As soon as Isidor speaks she breaks a tension he didn't realize he was holding. His shoulders go slack and his eyebrows upturn worriedly as he listens... But the mannerly rebuke he expected never comes. It's the opposite, in fact. She wants him to stay...
How can good news be so overwhelming? How could he have been so confident, so determined just a moment ago, where now he feels at sea? It's one thing to have hoped she felt the same, to hope she wasn't only humoring his advances, but it's another thing to hear, to know...
His heart wants to take him out of the moment, but Isidor has so much more to say in so few words, and he hangs on every one of them. It's instinctual to reach out to her for the few remaining moments that nobody is looking. He rests his palm on her knee and squeezes to encourage her, to remind her that he's there.
"If you think it can be that way – if you want it to be that way – then I got faith we'll figure it out. Together. You and me. We'll make it work on the terms you got to work with. And 'til then I'll be secret when I gotta be, and patient all the time. I'll be smart as much as I can be, and I'll do everything I can to make your folks see me as a person. A good person."
He gives her her space then but offers her a small, hopeful smile in return. "Maybe it ain't perfect, but it's a start? It's somethin'."
His attention drifts toward the scenery before them, but soon he turns back to see her again, and this time his smile reaches his eyes. "But before we get outta this ride? I want you to know that everything you said just now... really meant a lot to hear. When things get tough, I'll remember it."
no subject
How can good news be so overwhelming? How could he have been so confident, so determined just a moment ago, where now he feels at sea? It's one thing to have hoped she felt the same, to hope she wasn't only humoring his advances, but it's another thing to hear, to know...
His heart wants to take him out of the moment, but Isidor has so much more to say in so few words, and he hangs on every one of them. It's instinctual to reach out to her for the few remaining moments that nobody is looking. He rests his palm on her knee and squeezes to encourage her, to remind her that he's there.
"If you think it can be that way – if you want it to be that way – then I got faith we'll figure it out. Together. You and me. We'll make it work on the terms you got to work with. And 'til then I'll be secret when I gotta be, and patient all the time. I'll be smart as much as I can be, and I'll do everything I can to make your folks see me as a person. A good person."
He gives her her space then but offers her a small, hopeful smile in return. "Maybe it ain't perfect, but it's a start? It's somethin'."
His attention drifts toward the scenery before them, but soon he turns back to see her again, and this time his smile reaches his eyes. "But before we get outta this ride? I want you to know that everything you said just now... really meant a lot to hear. When things get tough, I'll remember it."