Apocalypse Queen: My Space, My Rules Chapter 207: Get to Work

Chandler blinked, and then a suspicious flush crept up across his striking face.

"I meant we should start working! What exactly were you thinking about?!"

Mariella went scarlet, and the embarrassment curdled instantly into indignation.

"Are you coming in or not?!" She wrapped her hands around his neck and put on her most threatening expression.

Chandler remained utterly unmoved, his expression a portrait of steadfast principle. "Not without a proper commitment. Anything else would be completely improper."

Mariella stared at him blankly. "We've already made things official, didn't we?"

"We established that we're dating. Acting on it this early into the relationship would be far too hasty." He delivered it with complete composure.

Mariella nearly walked straight into his logic before she caught herself, and she fixed him with a sharp look. "Did I say anything about that? I said I wasn't ready, and that jumping into things this fast was too much!"

He'd made it sound like she was the one trying to push something, which did absolutely nothing for her dignity.

Chandler saw that she was genuinely irritated and shifted the subject. "What's Denton's ETA?"

"Probably tomorrow afternoon or evening." Mariella paused, then let her curiosity surface. "...What did you trade him for?"

"Not telling you." The man gave nothing away.

That only made her more curious. She slipped her arms around his lean, solid waist and pressed ahead. "What's there to hide from me? Whatever supplies you need, just say so. A third of everything we've collected goes to you. That includes the crops we're growing, the produce, and whatever we raise in the water. All a third yours."

By rights it should've been half and half, but she was providing the storage space, so taking a larger share was only fair.

"You can have all of it," Chandler said, without a moment's hesitation.

Mariella blinked at him. "That's unusually generous."

"Consider it a wedding gift," he said.

Every instinct in Mariella went on high alert. "Are we getting married?"

Every instinct in Chandler went on high alert as well. "You're not planning to marry me?"

Mariella steadied herself and let out a soft, dismissive laugh. "It's the end of the world. Who gets married anymore?"

Surviving one day at a time was already plenty. A little romance here and there, a drink to pass the hours, that was enough. Marriage was a whole other tier of commitment she had no interest in touching.

Chandler's expression cooled, and his voice followed. "Fine. No pressure."

He fastened the button at his collar, pushed past her, picked up a shovel, and started digging without another word.

Mariella saw that she'd actually gotten to him and decided to drop the teasing. "What are you doing?"

"Digging wheat fields." He worked without looking up.

Mariella's eyes lit up. "You're planting wheat? Let's do it!"

She hurried back to the villa, changed into work clothes and proper shoes, grabbed a second shovel, and came back to dig alongside him.

They'd chosen a spot close to the pond, which made drawing water significantly easier.

Working together for close to an hour, they carved out a leveled wheat field of roughly 1000 square feet.

Chandler located a water pump, connected the hose, and drew water from the pond into the field

The pump ran with enough force that it occasionally pulled fingerlings along with the water.

Mariella was delighted by it. "A wheat field with fish and shrimp swimming through it when water comes in. The ecosystem practically runs itself."

Chandler found the net and a bucket, used bread crumbs as bait, and caught another full bucket of fingerlings.

"Fish and shrimp filter the water and eat the algae off the irrigation pathways. The whole system stays cleaner for it."

He sorted through the catch. The shrimp juveniles were relatively few, and the crab juveniles were even fewer. But the fields offered a richer food supply and a more hospitable environment than the pond, and he expected the populations to reach a stable balance before too long.

"You know so much!" Mariella didn't hold back her admiration, and she sealed it with a quick kiss.

The corner of Chandler's mouth curved upward.

Mariella couldn't help herself and pressed another kiss to the same spot.

"We're working," he said, and his throat moved with visible discomfort.

Mariella loved exactly that about him, and the laugh that came out of her was full and genuine.

Whatever small friction had sparked between them earlier dissolved without a trace.

...

The next day, Mariella slept well into the late morning as she always did.

She came downstairs to find breakfast waiting in the kitchen, left there by Matthew and Chandler.

The team had long since started their training drills out in the yard, Chandler included.

Mariella genuinely admired his stamina. A retired special forces operative through and through, with a level of self-discipline that was simply in a class of its own.

Matthew had fried churros to a perfect golden crisp, exactly the way Mariella liked them most. Chandler had seared a steak to tender, juicy perfection, the heat calibrated just right.

Mariella worked through the orange juice, the churros, the steak, and a side of garden salad with thorough, unhurried satisfaction.

After breakfast, she opened her phone as usual, and Kieran's message was already waiting at the top.

"Mariella, your intel was dead-on! The authorities just confirmed there's a real possibility of an extended night and brutal temperature event on the way. We at Celestine Ridge are going all-out, pulling every connection we have to source cold-weather supplies and building materials."