““You’re brushing me off.” Two large hands took her by the shoulders and held her as if she might run away. “Don’t do that to me just because I messed up all those years ago.” The curse of the pale-skinned redhead was that they could really blush. Reb’s face throbbed. “This is ridiculous,” she told him. “If you weren’t upset you’d never behave like this. You didn’t mess up anything. I did. You were the one who figured out how to smooth things over, and I thank you for that. Let’s not bring it up again.” “Because it embarrasses you?” he said, dropping his hands. “I’ll say this much and no more. You were the sweetest thing, and I …I liked you for your spontaneity. I never tried to make you understand the way things had to be—at least for a while. I left you thinking you’d done something wrong while I protected myself. Well, the joke was on me because I was the one who lost out. It’s in the past, but I wanted to tell you.””
![“[The Dalai Lama] told me some years ago, "I've made every concession to China, and I've been as open and tolerant as I could, and still things get worse in Tibet." If you look at it from one point of view, as he himself says, his monastic position of forbearance and nonviolence hasn't reaped any…” quote by Pico Iyer](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/img-quotes/9fe/pico-iyer-1252_benefits_the-dalai-lama-told-me-some-years-ago-i_678.jpg)
