciless fury. The ocean stretched endlessly into the darkness, its waves rising like mountains before crashing against the fortress. Rain hammered the glass in thick, relentless sheets.

The fortress shuddered beneath another impact. Somewhere below, alarms wailed as the storm battered the walls and the waves climbed higher. Beyond the fortress, whatever remained of civilization was being swallowed by water and destruction.

It should have terrified her. It should have reminded her that the world was ending, that the walls around her could fail, and that even this carefully built refuge might not survive the night.

However, she couldn’t see any of it, because all she could think about was Nathaniel: his arms around her, his hand holding hers, the warmth of his body, and the way he had looked at her before leaning closer and then, the softness of his lips against her cheek against her cheek.

Aymara’s fingers slowly rose to touch the exact spot. Her cheeks heated again.

"He kissed me. He really kissed me."

She whispered the words as though she couldn’t quite believe them.

Another thunderous crash rolled through the fortress. The floor trembled beneath her feet, but the only thing that made her heart race was the memory of Nathaniel.

Nathaniel had kissed her. Not because she had begged him or tricked him, and not because she had done something extraordinary to earn it. He had simply wanted to.

And the way he had gotten so embarrassed that he had practically thrown her out of his room.

Aymara’s lips curled into a helpless smile. "He was so cute."

She immediately shook her head. "No. No, no, no."

She had to stop thinking about it. She was an adult woman. A twenty-six-year-old woman who had already experienced betrayal, death, rebirth, and the literal end of the world.

She had watched cities disappear beneath tsunami waves, built a fortress to survive an apocalypse, and bought enough supplies to feed people for years. She was supposed to be mature, composed, and calm.

Yet one innocent kiss from Nathaniel had reduced her to this: a blushing mess while the ocean tried to tear the world apart outside her window.

Aymara quickly walked toward her room. "Forget it, Aymara," she nodded firmly. "Forget the kiss."

Another boom shook the hallway. She took another step. "Forget Nathaniel for one moment ."

The lights flickered as wind screamed around the fortress. She took another step. "Forget the feeling of his arms around your waist..." she paused. "...No."

She couldn’t forget that.

Aymara hurried the rest of the way to her room. The moment she stepped inside, she closed the door behind her and stood there in silence.

Outside, the storm continued to roar, pounding the fortress as though it wanted to break through the walls and drag everyone into the sea.

But she just slowly turned toward her bed. The moment she saw it, whatever little composure she had left completely disappeared.

Aymara rushed forward and threw herself onto the mattress. "Ahhh!"

She buried her face in the pillow, then rolled over and back again, kicking her feet beneath the blanket. "This is ridiculous!"

She grabbed the blanket and pulled it over her face. Her feet kicked again. "He only kissed my cheek!"

Beyond the walls, thunder exploded with enough force to make the room tremble while she rolled around beneath the blanket.

"Just my cheek! Why do I feel like he handed me the moon?"

Her heart fluttered. She immediately covered her face. "But he kissed me!"

A muffled giggle escaped her. Aymara froze. She slowly lowered the blanket.

She had giggled. Actually giggled. That is not a reaction she was used to having come out of her own mouth.

She stared at the ceiling. "Did I really just do that?"

Her cheeks heated again. She pulled the blanket over her face, and another giggle escaped. She kicked her feet against the mattress while rain lashed the windows and the sea raged beyond them.

"I can’t believe this!"

She was acting like a teenager experiencing her first crush. And perhaps that was exactly why it felt so overwhelming.

For the past several weeks, Aymara’s heart had known almost nothing but fear, betrayal, regret, death, desperation, and rebirth.

There had been the shock of discovering that the apocalypse was coming, the endless preparations, the fear of losing everything again, the determination to survive, and the guilt of remembering everyone who would die.

She had already lost Nathaniel once. She had watched love curdle into betrayal, watched the people she trusted become part of the ruin, and died with all of that grief still lodged inside her.

Rebirth had given her another chance at survival, but it had not erased the wounds. Every plan, every weapon, and every fortified wall had been built around the fear of losing him again.

Nathaniel was the person she had once loved in a way she hadn’t understood until she lost him, the person she had abandoned, and the person she had promised herself she would protect if given another chance.

She had been so focused on making sure he survived that she hadn’t realized something else was happening.

Her heart was slowly coming back to life. Not all at once or cleanly. The betrayal still existed. The dead were still dead. The memories of her first life still haunted the spaces between her thoughts.

But beneath all that grief, a feeling so fragile had begun to stir, something she had believed death and rebirth had destroyed forever.

Nathaniel’s kiss had not erased the past. It had simply reached through it and reeminded her that her heart could still recognize tenderness, still answer warmth with warmth, still want something beyond survival.

After everything that had been taken from her, that small touch felt almost impossibly precious: proof that she was not only a survivor carrying the ruins of her old life, but still a woman capable of hope.

And apparently, all it needed was one kiss to know that. "You are utterly hopeless, Aymara Ellington."