Too bad, Ray no longer had the headspace for romance.

Would someone like Lucy ever agree to be his mistress? Of course not.

Not now. Maybe after the apocalypse, things would be different; when the world collapses, a single meal could make a person reckless and grateful in equal measure.

But that was a problem for a later self—he had no time for chasing women today.

He had other priorities.

'I need to get in shape,' he thought. 'If the hailstorm blocks out the sun for months—or forever—th