intheblanks | ➹BEEPER

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➹BEEPER

"It had better be an emergency."
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[She looks at him a long time, quiet, like she's puzzling something out then stands and puts her arms around him]

He asked me, if I had ever felt the way I did about him with anyone, I didn't lie. I told him no.

It wasn't the same, Robert. It will never be the same. But I won't lie to you. I don't understand what I felt for him anymore. It doesn't make sense.

[You make sense - which is strange, and different, because emotions aren't supposed to.]

[He only hesitates a second before wrapping his arms round her waist in turn, pulling her a little closer in. But let him torture himself a second more - better to do it out loud than keep it silent and circular.]

Was it better? [Every man knows never to ask this question. Every man. Especially one who spent three years feeling outdone by both his boss and a dead grad student.]

[Fortunately, despite that, he knows that no matter what she says it will be honest]

I don't really understand humiliation well, but I suppose, in a way, it was humiliating.

[Showing all those emotions, being soppy, feeling rejected, having him keep putting his lips on her face, it was humiliating, in a way, for her.]

At the time, it wasn't better. It was more distracting. Curses are always more distracting. If I were given a choice, I wouldn't take the feelings I had with him.

[And he considers that, his chin tucked in against her shoulder.]

I like distracting you. [Honest, if selfish.] But I'll always be here. As long as I have any choice. You can get your focus back, I won't slip away.

Yes, I know.

But you and I, we work well. You distract me when you know I can afford to be distracted.

[He's not sure he's so unselfish, but it's not something to fight over.]

Do you want me to hit him for you?

Do you want me to say yes?

[He wrinkles his nose.]

Only a little.

[She kisses him, instead.]

[It's a fair substitute.]

Some women would think it was hot, you know.

[But he kisses her again, and it's a while before he pulls back.]

Was it the public display that bothered you?

It doesn't bother me with you.

It was the display of emotion. The falseness of it. I don't like dishonesty.

Because if he could leave like that, then the curse wasn't so strong, was it?

[He nods to the shut office door.] We've never been very public.

[But he can only really shrug at her comment on the curse.] I've seen curses make people a lot more single-minded. But I can't regret him being a fickle date.