and that was supposed to relieve her of them? Just because they weren't here? She wished she had the same carefree manner he had to leave things behind and not be haunted by what lay ahead of her.

Or maybe he was offering her the out she couldn't take on her own, giving her the excuse to step back from the ties of her life outside this place and live for a change.

"There's plenty that seems to rub people the wrong way about me. I intimidate them, scare some of them outright.I'm always in command because I don't know any other way to be. I never feel like I can stop working, I fall asleep on stacks of flimsy more often than in my bed and there is still so much more to do. I'm too intense, too demanding. This outing was the first date I've had in," She had to stop and honestly think about it. "A number of years." A really long number of years for her age.