“Thank you, that’s kind of you to say,” he told her, choosing to take it as a compliment whether she meant it as one or not. She didn’t sound disparaging when she said it and he felt like that was as close to a compliment as he was going to get right now.

“What kind of dog and do you have pictures?” Peter asked. Pets were usually a pretty safe topic of conversation. “And if you have pictures can I see one?”