The way Kaveh and Hillary met is, to say the least, intriguing.
The first time he heard about her was through Collei – or rather, Collei introduced Hillary to him. However, with or without Collei, they would have met anyway, as Hillary needed someone with a flair for interior design to help her with the shop, and Collei (or anyone else) would have recommended Kaveh, the architect who designed the Alcazarzaray Palace.
Of course, Kaveh ended up accepting; after all, it was a job, he’d get paid and could pay off his debt to Dori. So, in the first month, Kaveh studied Naltan’s culture in general and how he could blend the two cultures into a single interior design scheme. Hillary was always by his side, guiding him and, in a way, helping him to broaden his horizons.
However, during a particularly hectic and stressful month, Kaveh inadvertently forgot that he was due to meet Hillary to discuss the shop’s colour scheme. On that particular day, a customer turned out to be a real pain in the neck, which prompted him to head to the tavern to clear his head; however, after a few drinks, he was already a bit tipsy and forgot all about it. However, because Kaveh hadn’t given her any warning, Hillary ended up genuinely worried and set off to look for him to see if he was all right. When she found him at the Sumeru tavern – drunk, far too quiet, far too depressed… far too vulnerable – she sensed something was amiss and approached him gently.
— Kaveh...
To Kaveh, her call was like the first rays of morning light welcoming him after a storm that had seemed endless; he couldn’t remember the last time he’d felt that way, but it made him feel good. When he looked at Hillary, his eyes were red from crying in secret – or rather, without being disturbed – and this worried Hillary even more. She paid his bill, took him to her house and looked after him. She gave him some rich food and a very sweet drink to balance his blood sugar and stabilise it, and stayed by his side, even when she had to sit on the floor to look after him.
When Kaveh started to sober up, he remembered what he’d forgotten and felt terrible and guilty for having forgotten that appointment; to make matters worse, his client ended up finding him drunk and even looked after him.
— I... I forgot to meet you, I forgot about our plans... I’m sorry.
He didn’t even have the courage to look her in the face; in fact, he’d been hoping she’d call off the project with him so she could find someone less… unstable, but that wasn’t what happened.
— Don’t worry, it sounds like you’ve had a bad day, so get some rest.
She simply asked him to rest, relax and think about the appointment later, as he wasn’t well or fit enough to work at the moment. That was very kind of her; in fact, it was more than just kind – she practically looked after him whilst he was drunk, without giving him a lecture, and didn’t even seem bothered by having done so. She looked after him simply because she wanted to, and she enjoyed it.
That was when Kaveh began to admire Hillary as a person.
