No. I have been rebuffed before, and I know what it feels like. This was a rebuff, not a deferment of an offer for a coffee and a chat. A definite rebuff.

And no matter my intentions before, it made me feel like I'd been played.

So from Friday onwards, it's all business. No sharing of personal time with her.

It's okay. Apparently, the agency she was contracting with went out of business yesterday, leaving her stranded until someone can take up her marionette strings. Different contract, same job ... or even the possibility of there being no job for her at all.

In which case, problem solved either way.