I smile weakly, sliding into the chair next to Korie.
They immediately steal more fries out of my bag as soon as I pull them out.
“Hey!” I say.
They pause. “What? You got me a small.”
“I did not!” I say, laughing. “They’re literally the same size.”
Korie squints between the containers with deep suspicion. “No. Yours is definitely bigger than mine.”
“It only looks that way because you ate half of yours already! Give me that.”
I yank my fries back. Korie snags some more anyway, grinning sheepishly. Their ears turn pink as they reach for their hamburger. God, they’re cute.
What happened to the person sending me frazzled text messages this morning?
Miles clears his throat. “So, anyway. Good to see you again, Holden. Kind of getting used to your company.”
“Yeah. It’s what, the third time you’ve eaten with us this month?” Sophie asks. “You should just work here. Then you’d see Korie all the time.”
I pause in the middle of unwrapping my hamburger. Sophie’s eyes are glinting, her attention darting between Korie and me like she’s in on a secret.
I swallow hard, heat flaring in my cheeks. Did Korie say something to her? If so, maybe that’s why they’re acting differently?
I hide a smile behind my food. I kinda like knowing Korie is talking about us.
Korie completely misses it, stealing my cup.
I stare at them. “Seriously?”
“What?”
“You have a sodaright there,” I say, gesturing.
“But I wanted Dr. Pepper.”
I make a face and take their Cherry Coke instead. Korie grins triumphantly.
They talk a mile a minute about some patients they had this morning in the trauma center. “It was crazy. I’ve never seen a leg bent that way. And then this kid came in with a broken arm, and I couldn’t get him to calm down. And just now, before lunch—” They pause when they see Sophie staring at us with a huge grin on her face. Korie looks at their scrub top, then at me. “What? Do I have food on me or something?”
I swallow back a laugh. “You were saying about the patient?” I need to distract them. If they think too hard about this, they’ll likely spiral again.
“Uh… oh! Then another guy came in whose leg got all twisted up in a motorcycle accident, and I had to take, like, ten scans. It’s been crazy today.”
“Sounds like it.” It’s a relief to see them so happy after the panic of the morning. Hopefully, that means they worked through it, whatever it was.
I purposely snag two fries from their container just to get a rise out of Korie.
“Um, no! Mine.” They catch my wrist and twist my hand to bite the fries right out of my fingers.
I laugh hard before shoving Korie away.
They pause when they catch Sophie still watching us. Like, really watching us. “Seriously. What?”
Sophie shakes it off, shrugging her shoulders sweetly. “Nothing.”
Korie’s carefully composed face is so at odds with Sophie’s I-see-what’s-happening-here smile that it makes my stomach knot. Shit. Maybe Koriehadn’ttalked to her. And here I am making it obvious.
