Don Juan blushed. He was usually on the other side of these emotions, especially these days; he said things just to shock people, because they came to talk to him expecting to be shocked. Hudson's earnestness had him off-kilter, though. These were not the sorts of things people said to each other at parties, whether they could be overheard or not. These were not the sorts of things people said to each other. No one was meant to be this sincere. It was blinding.

"I'll disappoint you," he said with certainty. He had learned about the world and about himself; this was perhaps the only thing he was truly certain of, in the end.

---