Free Counting Down by Lilah Boone

sounds great, but it will only make me sleepy. I think I need something with a bit more kick right now. My head’s still a little fuzzy from one too many of Jimmy’s shots.”
    “Right. Um… let me see what I’ve got.” He popped open the fridge and bent down to look on the shelves. “How about some diet coke? You were drinking that earlier. That’s your usual, right?”
    “That’s perfect.” Abby smiled, relieved.
    They sat down at the kitchen table with a touch of awkwardness hanging between them. How did one start a conversation about the apocalypse, Abby thought.
    Kyle was the first to begin. “I have a confession to make.”
    Abby leaned in on her elbows and took a swig of her soda. There had been sexual tension looming since the moment they met and Abby fully expected that the flirting was finally about to begin in earnest.
    “I’m all ears.” She gave him a casual smile that she hoped was inviting and waited for him to continue.
    “I’m not sure how to put this so I’m just going to come right out and say it. I think I know things about you that I couldn’t possible know about a person I just met.”
    “That sounds rather bizarre.” She laughed, a little uneasy. That wasn’t at all what she had expected him to say. “What do you mean exactly?”
    “I mean that I know you don’t like coffee not because I noticed you drinking herbal tea last night. I know you don’t like coffee because I just know you.”
    Abby took a minute to soak that in. Maybe it was her earlier alcohol consumption, but she couldn’t seem to make sense of what he was trying to say.
    Kyle continued, keeping his tone calm and even. “I know that you used to smoke cigarettes and sometimes still crave one. Like tonight while we were drinking you were wishing you had one. And I know you collect green things compulsively. Almost everything you own is some shade of green.” His tone became even softer as he edged his fingers across the table, resting them just centimeters from her own. “And I know that you miss your mother so much that sometimes you sit alone in the dark listening to her favorite songs.”
    To say that Abby was taken aback was an understatement. She had known this man for just over twenty-four hours and didn’t see how he could’ve garnished intimate details about her life, some of which she never spoke about. They had barely been able to talk to each other throughout the day while they worked, and what they talked about at dinner didn’t have any relevance to what he was saying to her now.
    “Did my uncle tell you this stuff? I mean finding out my favorite color is easy. Anyone who knows me even a little bit could tell you that.” Abby was feeling a little incredulous and it was obvious in her tone.
    “I know your toothbrush is green. So is the underwear you’re wearing right now.”
    Abby’s hand flew to the back of her pants to see if her underwear was showing. Before she could get over her shock he continued.
    “Jim and I don’t really talk about you. Not like that. Occasionally he will mention that you’re doing well or showing your paintings at some fancy New York place, but not much more than that. These things… they just come to me randomly. I don’t know how and I don’t know why. But the moment I saw you it was like you were transmitting things to me. Wasn’t it like that for you at all?”
    “No. I mean, sort of. I felt like I definitely knew you from somewhere, but I didn’t get details about your life or anything like that.”
    “What about since then? Has anything strange come to you? Any visions or random thoughts?”
    Abby didn’t want to tell him the things that popped into her head when she was around him. She couldn’t tell him that he made her feel safe even when he was one hundred yards away from her. Or that simply knowing he existed gave her a sense of relief that could only be compared to coming back to the place she belonged after a very long time. She wasn’t