He could only chuckle when she told him that she tended to overthink when she walked. He understood where she was coming from, though. Whenever he thought about her, he often overthought anything that he wanted to do or feel or think. It was confusing for him.
He smiled over at her when she seemed impressed that he was actually making money off his surf lessons. He didn't take offense to it though. They hadn't talked in weeks. How could she know? Unless she saw him out in the surf one day on one of her runs.
As she fell into step with him, he apologized for being distant, not expecting that she might actually not accept it. She was taking part of the blame, though he knew she was not the reason. He had freaked out and ran. She was just something he wasn't planning on finding here in Sacrosanct. "Malia...it's all my fault. I..." He sighed. Keeping his feelings from her was hard and by now it was borderline making him feel like he was lying to her face. "That day we surfed...I felt things I've never felt before. I got startled and I pushed you away." There. He admitted it. He liked Malia and his attraction to her scared him. Never had he felt like this about anyone. Hell, he had spent his whole life trying to be a good son and a good Christian...and here she was threatening to undo everything.