"His name was — presumably still is — Alexander. He was the most intelligent person I knew, it seemed like he knew something about everything, he was — very opinionated, he could talk about almost any subject you handed him, but never sharp about it." 

"Sounds like a good friend."

"He was." 

…the smile fades as he remembers just how many people he won't be able to talk to again. 

He uses the obvious reading-out-loud voice again to say "When did you last cry in front of another person? By yourself?" 

"I last cried in front of another person when I was being caned for breaking one of Tetsuo's most prized dishes. I last cried by myself shortly before my trainer Anderson told me that I no longer had to wear women's clothing and be referred to with female pronouns."

…right. Yes. That is… not something Marlo knows how to interact with at all. He makes a soft interested sound and doesn't say any of what he's thinking. 

"How close and warm is your family? Do you feel your childhood was happier than most people's?"

"Most people's in the world, probably. Most people's in my peer group, I have no idea. I'm not sure I'd call it warm but we —" he wants to say are, present tense, but catches himself — "were close." 

"Close but not warm? How does that work?" 

His voice is gentle, curious.

"Not not warm, but they — believed that the best way to love someone was to want the best for them, and to want them to be their best." 

"I'm sympathetic to that. I have been lucky enough in my life to have many people who wanted me to be my best, and to have the opportunity to help others become their best."

"I'm glad," very sincere. 

"It's your question."

Right. 

"…what do you most regret not having told someone before you died?" is a terrible topic of conversation. 

"In life I was... neglectful, as a friend. I didn't call, I rarely wrote. I was busy. The work expanded to fill the hours in the day, and Tetsuo always wanted more from me. There is an email from my brother I hadn't answered for three months, and I meant to congratulate Robin on her latest auction, and Rachel had asked to hear my voice..." He pauses. "I wish I had told Ron and Rachel and Robin that I loved them."

He nods quietly and shuts down the part of his brain that's thinking about how long it's been since he called his sister. 

"What is your most terrible memory?"

He flinches. 

"Dying is near the top of the list." 

"I don't know why they thought that was good dinner-table conversation."

The pizza arrives! It is bright pink and shaped like a heart.

"I don't know either." Why is it pink. 

It's really unclear!

Chris takes a slice. "It tastes like normal cheese pizza," he reports.

"This is such an inexplicable series of choices they're making." He eats. 

"Possibly it's supposed to be romantic. They ought to be more aware that nonromantic soulmates exist, though. They were the ones who assigned a male soulmate to a heterosexual man."

"Yes, that's one of the inexplicable choices."

He is very aware of what Michael told him, and does not mention it.