A little bit later, Luke and Brooke are walking after getting their hot chocolate. Which he bought with the money from the part-time job he never seems to go to anymore. Of course, Brooke's all sappy in that it's-cold-and-I-like-my-boyfriend kind of way as she says, "Have I told you lately how much I like you?" Of course, everyone has conveniently forgotten about the phone "love yous" that happened last week, but whatever -- it seems that manipulating time is just a fringe benefit to living in Tree Hill. He doesn't answer in the cute way you're supposed to answer a question like that; instead he says, "Why?" Brooke replies, "Why do I tell you?" He says, "No. Why do you like me?" She says cutely, "Ah, pity mostly." Why is he so quiet tonight? Luke lies and says it's because he's anxious about his mom coming back tomorrow. Somewhere, a loud red buzzer goes off indicating that that's the wrong answer. Luke needs to run around the world backwards and take that back. He needs to grab whatever part of his manhood has developed thus far in his life and say, "Brooke, look, you're great, and this was great, but I have real feelings for Peyton, and I'm so sorry." Brooke needs to cry and scream, and then we can all get on with our lives because dragging this triangle out, stretching it so thin that it will eventually stop holding the show together, needs to stop.

Anyway. Brooke says she's anxious about Karen's return too. They stop walking for a minute so Luke can ask her why she's anxious. Brooke replies, "Because I want her to like me, and she sounds really cool. And I'm not that close to my mom, so I thought it would be great if I hit it off with yours." Luke takes a sip from his cardboard cup. Lord, nothing in television and film production drives me crazier than actors acting with empty cups. How hard is it to fill them up with something -- anything liquid would do. It looks so fake when they're walking around with flimsy paper cups that are so obviously not full of hot chocolate. Rant over. Brooke says, "Can't control love, you know?" Huh? She continues, "Your mom and Keith, you're worried about their relationship, right?" He nods. Brooke says, "It'll be okay." She puts her arms around his neck and continues, "People that are meant to be together always find their way in the end." And you'd better put on a hard hat too; it's coming down pretty damn hard around here. Luke smiles at her, and she pops his nose with her gloved hands. They continue down the street holding hands, Brooke in love, love, love and Luke feeling like he needs to saw something off with a pen knife.