"Here I thought I totally had you," he murmurs. She's right. He hadn't needed to do any of those things. No one told him to, no one forced him. He could have arranged things any other way if he wanted. By the time the place filled up it wouldn't have been hard to avoid her a good deal of the time if he had wanted to. For the most part they didn't do the same work at all.

But he had arranged things in the exact opposite direction. He had found excuses to be around her. Not all that many, and maybe he hadn't meant to, but now that he looks back...

"Didn't know," he says more softly. "Had no fuckin' idea."