Re: coffee: sam & neil
"Maybe you're right. Someone has to cut me a break." It was teasing, mostly, but his smile was tinged with weariness. Between Cris and Louis and Mere, he felt like bricks had been piled upon him, one after the other, the weight of expectation and responsibility and disappointment all wrapped up. But he and Mere had talked, and Louis seemed apologetic. Not that he wanted his brother to feel anything of the sort; he just wanted him to get better. To not have to live in a basement as a prisoner. He laughed when she asked if he was going out with Lin, like it was some dramatic declaration. "We're not going out We're... hanging out, is that what the kids call it?" He shrugged. "We're just friends, Sam." Maybe he was a little biased when it came to Daniel, because he found it hard to have any sympathy for him at all. "I don't know either. I only know what Lin said, because Daniel and I don't talk," he shrugged. "And I'm not saying Louis doesn't have a right to be hurt. Not at all. No one deserves to be used. Being lonely doesn't justify that." And Louis wasn't exactly in a good place. Still, maybe mending fences could be good.
His first signs of discomfort showed when she said she wasn't in a rush to jump into another doomed relationship. "I know," he said, a touch quieter than his usual volume. He knew their relationship had crashed. It hadn't been good near the end, and then he'd gone home for six years. Maybe he wondered what would've happened if he'd returned without a girlfriend-- would she have stayed with Cris? But it didn't matter. Time had passed, things were different. That was just how it was.
He smiled. Most people were around him because he had wealth and influence, but he didn't say as much. Besides, he didn't count those people as friends. Not real ones. Her, Lin, Louis, Ash, they were all different. "I let you have some fun," he protested. "Okay. I'm going." He paused. "It really was good seeing you, Sam."