I still expected him to find some way to move the yardstick before the trials ended, but if I got to meet you again, talk to you, be near you. . .” I hesitated out of fear of rejection. “You thought I'd want to bond.” “I hoped,” I agreed. “I couldn't understand why you stayed away as long as you did. Unless it was that you truly weren't ready. I thought by getting to know each other, you might change your mind—I didn't know that you had completely forgotten me; that you had no memory at all.”
