Our affections had been trains running on different tracks. Even now, I still admire him and remember my own shy infatuation before I'd realized his love for Porthos and Aramis. Then he'd admired me in a way I'd pretended not to notice, knowing he'd be his old self in a week.

I can't help but wonder what would have happened in a different world.

"Maybe someday, one of us will figure out how to like people. Do you think?"