But the question draws his gaze up to her face anyway. It does not still the sweep of his thumb. It does not shift his expression, change where it has cracked open in the course of their discussion. The quiet unspools between them, punctuated by the thunk and crack of storefronts opening, shutters being pushed outwards high above them, the cawing of gulls in the harbor.
"Aye, that was part of it," Ellis ventures, frown deepening as he feels his way through to this answer. Abbreviated because the day is very new; it is too early to invite this part of his history onto the street alongside them.
Yes, part of it was that Shanae was gone. But so was everyone else, even the person he was then, who danced with anyone who reached for him.
"But we should speak on something else now."
There is no obligation for Wysteria to tread along this conversational topic with him.
no subject
This is not a thing he can say to her.
But the question draws his gaze up to her face anyway. It does not still the sweep of his thumb. It does not shift his expression, change where it has cracked open in the course of their discussion. The quiet unspools between them, punctuated by the thunk and crack of storefronts opening, shutters being pushed outwards high above them, the cawing of gulls in the harbor.
"Aye, that was part of it," Ellis ventures, frown deepening as he feels his way through to this answer. Abbreviated because the day is very new; it is too early to invite this part of his history onto the street alongside them.
Yes, part of it was that Shanae was gone. But so was everyone else, even the person he was then, who danced with anyone who reached for him.
"But we should speak on something else now."
There is no obligation for Wysteria to tread along this conversational topic with him.