She looked ever so slightly uncomfortable.
"Do you really want to begin?"
"Yes."
"Begin then."
But it was not so easy for him to begin after her straightforward order to do so. She kept her brown eyes fixed unswervingly on him the whole time, as if defying him to tell anything but the utterest truth. He paused, stammered, and then laughed uncomfortably.
"There's a lot to tell you, and it's not easy."
"Then don't trouble. I'm not asking you to."
"But I want to."
She said, averting her eyes from him for a moment: "It's not really that you want to begin yourself, it's that you want me to begin, isn't it?"
Then he said: "Yes, I wanted you to begin if you would. I wanted you to ask me a question you used to ask me?"