But no, Gretchen is obliged to tell him that "that's not you" and "that would never be you." How does she know? Dawson lost the girl too, after all. Gretchen argues that he did, yeah, but then he got on with his life. Um...well, that's debatable at best, but I don't care enough to get into it. Dawson throws himself into a chair to sulk, but Gretchen keeps at him, saying that it doesn't matter if Mr. Brooks "was a coward for more years than he was a hero -- in the end, he got it right." Then we get to hear an icky story about when Gretchen realized she had Those Kinds Of Feelings for Dawson; when they watched Mr. Brooks's movie, and she watched Dawson watch the film and "come alive" and blah bloopety blay and "part of [Dawson's] life in this bigger and better way"-cakes. Mr. Brooks brought them together. Dawson looks down, smiles, then looks back up and says goofily, "I like you." Heh. Gretchen rolls her eyes: "Oh god, why?" HA! Okay, that's really funny. Dawson lists all of Gretchen's positive attributes, and Gretchen tells him it's a good thing he doesn't know the power of his own charm, or he'd use it "for evil." No comment, aaaaaand -- nope, no comment. Dawson leers at her for a moment, then asks if she'd mind...he trails off. "You wanna be alone?" Yes, he does -- how did she know? "'Cause I'm an awesome girlfriend," she smirks. Blather. Banter. Smoochies. Gretchen makes to go wait outside, but before she leaves, she tells Dawson to remember Mr. Brooks for "that great big thumping heart of his," to remember the good things about Mr. Brooks. ["My kingdom for a little less damn thumping of said heart." -- Wing Chun] Dawson smiles and nods slightly.