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Post by Teja on Nov 11, 2019 17:31:06 GMT -5
"Is that what this is about? Proving it to him, or to yourself, that you could have fulfilled his vision if he'd believed in you?"
Suddenly the hollowness of his campaign had a context.
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Post by Loki Odinsson on Nov 12, 2019 13:02:50 GMT -5
“I-“
He stared at her for a moment, then coughed into his hand. A loose curl of hair had by now escaped and tumbled against his cheek.
“Well- to myself,” he conceded. “I don't think there's much changing his mind."
Ashton smiled, both conspiratory and a little sad, and drank his coffee.
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Post by Teja on Nov 12, 2019 16:18:03 GMT -5
If his hand had been near hers again, she would have taken it on purpose this time.
Softly, she echoed, "You know how fathers are."
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Post by Loki Odinsson on Nov 15, 2019 11:01:52 GMT -5
Ashton's brows knit over the lid of his cup, then rose up in little inverted bows of sympathetic anxiety.
"...yeah," he murmured. "You too, huh?"
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Post by Teja on Nov 15, 2019 11:09:54 GMT -5
"My father printed out page after page about different colleges he thought I'd like to go to," she confided, "I wasn't looking into it myself at all. I picked one, and I applied...He took me out to visit it, it was up in Vermont... And I loved it. I was so excited to go. And I got in. I qualified for the highest degree of financial help they could offer. And my father was furious. He was angry at me. Because he still couldn't afford to send me. This was a school he picked for me, that he took me to visit. He knew how much it cost before I did. But somehow it was my fault I couldn't go. Somehow or other, I was supposed to have applied for scholarships and earned twenty thousand dollars on my own. Ha, ha," she said forcefully.
It was a mortifying thing to find she had said to a stranger, but funny thing was, she didn't feel too bad about it. In a way he didn't at the moment feel like a stranger.
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Post by Loki Odinsson on Nov 15, 2019 11:15:05 GMT -5
Ashton followed along with this story with an impressive degree of earnest eyebrow gymnastics.
As she reached the end, he slid his hand toward hers.
"I'm so sorry," he said softly.
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Post by Teja on Nov 15, 2019 11:17:02 GMT -5
"It's okay. He's certainly out of my life. New York is a good place to start over."
She clasped his hand.
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Post by Loki Odinsson on Nov 15, 2019 11:24:31 GMT -5
"Maybe for this whole world to start over," Ashton said softly.
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Post by Teja on Nov 15, 2019 11:26:54 GMT -5
"Come again?"
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Post by Loki Odinsson on Nov 16, 2019 23:17:00 GMT -5
"My whole world, I'm sorry" he amended. "I'm a little..."
He sighed.
"The topic of fathers... disquieted me."
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Post by Teja on Nov 16, 2019 23:32:27 GMT -5
"Well, let's change the topic," she said, with a forceful airiness. "How's your latte?"
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Post by Loki Odinsson on Nov 16, 2019 23:37:26 GMT -5
"I think I need another one," he said, with great feeling as he stared at his cup. "This is marvelous-"
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Post by Teja on Nov 16, 2019 23:47:03 GMT -5
"Really?" She peered down at his overall lean frame. "Where are you planning to put it?"
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Post by Loki Odinsson on Nov 18, 2019 1:34:26 GMT -5
"Do you want another one?" Ashton asked, eyes widening eagerly. "And you people have this everywhere- imagine-"
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Post by Teja on Nov 18, 2019 1:37:43 GMT -5
"No, I think I'm good," she laughed. He was a stranger, and he probably was from a cult, but it was oddly touching to see him get into coffee. She felt like it was a privilege.
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