"Hmm." She could tell he was thinking seriously about it; good. "I'm not jealous of her in the same way I would be if you started to pay attention to another girl. It's not romantic jealousy."

Momoko made up a small plate from the items in the picnic basket as she spoke. "Not anymore, at least. So in that way it's not a competition. But Nadia's death affected how you work. How you think about work. That's an area of your life that I want to share, too. But because of her death, you keep parts of that away from me."

She held out the plate to him. "So I guess it's not a competition, since she's won that from you. But I totally still want to win against her; I haven't given up."