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Judy stayed behind to pack her laptop.

I should have left.

I didn’t.

She noticed.

“You can speak now.”

“I wasn’t waiting for permission.”

“That would be a first.”

I leaned against the wall.

“You remember me being quiet?”

“I remember you answering questions with one word.”

“I was seventeen.”

“So was I.”

Neither of us said anything for a moment.

Awkwardness filled the space between us.

It was more honest than pretending those four dates had meant something they hadn’t.

“You became an Army Ranger,” she said.

“Yes.”

“For fifteen years?”

I wondered who had told her.

Probably Rylie.

Or Trigger.

Trigger would tell a stranger my entire life story if they bought him a beer.

“Fifteen years,” I confirmed.

“And then?”

“I left.”

“That’s generally what people do after fifteen years.”

“I traveled.”

“For three years?”

“Yes.”

She closed her laptop.