Even though it is a half-joke, she gives his hand a little squeeze. "We'll knock down some buildings for you if we have to. But I know what you mean--I have lived in cities before, but only briefly, and...I don't know how to explain it. It feels like after a while you need more room to just be, to go a while without hearing a car alarm or even someone else's voice."

She is ultimately a social creature, Ruby, and though she is not driven to periods of independent solitude the way Asbjørn is, she knows what it's like to need that, too.