He leaned back against the sofa, took a deep breath, and let it out—as if he had finished doing a particularly unpleasant chore.
“I didn’t notice your b***r,” I said. “And if I had it wouldn’t have mattered. Now it’s time for me to tell the truth, and I hope you won’t be offended.”
He looked at me with obvious interest to see what I was going to say.
“From that day in my office, I’ve wanted to hug you. You impressed me with your intelligence, and I was already an admirer of your work at the paper. But you seemed sad, almost haunted, and I just wanted to grab you and comfort you and tell you everything would be okay. I hope you won’t find that demeaning. I certainly don’t mean it to be. I just liked you from the first, and I thought you must be hurting over something. I felt this great u
