I glance at him, just briefly, then look down at his jacket, staring at it like it's a physical representation of the distance between us, the years and the trails that we weren't able to share.

"Did I ever trust anyone else with that kind of thing?" I say, smiling somewhat bitterly. "How many times did you have to physically drag me away from my desk, or persuade me to let someone else handle something minor that didn't actually need my direct attention?"

I nod at his comment about Emi. "In some ways, yeah, in others he seems years older than I am, was, am supposed to be."