She paused for a moment, letting those words rest between them. Well, she'd started...no way she would be able to back out now.
"Ever since I first met you, I have seen something in you. Something that was good. Something that was strong. I'm not the sort of girl that would just agree to be a personal assistant to some rich, alchoholic playboy, Mr. Stark. I am actually better than that. I take alot of pride in my job - and alot of pride in whatever company I work for. And, despite the way that you showed yourself to be in public, I took pride in the man that I thought I knew you were. Through all of your partying and your womanizing and your drinking, I knew that deep inside of you was a man that could make a difference. A man that could practically turn this world upside-down for the better, if he so chose to do it. I never understood why you hid that part of yourself...but I remained hopeful that someday you would find it."
She turned her eyes away. She took a deep breath. She could feel her emotions threatening to well up inside her again.
"Then you were taken," she spoke, her words a little softer now as she stared down at her hands that were clenching themselves tightly together for stability. "You were lost to us. I honestly thought I would never seen you again. I thought...I thought about what the world had lost. All of the potential and compassion and strength and brilliance that you had to offer...all wasted away."
She hated herself - but a single tear slipped down her cheek though she tried to discreetly wipe it against her shoulder so he wouldn't notice.
"Then...a miracle...and you were back. Only...you were different this time. You had changed. Suddenly you weren't the man that I knew you to be before. Somehow...for some reason...you'd become the man that I saw inside of you. You became a man that I could really be proud of. Yes, I was upset when you made the Iron Man suit - I was scared. I didn't want to see you get hurt. But at the same time, I was in awe at what you had become. Heh...the great Tony Stark...for once in his life thinking of someone else beyond himself. It was rather monumental. It was finally you. The real you. The 'you' that I'd waited to see for so many years...and finally all of the world would see you as I did."
She'd just begun to smile at the memories...but then something in her face darkened again as her forehead gave that subtle wrinkle of a sad scowl.
"But maybe I was wrong. Maybe I was just conjuring up fantasies and hopes. You've told me several times how naive I am. Maybe I was right. Because what I saw last night...it was not the kind of man that I could ever be proud of."
Finally she managed to turn her eyes up towards his and look at him as she breathed a quiet sigh, shaking her head.
"I told you that I was better than that. And you know what the funny thing is? So are you. Only you're too blind to see it. It simply amazes me that a man as impossibly arrogant and boastful as you...can have such very low self-esteem. You'll take just any woman that comes bouncing her way into your bed. It doesn't matter. So long as she suits your physical desires, that's all you care for. But it shouldn't be that way. You are better than that, Tony. At least...I'd thought you were."