"You sure you want to know?"
"Yes." I pause, narrowing my eyes at him. "Unless you're going to say serial killers. That subject is banished."
He chuckles. "I studied classic literature."
"So that's how you know Darcy, Heathcliff, and Rochester!"
His eyes light up with humor as he cuts a bite of his steak. "You're surprised?"
"Yes. No." I scowl at him. "Still annoyed that you'd marry Heathcliff. He's cruel and abusive!"
"He was also ostracized because of his race and treated deplorably."
"Very true, but tormenting others the same way he was tormented eroded any moral high ground he might have had. If everyone lived with as much hatred in their hearts as he had, the world would be a terrible place. Regardless of what's done to us, we're still responsible for the harm we do to others."
He sits back against the booth, grinning at me. "You're an idealist."
"No. I just think the world reflects what we pour into it," I say primly. "His life was tragic and devastating. No one should ever be treated the way he was. He could have been this beautiful, brilliant man who shone through the darkness they tried to pour into him. Instead, he chose to visit the same kind of pain and tyranny on everyone in his life, including his own son. That doesn't make him a hero. It just makes him another tragedy, Mason."
"I happen to agree with you."
"And yet, you'd marry him."
"Why not?" He shrugs. "We can't claim the world reflects what we pour into it if we only pour into those we find worthy and ignore the rest. Look atAgamemnon."
"Agamemnon?" I stare at him blankly, my fork hovering in midair.
"A Mycenaean king," he says. "Like Heathcliff's story, his is all about destruction and revenge. Had there been an ounce of forgiveness in either, perhaps they would have turned out differently. Instead, they're tragedies because the people who needed love and understanding the most didn't find it. They turned to hate and revenge because it's all they knew. You can't change the world by repeating the same cycles."
"I remember that play. Didn't he kidnap a Trojan princess?"
"Yeah, Cassandra."
"She had visions, right?"
"She was cursed by Apollo to have prophecies that weren't believed because she refused to have his child."
I cock my head to the side, studying him. "Classic literature, huh?"
"I'm working on my thesis now."
"What?" I blink. "Seriously?"
He grimaces at me. "It's on Aeschylus."
"Bless you."
He throws his head back, his laughter booming across the restaurant. "I didn't sneeze, baby. I said Aeschylus."
"I know who he is," I smirk at him. "But his name always reminds me of a sneeze."
Mason takes a long sip of wine, watching me over the rim of his glass. "You're an unusual woman, Olive Medlock."
"And you…well, you aren't a serial killer, so yay for me?" I say, my expression cheeky.
He just chuckles in response.
I push potatoes around on my plate for a long moment before looking up at him. "I like this, Mason," I whisper, my voice soft. "Thank you for not hating me."