"I love to go rock climbing," he confesses, drawn out by that light in her eyes, against everything prudence would require. "Getting out in the middle of nowhere, just me and the mountain face...."

He has spent a lifetime schooling his expressions, but he can't completely hide the longing for solitude. And why shouldn't he relax a little? This meeting is for public consumption, after all. It's grist for the rumor mill. "I could teach you," he offers, "if you'd like. Or ... if you're not into that kind of thing, maybe we could just try a day trip upstate."