““I’m sorry. I may have been misreading the signals. I thought … I sort of thought you’d been flirting with me. I didn’t say anything because I wanted to be sure, and because I wanted—I wanted to prove the mermaids were down there. I wanted to do it for Anne. I felt like I had to do that much for her, after all the promises I made her, before I did something for me.” “No, I meant … What did you say?” Olivia shook her head. “I don’t always understand … I mean, signals are hard. Especially about something like this. People don’t say what they mean. They say things that live in the same neighborhood as what they mean, and then they look at me like I’m stupid because I don’t pick it up instantly. I’m not stupid. I’m just not that specific kind of smart.””
