Re: lakeside mansions: Dietre A. & Hugh C.
Hugh pulled himself out of his thoughts and turned his head towards Dietre to listen, nodding as Dietre spoke. He pulled a knee up and leaned forward on it, listening, both to the words, and maybe a bit the emotion underneath them. This was the second time Dietre had mentioned his mother, and it seemed possible that he thought that if his mother had lived, his life would have been different. Hugh knew his life would have been hugely different without his mother's support, so he couldn't help but feel empathy there.
"If I were lost in a corn maze, I think flirting with an older man to try to get out, seems like a really obvious way forward," Hugh glanced over with a grin. "Assuming he was good looking at all," he ducked his head with a huff of a laugh at this.
But Dietre had shared, and Hugh supposed he really hadn't talked much about his past prior to coming to Repose, and while he didn't always enjoy dwelling on it, it had all shaped him. "There was a girl," he said softly. "And um, I royally fucked it up."
He sighed. "We were friends with benefits for a long time, cause I didn't want to settle, and then I decided that maybe actually having just one person in my life - that I really connected with and cared about - wouldn't be so bad? Except she essentially started dating someone else, and told me off when I suggested we could be more. And then..." he did not feel like getting into the trial. "I had a bunch of professional upsets, and I moved here. And wandered through a maze as if that'd help find her, apparently." He shrugged, and glanced over with a smallish smile. "It's been a while ago now."