"I know. We're the lonely ones, aren't we?"
She was perfectly serious now.
"You know that Ruth and I have split up," he said.
"I heard ... that she left you."
He shrugged. "That's a matter of viewpoint. She got tired sitting Earthside while I batted around the Solar System. When I told her I was going to Vega, she called it quits."
"Couldn't she have gone with you?"
"If she had wanted to...."
"Do you still love her?" Elaine asked.
"I don't know. I don't think I know what love really is, anymore. All I know is ... on that long trip out to Vega, when I had nothing to do but sit and think, it wasn't Ruth I was thinking about. It was you."
"Oh...."