"Have you been able to settle here at all?" Derek asked, wanting to know more about how this insular guy had managed to survive here for so long without breaking out of his shell. "There must be something for you here?"
He gave a laugh at Mitch's reaction and shook his head at his response. "Nope, but I don't look like one either and you asked, so I replied in kind," Derek answered. Then he sensed the change in Mitch's tone and sat quite as he explained what he was dealing with. And now his mood made sense.
"It's always hard the first year," he agreed with a nod. "No matter what the event it's the first time you celebrated without them, huh? It does get easier, but you'll always see the whole in the world they left behind," Derek told him. "Who was Katarina to you? A sister? Partner?" he asked, hoping to get Mitch to talk more. "I lost my first love when I was 15 and then my mother and, I thought, my sister," he confided in the hope of showing his understanding. He left out the part about his former girlfriend's double showing up here, he didn't want to freak him completely. Not yet, at least.