He was delighted.

Because Flynn was secure enough, and clear-eyed enough, to find a competent partner more interesting than a grateful dependent.

And that told me more about who he was than any grand gesture could have.

There is a kind of man whose strength requires the weakness of the people around him, who needs to be needed, who is only comfortable when he is the largest thing in the room.

And there is another, rarer kind, whose strength is untroubled by strength in others, who is drawn to competence rather than threatened by it, who would rather have a peer than a project.