Shaking his head, Miah waved off the apology. “Don’t worry about it,” he answered, not wanting her to feel like she had done something wrong. Sometimes he had to figure the doors should really have some kind of window in them – maybe he’d make a comment to maintenance at some point. Although with all the other upkeep of this place, maybe it was futile effort to try and keep collisions to a minimum. Although he might not be the most social of people, even he could pick up on someone who seemed uncomfortable in some way, although why she would seem that way he didn’t know.
Everyone had their reasons for things. Although over the course of his time here he had been able to pick up on a couple things, like how Leah Stone was a woman who didn’t expect anyone to do anything for her – or at least that was the impression he had gotten.
Another person who would rather take care of someone than be taken care of? He wondered for a moment. Miah knew that’s why he did what he did, because it was easier to take care of someone than expect others to take care of you. Still, he couldn’t ignore the fact that being asked how he was doing wouldn’t be unwanted. He was used to relying on himself for the most part, had done it for years now.
When she responded to his offer to help, he shrugged and gave her a small smile. “Wouldn’t have offered if I didn’t have a moment,” he answered simply. “I may not be as adorable as your little helper, but I’m more than happy to help.” He was assuming by ‘helper’ Leah had meant her young daughter.
“Yeah, that’s me,” he confirmed with a nod of his head. “And you’re Leah, right?” Miah was pretty sure he was right, but he could always be mistaken. There was no avoiding the way his eyes went wide at her admission that he was the first person to offer to help her. “Seriously?” What was the world coming to when a loner was the first person to offer help to someone?
Everyone’s focused on themselves. He reminded himself. It was an age old thing, human nature to think of yourself first, but maybe that was his problem, he always thought of someone else before himself – or more so he always thought of Ellie before himself.