Ethan can see that the two of them know each other somehow. He doesn't know how but he's staying quiet from his spot by the railing, locking his jaw as he stands there, trying to catch his breath. Ethan is only staying long enough to make sure that the young woman will be okay though it seems like she's more than used to Damon and the way he is.

For his part, Damon is tilting his head, shaking it in response, because-- "I haven't been in Mystic Falls in a long, long time, and when I was there, the people who died stayed dead. You never saw them again."

Granted, he was not there ultimately very long. The last day he was there they'd saved Elena from being kidnapped, and he went into her room to make a confession that he would then compel her to forget. I can't be selfish with you, he'd said except he is. He's selfish with her all the time, and he knows he doesn't deserve her.

That he never could.