Nora listened carefully to everything Josh said. She was invested; she wanted to know what happened to Josh, because she felt like she had a connection to him. Nora wanted to be there for him. She wasn't really sure why; she'd barely known him before at all, aside from being his waitress at the diner, and yet, Nora felt like she really needed to be there to hear him talk through it and make sure he was okay. Nora didn't even speak until he'd let it out, not wanting to interrupt him, even though she had moments here and there where she had questions and wanted to interject (like, had it really been that long since all of this started? Nora lost track of the days relatively quickly, living from day to day and not questioning anything else).
It sounded horrible, honestly. Nora couldn't imagine living that sort of life, never mind what she'd been through. She'd seen people die and she'd seen what they became, but Josh had to take ownership of their death, giving them rest by fire. When Josh paused, looking away from her and out the window, she held her hand to her heart, not wanting him to feel ashamed. He had nothing to be ashamed about. He wasn't a coward. He wasn't a coward at all, she thought as she watched him contemplate the blob rain outside, oozing unpleasantly down the window.
Nora felt her hand fidget, and once he mentioned the crew, she felt her hand move of its own accord to find his, comfortingly. She didn't know where it had come from or why she felt the need to do that to a virtual stranger, but she wanted him to know that she was here for him now. When he mentioned the tortilla chip, Nora couldn't help herself from chuckling. Then, seriously, she quipped, "You're not a bad guy. You were brave."
Pulling her hand away sheepishly, she gave him an apologetic look. "Sorry. I just. Felt like I needed to do that," she finished awkwardly, occupying her hand by taking a chip and swooping it into some salsa.
"But I do think you are very brave, and despite what you might think, you were doing everything that you needed to do to survive." Nora took a big, whopping crunch from her chip to ruin the perfectly chaste moment. After she swallowed, she added, "And I maintain that chipslapping you totally makes me tougher than you."