Unlike Alastair, Aery couldn't concentrate. So after trying, and failing, to get back into her molecule modifying project, she packed everything up and went out to the square to sit by the fountain and try to decide her next move, in regard to the whole thing with Alastair. She thought that she'd done something wrong. She'd probably come off as too much of a workaholic, the kind of person who loved nothing and wound up "marrying" her job. Well, what did she know about love? The only thing she'd ever loved in life was science. Not even her parents. She respected them, but she'd never gotten any love or kindness from them beyond what the normal well-mannered adult would give to a child. There was no attachment there in any way. The only one she really cared about was Anna, and even then there was no real relationship beyond that of a mentor and sometimes-bodyguard. I've never loved anyone. I used to scorn those who ever loved and got hurt by it, but to be human, one needs to know love. And I don't. I'm not truly a person, just a mind and body enslaved to science. There's no feelings in me. I squashed them out when I was little and they never came back.
And for the first time in thirteen years, a tear spilled over her eyelashes and rolled down her cheek.