The pause between his mentioning 'love someone?' and Isabelle saying or doing anything felt as though it stretched to an eternity. She was proving to be most difficult to read. It took a few moments for Sebastian to work it out. His own emotional state was interfering with his skills of reading the signs of other person. It came as a startling revelation at first, but then the analytical side of him came to the fore and indicated where the emotional interference was coming from and how it effected what he was trying to achieve. Of course, he was also able to determine that he had little to no hope of salvaging his skills in the near future, so he gave up on that prospect.<br/><br/><em>"Do you like to read at all? If you do there is something that I could show you maybe this weekend? You could come over for a light dinner, if you aren't working..."</em><br/><br/>Sebastian started to give her a look of 'Are you kidding me?' when she asked him about reading. He had been an avid reader since before he started school, and it was a passion that served him well as his education continued. The higher the level of education, the more reading he seemed to need to do just to keep on top of various progressions in the field of medicine. Fortunately, it never killed off his love of reading non work related books and texts, and since his change in careers, he found himself with more time to indulge in a little spot of light reading. But then he remembered that Isabelle had no knowledge of his prior careers or much of his background prior to arriving in Elliquiy.<br/><br/>"I'd really like that. It's not often that I get such an irresistible offer. Plus, the joys of being my own boss, and having some skilled employees, I can take the occasional early night, which I haven't really done since buying the place. How about Saturday night. It's not quite as bad as Friday nights, so they would be able to survive without me on that night."<br/><br/>Sebastian grabbed a couple of the dumplings, and ate one while his mind and the rest of him settled. She hadn't laughed him off, changed her mind or got cold feet. She didn't care about the age gap between them, neither did he really. Even as he was chewing, he felt himself smiling. He was truly joyous about what was happening with this vibrant young woman.<br/><br/>"I'm not sure about you, but it taking a little while for this to sink in. It's just... oh, I hate it when the words vanish on me like that. It's like it's almost too good. That something like this doesn't happen to people like me, even though I know that thought is wrong, since it has. Gawd, I'd best keep quiet and enjoy the food and the company is silence before I say something that I might regret."<br/><br/>Sebastian quickly leaned over and gave Isabelle a quick kiss on the cheek while reaching for the Shepard's Pie.