Irony… So innocuous a concept as a clothing label had pushed him away… Now the most actively treacherous crux of his life—literally dangerous as well as psychologically… Her saying it head-on makes him raise his eyes to her in a new way.
…a so much more unshielded, equal, open, relieved, way, than he's so far been.
Closer.
"I didn't know if you knew," he said. Yes, definite relief. What an overturn it makes—when the worst has already happened—twice. …And this time actually is better.
"But, yes. …Sorry, I admit, that's exactly why I asked. It can be difficult. When the thing that makes you best able to serve… isn't something you've chosen to do, to become good at, to try to give to others, but just something… you are. Issues of how much one wants to be 'defined' by or 'limited' to a thing, even when it can be put to the good…
"To my extremely biased outside eye, yours seems a much more positive attribute you can inhabit and share than I tend to think of my own, but I still wouldn't presume to know your own relationship to it. …I don't know. I think things of myself that I would never think of or say to someone else. I'm projecting, of course, we don't know each other enough. But if you ever feel that way… I don't know. I'd be around, to talk."
no subject
…a so much more unshielded, equal, open, relieved, way, than he's so far been.
Closer.
"I didn't know if you knew," he said. Yes, definite relief. What an overturn it makes—when the worst has already happened—twice. …And this time actually is better.
"But, yes. …Sorry, I admit, that's exactly why I asked. It can be difficult. When the thing that makes you best able to serve… isn't something you've chosen to do, to become good at, to try to give to others, but just something… you are. Issues of how much one wants to be 'defined' by or 'limited' to a thing, even when it can be put to the good…
"To my extremely biased outside eye, yours seems a much more positive attribute you can inhabit and share than I tend to think of my own, but I still wouldn't presume to know your own relationship to it. …I don't know. I think things of myself that I would never think of or say to someone else. I'm projecting, of course, we don't know each other enough. But if you ever feel that way… I don't know. I'd be around, to talk."