Of course he agreed immediately when she suggested they walk; he still would have followed her anywhere. It was a good thing, probably, that she didn't reciprocate his crush, and that she wasn't the sort of girl (he didn't imagine) to suggest slipping away from the party to do something scandalous. I wouldn't do that, he thought as it occurred to him, but at the same time the image — called to mind unbidden but particularly vivid nonetheless — of himself and Miss Chang properly in private made his stomach flip. If he could get away with touching her — if she had wanted him to touch her —

But she didn't; she was in love with a woman and would never give him a second thought, and he had decided to make peace with that and help her all the same. He'd look out for her, even if she wouldn't offer him anything in exchange. He'd take care of her, keep her safe and do his best to make her happy — and maybe tomorrow would change something, either on his side or hers, since he hadn't been in love with her before tonight.

"Alright, here's what I think," he began. "I think you've got to talk to her, but only a little bit. Just long enough to have some pretense to write to her later. You can't tell her how you feel," he continued, with some urgency and a glance at Miss Chang to see whether she agreed. "Not tonight. Tonight you just introduce yourself and get an excuse in to write. Letters are good for this sort of thing — you can get to know someone a lot faster in a letter, because they say more than they do when they're talking. So if you can start writing back and forth with her, I think that'll help you get what you want sooner."

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