It was then that I realized I was talking too much about myself.

‘Oops,’ I thought. ‘I should be listening to him, not the other way around.’

‘After all, this transactional relationship was formed for the purpose of being Nathan’s listening ear. Straighten up, Julia!’

“Ah, enough about me and my family. What about you?” I asked, swiftly changing the topic. “You do love to play games, don’t you? From the sound of your voice earlier, you seemed excited to talk about the subject.”

It was true. Nathan would talk to me about various topics, like interesting facts and trivia and even random insights here and there.

But when he...