“A few. You’ve got me wrong, though. I hung out with those guys because even though they drank they didn’t throw wild parties and we liked the same kind of movies and books. I’m a quiet, good girl.” The word ‘good’ had a sneer on it, like she was disgusted by it. She subsided into her water, annoyed at herself.
The engineer gave a silent nod. He saw the way her mouth curved around the word “good” but chose not to bring it up. His past was filled with a little of that bad boy edge but he didn’t consider it a good thing. Many of his MIT friends were quiet and kept to themselves. To each his (or her) own. “And what kind of movies or books would those be?”
“Oh, fantasy, science fiction, stuff like that. Superheroes. Stories about people like me. Not so much with the comic books. It never seemed like they lasted long enough.” She doodled the tip of one finger through a puddle of condensation. “Reading’s always been my escape, I suppose, for when the world was too much for my little mind.”