Dean's attitude suggested this was going to be a capital-C Conversation. The amount of things that fell into that bucket which could also conceivably have begun with something he'd overheard at work were fairly limited. Jumping to conclusions was practically inevitable when there were so few possible conclusions in sight.

Hudson wanted to leave, Don Juan assumed. He traveled for work regularly, and some trips were much longer than others. Probably he had an opportunity to leave for a much longer stretch, and this was going to be a Conversation because he didn't know if Don Juan was stable enough to handle the world in his absence. (And would he have been wrong? Don Juan came here tonight unplanned because he hadn't been able to sleep. Where would he go if Hudson left for months?)

"We can talk about it," he insisted. He didn't want Hudson turning down opportunities for his sake, as depressing as the idea of going without him for any length of time was. He didn't want Hudson to treat him like he was fragile, even if he currently was.

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