It wasn’t a surprise to her that he wanted to hide who he really was, even slightly. She couldn’t know what it was like to be famous, but Abi could imagine it was like people tearing pieces of you off until there was nothing left for yourself. She didn’t think him to be selfish as such, or had no time for people who loved his work, but more that he wanted to be treated as any other man. All she had to do was remind herself to at least try and not be such a pathetic, fawning fangirl.
But, wow, could he spin a yarn. He seemed to get her personality down exactly, though it probably wasn’t hard to surmise that she was a fighter and not a flighter when it came to confrontation. Her journalism classes were filled with arrogant men thinking the world owed it to them to listen to their opinions and agree, while Abi was having none of it. “You are either a very good judge of character or I’m a totally open book,” she smiled a little softer. “That’s something I’d very much do in a verbal argument, is fight back. Do you know how many men assume I have no valid opinions or anything insightful to say about a piece just because I haven’t got a dick? It’s so goddamn infuriating that I end up overcompensating to prove my point.” There were more than a few examples floating around her mind. “Like once, a man in my class was talking about your work and how you supposedly couldn’t write ‘strong’ women,” she rolled her eyes. “He was one of those worse kinds of assholes who think they’re being feminist when all they end up doing is reinforcing superficial stereotypes.”
It struck her then, looking around the food court that there really weren’t that many people on the station. Kat had estimated under a hundred, though Abi thought she wasn’t counting the babies and children she’d heard screaming in the halls. It still wasn’t a lot and she was fairly sure they had the place to themselves.
“You’re telling me, I’ve met you,” she replied with a chuckle. “Never thought I’d ever meet someone who technically died before I was born, I’ll tell you that…” her eyes bugged when she said it. How much did he know about his own life back home? Oh shit, had she stepped in a sore subject? “But uh… the different worlds thing, the time travel, that’s beyond everything. I could meet my own younger or older self, right? Mind fuck. Maybe I can write about that, huh? What it’s like to interview yourself from a whole different perspective. Can’t be many people who’ve done that.”
Ugh, people still announced those things? Times would never change. “Coffee and chocolate cake would be awesome, thank you. And if money were a thing here, I’d insist on paying for my food.”