There are days, all joking aside, when Eduardo feels like that, like the past year has been a lifetime, leaving him old before he has any right to be. Most of the time, it's something of an exaggeration, something he might joke about with his considerably younger girlfriend, but here and now, sitting across from Mark, it's never felt truer. It's visible, too, in the tension in his shoulders he can't quite get rid of, the way his smile reaches his eyes but not as fully as it might have before Facebook, or in its earlier days, sitting around the Kirkland dorm with Dustin and Chris and a twelve-pack (bought by Eduardo, of course, the only one of age). He might not have the gray hair or the mustache, but there's no denying that they're not boys anymore, at least not the ones they used to be. Between what happened, the fact that he apparently didn't know Mark as well as he thought he did and the time Mark's lived through that Eduardo hasn't, it feels like they're strangers just as much as it feels too familiar, the two of them tentative and struggling to find some even ground from where they left off before, not yet successful. Eduardo doesn't know Mark as he is now well enough to know if they'll even be able to, but the fact that they're managing to sit here now, Mark even trying to crack a joke, has to be an indication of something. It's both relieving and makes his chest tighten at the same time.
"Yeah, thanks for that, man," he says with an exhale of a laugh, rolling his eyes, though it's good-natured, his own way of telling Mark that, yes, this is okay, the levity, the familiarity, isn't overstepping. (Not that Mark needs his permission, or even seems to be asking for it. Eduardo's word typically comes second, Mark going ahead even when Eduardo expresses disapproval, like with Facemash. It seems like the sort of thing that can only be beneficial to express anyway, just in case, to keep things as clear as possible.) The funny thing is, when he reconsiders it, it still has to have been less than a year, May to December back home and the four months he's been here. It was time spent growing apart, though, and that makes it seem that much longer after the fact, distance creating the illusion of further time. "Don't worry, I'm not planning on growing a mustache anytime soon, that would be — I think it'd probably look weird. How long has it been for you, anyway, since —"
He can't bring himself to say it, but the implication, he thinks, is clear enough, with his vague mention earlier of the last thing he remembers. Breaking the laptop, finding out about his shares, threatening to sue — spelling any of it out would likely do more damage than it's worth, and if there's anything that can be said about Mark Zuckerberg, it's that he's a smart guy. Eduardo trusts that he'll be able to fill in the blank.
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Date: 2011-05-20 08:40 pm (UTC)"Yeah, thanks for that, man," he says with an exhale of a laugh, rolling his eyes, though it's good-natured, his own way of telling Mark that, yes, this is okay, the levity, the familiarity, isn't overstepping. (Not that Mark needs his permission, or even seems to be asking for it. Eduardo's word typically comes second, Mark going ahead even when Eduardo expresses disapproval, like with Facemash. It seems like the sort of thing that can only be beneficial to express anyway, just in case, to keep things as clear as possible.) The funny thing is, when he reconsiders it, it still has to have been less than a year, May to December back home and the four months he's been here. It was time spent growing apart, though, and that makes it seem that much longer after the fact, distance creating the illusion of further time. "Don't worry, I'm not planning on growing a mustache anytime soon, that would be — I think it'd probably look weird. How long has it been for you, anyway, since —"
He can't bring himself to say it, but the implication, he thinks, is clear enough, with his vague mention earlier of the last thing he remembers. Breaking the laptop, finding out about his shares, threatening to sue — spelling any of it out would likely do more damage than it's worth, and if there's anything that can be said about Mark Zuckerberg, it's that he's a smart guy. Eduardo trusts that he'll be able to fill in the blank.