If you ever need a friend to cry with you, I’ll be there.

[ He’s never confident. And he knows he tends to be unreliable sometimes. But he’s okay at being there for his coworkers, and - he hopes - for Rum, too.

He can do this.

And that, for the first time since he’s arrived here, makes him feel light, as though a spring breeze has passed through him and in its wake the scent of comfort.

He smiles. ]

But if I don’t know your name by then, we’re going to have a problem.