“And after a certain point, it becomes moot,” Stephen points out. “You can bellyache and drive yourself crazy wondering what could have been, but the fact remains that you did vanish and come back, so these are the versions of yourselves that the two of you are dealing with, right now. We play the hand we’re dealt.”
Okay, and sometimes you can go back and change the past, but this isn’t one of those times.
Despite the subject matter, the conversation flows easily: her turn with the elfroot, then his, a back-and-forth like trading pulls off a wine bottle. It gives them space and little breathers and ways to keep their hands busy. Makes him a little more ruminative, and easier for him to roll with the fact that they’re sitting around talking about girls.
Friends. Whoulda thunkit. Once it’s his turn with the elfroot, he looks down contemplatively at its burning tip, the flame.
“You’re still allowed to care about her deeply, as a friend, even if you don’t want to get back together. My ex—” He realises, then, that until a brief moment ago he hadn’t even named Christine with Cosima, despite Cosima being the only person who’s heard about this outside of Gwenaëlle. And he trips over it for a second, peeling back those layers of his own history, before continuing: “Anyway. Christine. She’s one of my few friends, back home. You went through a lot together. You can still care.”
no subject
Okay, and sometimes you can go back and change the past, but this isn’t one of those times.
Despite the subject matter, the conversation flows easily: her turn with the elfroot, then his, a back-and-forth like trading pulls off a wine bottle. It gives them space and little breathers and ways to keep their hands busy. Makes him a little more ruminative, and easier for him to roll with the fact that they’re sitting around talking about girls.
Friends. Whoulda thunkit. Once it’s his turn with the elfroot, he looks down contemplatively at its burning tip, the flame.
“You’re still allowed to care about her deeply, as a friend, even if you don’t want to get back together. My ex—” He realises, then, that until a brief moment ago he hadn’t even named Christine with Cosima, despite Cosima being the only person who’s heard about this outside of Gwenaëlle. And he trips over it for a second, peeling back those layers of his own history, before continuing: “Anyway. Christine. She’s one of my few friends, back home. You went through a lot together. You can still care.”