"I'm not sure you'll get it here," he admitted, trying to think through the people of the station, like going through a census in his head. "But I don't think I've tried very hard to engage anyone in particularly meaningful conversation, honestly," he added. He didn't want to write them all of as dumb - and they weren't, although there were a few mind-numbingly boring. They just didn't have the same interests. "A lot of science types, I think is what it is."
There were days he coped fine with the small population, and other days he just longed to get lost in a crowd. He'd enjoyed that about Cuba, to be able to go down to the market and just let himself get lost in all the sights and sounds and smells of the place. Here... well, he'd been wondering where to take her for a coffee without bumping into Isabel. That shit got old.
"Did you not stay in dorms in college?" he asked, considering it probably the closest comparison to her own life. About ten times a day he told himself he was too old for this shit. "You? You write. Make friends, see some of the world, probably drink a little too much. Write some more, read some more... you find ways to fill up your time," he told her. "I meant it when I said you'll build a life for yourself, find your place... I would have had the same look on my face when anyone made such a dumb suggestion when I first arrived, too," he insisted, pointing his spoon at her before taking another bite of cake.
"Hmm, well. It's early days, Abi. I might turn out to be a total asshole yet," he smirked back at her, a smirk that quickly changed into a proper grin as she did her cute snorting laugh again. She was so adorable.
"What? You know, I was sure it sounded familiar as I was saying it, maybe someone has mentioned it before... but no, I've never seen it," he told her with a bit of a chuckle at his own choice of words. He took the last bite of his cake, and gave her an agreeable nod of his head. "Alright, I will. No ruining it for me, now," he insisted, before lifting his coffee to his lips again.
She was definitely doing it on purpose, there was no way she was just that attractive. Was she? Could everyone see it? Oh God, if everyone could see it then she was going to have her pick of the men on the station. Would she still pick someone as tired and washed up as him? He had to hold onto the hope that she would, given time.
He considered her thoughts about marriage, and although he had heard them before and started to understand her point of view a little more, he was never going to entirely come around to her way of thinking on that one. He was too grounded in the ideals of his youth. "Yeah... I guess I can see that, but I think time has changed the circumstances a hell of a lot," he admitted. You couldn't talk like that to a woman in the '30s, not without her thinking she wasn't good enough to marry, or that you only wanted one thing from her. "But, one marriage aside, I don't think it's ever done me much good. Probably why you're meant to stop at the one, huh?" he joked, although it was rather a light-hearted cover up of a much deeper issue. He'd managed to trust Abi loved him, eventually, but the need to get a ring on a girl and pin her down to her commitment was his own issue. Like proof that he was somehow worthy. It was a terrible way to think of it, but the intensity of the feeling had lessened in recent years.
He let go of a soft breath, tension leaving his shoulders that he hadn't realised was there. It was like he'd needed her to tell him that, and just for a moment it felt like it was his Abi telling him that it was okay. Still, she didn't know the half of it. He'd done a lot of things since being home that he wasn't sure even his Abi would be capable of forgiving him for. But he couldn't start going any darker right now, he couldn't scare her like that. It wasn't fair on her. "Thank you. This place changes everything. There are people here who were very happily married back home, but how long do you wait? Luna said she's been out of her own world for twenty years, for a terrifying example." He'd wanted to stay on that island with his family forever, he'd have happily stayed for the rest of his life. It was funny how things changed. "Did you leave anyone behind?"