Chapter 136 - Ask Me Anything (1/2)
Sleeping in a makeshift tent without a sleeping bag wasn't terribly fun. Abby was the only woman in the caravan so she slept alone but Blaise didn't entirely trust the traders so he set up his bedroll right in front of tent opening.
He said it would prevent any of the traders from getting any ideas. She couldn't argue with him and decided to let it go.
Riding in the bumpy wagon for another day was murder on her poor tailbone but she dealt with it. At least Blaise was talking to her again. She finally remembered to ask him how old he was after they had been on the road for a couple hours.
He blinked at her in surprise. ”I am twenty years old. Why do you ask?”
Only twenty?! He seemed so much older! Not because of his face but because of the way he spoke and carried himself. Abby was twenty-three but she felt way less mature than this younger guy.
”Curiosity,” she said faintly. ”I'm twenty-three and I thought you were way older than me for some reason.”
”You do not seem twenty-three. My sisters were all married with children long before then. Ah…forgive me, it is rude to inquire about a lady's marital status,” Blaise apologized, seeming truly penitent.
Not that she cared. Her last boyfriend had been dumped a few months before Katie 'died.' Dating hadn't interested her since then but she supposed she would probably want to settle down eventually and live out the dreams she and Katie had about being neighbors and raising their kids together.
But would it even be possible to fall in love with a man from here? Katie admitted in the novel that she liked Al because he seemed the most like someone from her world. Would there be another person like that for her?
”I don't mind,” Abby said casually. ”Ask me anything; I don't offend easily. And just so you know, I'm not married because where I'm from people typically don't do that until they're much older.”
Blaise frowned. ”How old?”
”I don't know…twenty-six to thirty-two? Hardly anybody gets married before twenty-five anymore. People are more focused on their careers than families in my world.”
He thought this over for a moment before surprising her by asking, ”What was yours? Your career, I mean.”
He said he didn't believe she was from another world and yet seriously asked a question about her life there as if he did. He was giving off very mixed signals. Even so, she told him despite it being tricky to explain graphic designer without using technological terms.
”I was an artist. People paid me to create designs for them.”
Most of her work consisted of making business logos and layouts for websites, advertis.e.m.e.nts, and brochures. She had always had a good eye for making things pretty, ever since she and Katie used to scrapbook with their mom.