"Sadly, I don't know any Chinese. Other than 'ni hao,' which is hi, I think…" Evan shrugged. "I should look into finding some books to help me learn while I'm here."
Evan turned and looked at her as she explained what she did before all of this. Psychology and brain things. Looking at her now, he could actually see that. "This must be interesting for you," he said, figuring that she'd know what he meant; this whole situation… the way people were? It was a psychologist-to-be's dream. "You must see so much different psychological stuff now. What's the term? Applied knowledge…" he added with a shrug.
For the most part, for the longest time, Evan hadn't seen himself as lucky. Yeah, he'd had a good life, but having that and having it taken away was part of what made him the horrible, bitter person that he'd been until very recently.
While he watched her flip through the pages of the book and his smile went a little lopsided. It was sweet.
Evan was unfazed by the pause, most of his recent conversations were filled with pauses far longer and far more awkward than that which usually followed comments that he'd made that somehow offended people. So he wasn't bothered by this particular pause either.
Smiling when she thanked him, he shrugged. "I thought you might enjoy it," he said, leaning softly against one of the bolted-down bookshelves. "Glad I was right."
He looked over on the adjacent shelf and his smile turned reserved when he caught sight of a few French classics. Why hadn't he thought to come here before? "Who would have thought that the children's section and the international section would border each other so closely?" he asked, moving over to the other side and rifling through the books, pulling his lip into his mouth.
He turned and looked at her over his shoulder. "It must never get boring here, Eloise."