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Daniel arrived exactly twenty minutes later. I locked the front door behind me and walked toward the black sedan waiting in the driveway.

Daniel opened the rear door, and I slid into the back seat.

“Where would you like to go?”

“The nearest grocery store is fine.”

Daniel nodded before pulling away from the house. I looked out the window as we drove. I hadn’t realized until then how long it had been since I’d gone anywhere without Richard.

The ocean disappeared behind us as we drove farther into town, replaced by traffic lights, restaurants, gas stations, and people walking along the sidewalks.

Everything around me looked completely ordinary.

A woman stood outside a coffee shop talking to another woman pushing a stroller. A couple came out of a restaurant arguing about something while the man tried to unlock their car. Two teenage girls walked past carrying shopping bags and laughing about something I couldn’t hear. I watched them until they disappeared behind us.

Maybe I needed to get out more. I’d probably spent too much time inside that house.

Daniel dropped me near the entrance and told me he’d be waiting whenever I finished.

I grabbed a cart and headed inside. For the first few aisles, I bought whatever I actually needed. I grabbed coffee, milk, bread, fruit, cereal, and something other than wine to drink. Then I reached the meat section and started thinking about Richard.

He always liked a good steak.

I put two steaks into the cart. Then I grabbed some chicken because I remembered something he’d ordered the last time we’d gone out. It had mushrooms and some kind of cream sauce that couldn’t be that difficult to make. I doubled back for mushrooms.

Maybe I could make pasta too.

Richard liked Italian food, so I grabbed tomatoes, garlic, pasta, parmesan, and a bottle of olive oil that cost more than I would’ve spent on an entire grocery trip a few months ago. I didn’t even check the price before putting it into the cart.

That still felt strange sometimes. For most of my life, I’d known exactly how much money I had available. When I first left Boston, I’d counted every single dollar because I couldn’t afford not to. I knew what needed to go toward rent, food, gas, and whatever other bill was about to be overdue. Sometimes there was nothing left afterward. Sometimes there wasn’t even enough.

I’d stood in grocery stores doing calculations in my head and putting things back because I was three dollars short of what I could afford. Now I didn’t even know how much money was in the account Richard had given me. There was always enough money.

I stopped beside another display and grabbed a bag of potatoes.

Richard liked those with steak. I added asparagus because he’d complained once when a restaurant had overcooked it. My cart was getting ridiculous. I hadn’t cooked this much in my entire life, but I had plenty of time to learn now. It would give me something productive to do, and Richard ate at restaurants constantly anyway.

Maybe he’d actually enjoy coming here and having dinner waiting for him.

I started mentally assigning meals to different nights. I could make steak one night and chicken another. The pasta would work whenever I wanted something easier. Maybe I could even learn how to make lasagna from scratch.

For half a second, I considered calling my mother for her recipe. I immediately decided against that idea.

I continued through the store and eventually reached the liquor aisle. I found Richard’s bourbon and added a bottle to the cart.

By the time I reached the register, I had enough food for two people to survive several weeks. The cashier looked at everything and smiled. She started scanning everything while looking over the amount of food I’d managed to collect.

“Are you having people over?”

“No, it’s just my boyfriend.”

I liked calling Richard that. It made everything between us sound normal. The cashier smiled while scanning another package.

I pulled Richard’s card from my purse. I paid without looking at the total. Daniel loaded everything into the trunk while I climbed back into the car.

On the drive home, I watched the town slowly disappear behind us. The farther we drove, the fewer people I saw. By the time the ocean came back into view, there was almost nobody around.

The house looked beautiful from the road. Large windows faced the water, and a long deck wrapped around the back. There were more bedrooms than either of us would ever need and more space than I knew what to do with. Nobody had ever given me anything like this before.