The words sliced through her like an arrow, and all the sorrow of that moment returned in a beat. Cody didn’t look at her as he set the box on her kitchen table. How many times had he moved over the years? And how many times had he packed this unopened box, hauling it from place to place?

The silence hung between them, thick like a cloud of sadness.

When he finally looked at her, she forced any expression of pity from her face. “Hungry?”

“Yep.”

She got two plates from the cupboard as he took the burgers wrapped in white paper from the bag.

“You’re not seriously going to use a plate, are you?”

Their eyes met, and she saw the memories playing out in front of them like a movie on a screen. When they were kids, they never bothered with plates. They pulled their Jetty burgers straight from the bag, leaving them partly wrapped as they ate. They dumped two orders of fries out into the bag and generously showered them with salt, sliding them through a shared blob of ketchup. It was a ritual, really.

She’d frozen in place, clutching the plates. Was she allowed to do things the way they’d always done them? She’d assumed it would annoy him.

But he sat down and set the burgers on the table, then dumped all the fries into the bag as if it were no big deal. And honestly, shared fries were no big deal. She should stop mentally making them into a big deal because he was clearly unmoved. This was just dinner between two people who used to know each other.

Two people who used to kiss each other.

“You okay?” He was looking at her now, and the realization threw her off-kilter for a second.

She forced a nod, then set the plates down and handed him the saltshaker, which he used liberally to make the fries even more delicious.

She then folded the bag and shook it up, coating every single french fry with as much salt as possible, rolled the top of the bag down, and set it between them. She glanced up and realized she was smiling. He quickly looked away.

She turned toward the fridge for the ketchup and swallowed the pesky sadness that had crept in uninvited.

It’s not like old times, she reminded herself. No matter how familiar parts of this ritual were.

She sat across from him and unwrapped her burger, inhaling the greasy goodness and trying not to calculate how much extra time she’d have to work out tomorrow in order to account for all these calories.

She took a bite. The calories were worth it.

They ate in silence for several seconds, and then finally Louisa couldn’t take it anymore. “It’s probably weird being back here, huh?”

Not what she’d intended to say, but at least it filled the space.