“I think the burgers and veggies are done.”
“Good, because I’m hungry.”
Blakely hadn’t eaten much meat before leaving the group. When she’d left, she’d stumbled into a fast-food joint and ordered a burger. It wasn’t good, so she hadn’t had another one.
Jump took the food inside, and she followed, unsure how much of the burger she could stand. She watched Jump making his burger up and did basically what he did. She wasn’t sure about the barbecue sauce, but she put on a little. She refused the mayonnaise. The pickles seemed like a good idea along with the tomato, onion, and lettuce.
She ate the roasted vegetables first. They were really good. With only the burger left to eat, she picked it up, wondering if he would notice that she wasn’t eating much. She took a bite and paused with it on her tongue.
Jump’s eyebrows lifted. “Is everything okay?”
She finished chewing and swallowed. “This isn’t a burger.”
He chuckled. “No, it is.”
“It tastes so good.”
He chewed and nodded. “Wave made these up before he left. They are great.”
“I’m shocked.”
“So your last burger that you didn’t like, where did you get it?”
“One of those fast-food joints, but I swore up and down I’d never eat another one again. This isn’t even comparable. The other thing didn’t even taste like food.”
Jump threw back his head, laughter spilling out. “Some fast food isn’t good. Some of it is, but you have to be picky.”
“Before running away from the cult, I’d never had chips. I’d also never had chocolate. The cookies that we made in the cult weren’t like cookies I’ve picked up.”
He nodded. “There are some treats I just can’t start in on. There are some sweet cereals I can’t buy because I will eat the entire box.”
“I bought a box of something, but I didn’t like it. It was so dry.”
“Did you put milk with it?”
“Only a small amount. I guess it wasn’t enough.”
“There’s this one cereal that is little squares and sweet. I could eat a huge box of them. They are so good.”
“I like cheesecake. I didn’t think I would, but I bought some and ate almost the whole thing in a couple of days. It was amazing.”
“Cheesecake is good. There are some restaurants that make amazing cheesecakes. They are over the top, though. It’s almost too much.”
“Oh, I’d like to try that.”
“Most of the time I like eating natural food. Lots of vegetables.”
“I like vegetables and fruits. I also like meat. Beef is my favorite, but pork is good, too.”
“I like chicken.”
“We’ll go grocery shopping tomorrow and buy some food that you like.”
“So you said you were in the Navy, right? When do you go back to work?”
His lips screwed up to the side. “Probably on Monday. I have so many days off I need to take some extra time. Everyone on my team took the day off because of the fire.” He checked his watch then looked back up at her. “They are all coming at three to go over to the apartment and see if we can get in.”
“Oh.”
