From current reading

Interest in other people came naturally enough; but it came the long way around, with so many bends, hurdles, doubts, and deferrals that halfway toward a friendship, discouragement and disappointment would invariably settle in, and something in me would simply give up.

Ibid.

Dialogs

Новая метла сильно почистила наши ряды, так что мы на эту неделю запланировали обед для "оптимизированных" коллег. Захожу узнать когда именно обед.

Me: Tuesday? Excellent. Vendors were taking me out on Thursday, I was worried there'd be a conflict.
Colleague (with a troubled expression on his face): Thursday? You are not going, are you?
Me: I was planning to, why not? What's wrong?
Colleague: But you'd be missing the game!
Me (with no clue which sport I am in jeopardy of missing): Well, we'll just have to go to a sports bar then!