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She started rummaging through her backpack. She pulled out a chocolate-chip granola bar, an apple, and a couple of the individually wrapped breadsticks that Donna used as a side for the soups at work. She handed me one.

“I love these,” I said, unwrapping it.

“Me too. Better than crackers because they don’t get smooshed. I only take the ones the customers don’t open. Donna tosses them. I’m not stealing breadsticks.”

“I would never suggest such a thing,” I said, taking a bite.

“So what’s in your satchel?” she said with a smirk, nodding at it. “Anything useful?”

I unclipped it and handed it to her.

She set it in her lap and dug through it. “Benadryl, Band-Aids, hand sanitizer, cortisone—this looks exactly like a fanny pack packed by a pharmacist. Oh! This could be good.” She held up a packet of grape-flavored electrolyte powder. “Might make the water taste better. Can I use it?”

“Go ahead.”

She put her water bottle between her knees and unscrewed the cap, tore the corner off with her teeth, and poured it in.

When she tasted it, she gagged.

“Still bad?” I asked, watching her make a face.

“Now it’s grape blood.”

“We probably should drink it no matter how terrible it is. We have a couple more hours of walking,” I said.

“Be my guest.” She handed it to me.

It was the absolute worst thing I’d ever tasted in my entire life. It was all I could do to swallow it.

Fucking Mike.

I took a few more swigs, then handed the bottle back to her. She took another swallow, shivered, and put the cap back on.

When she was putting the water into her bag, she nodded at my leg. “I think you have a tick on you.”

I jumped up and swatted it off, doing a little dance.

“Don’t like bugs?” she asked.

“I’m not a fan of Lyme disease,” I said, looking my calves over. “Or the deer these things come on.”

“Yes, let’s not forget those hideous monsters. You still think this would be a good date?” she asked, opening her granola bar and taking a bite. She smiled at me while she chewed.

“Well, there’s something to be said about trauma bonding.”

She cracked up.

She gave me the other half of the granola bar, then took a bite out of the apple and offered it to me. I took it from her and took a bite and handed it back.

She bit off a piece of apple and fed it to Woofarine and I gave him some of the training treats I carried. Larissa dug through her backpack one more time and found a beef stick. She held it up like she’d discovered the holy grail and honestly it felt that way, out here in the middle of nowhere.

“Everything just tastes better when you’re lost in the wilderness,” she said, watching me chew my half of it.

“I don’t even like these and this is the best thing I’ve ever eaten.”

“What did you rate the bread?” she asked, nodding at the breadstick wrapper on the tree trunk between us.

“An eleven out of ten.”