"I threatened to punch him in front of a crowd of people and he backed off," she explains with a bit of pride in her voice, even a hint of levity, before turning back to him. She's only a few steps away but it feels like miles. The distance is too much and yet nowhere near enough.

"Hey, I'm gonna walk back on my own," she tells him. "Sort some stuff out in my head. But I'll meet you at the house in a little while?"

It occurs to her that she doesn't know if he lives there. He'd been hanging out on the porch, so it's a reasonable assumption, but still. There's just a part of her that needs to know she can count on him being there — he might be the only connection she has to home now.