Quote Originally Posted by InTheMachine View Post
November 1st
John
Another moment passes before Emi lifts her head to look at her boyfriend. “What do you mean, ‘moderate’?” she asks. “What happened?”
It was not quite a sensation of pain when Emi raised her head from his chest to ask about Grayson. He did note a sense of regret at being as full in his report to her as to his movements as he was. After all, their move to the lounge to watch Anastasia was not supposed to continue Grayson’s pattern of getting between them.

That was uncharitable, John thought, checking himself. He had gone to check on Grayson. Grayson had not intruded into their space.

“I had heard a noise and raised voices. Well,” he corrected himself, “a single raised voice. When I got there, Ian was holding him off of the ground, reminding him that he was not at liberty to just wander off at will.

“At my request, Ian released him. Grayson assured me that he was okay and, after an exchange of some pleasantries, I came back.

“He and I avoided the topics you and he will be covering later.”

It was entirely true, as far as it went. John imagined that Emi knew—or suspected—that Ian’s Vader-like grip was primarily focused on Grayson’s neck and it would defeat the purpose of the private exchange to tell her about setting the ground rules of minimizing emotional harm to her. That part of the conversation he had every right to sidestep.

Nevertheless, he was dreading the next step of the decision tree before Emi. Would she press for more information or let it lie. Would she get up ‘just to check’ on Grayson in the kitchen, leaving him here to wait for her return or would she lie back down against him, content with the status quo he had managed to produce.

While he was not holding his breath for her reaction, part of him wanted to.