[ It helps a good deal that they're both somewhere private that he's familiar with, and that he knows she'll back off if he wants her to. If anything, it made all the difference. His hand stays where it is, so long as she chooses not to shrug it off. ]

We had a difference of opinion as to where my jurisdiction began and ended. She showed up here a week past dropping that vision in everyone's heads, to apologize for it with a side serving of "advice" I had no interest in hearing. She said it was time to end our arrangement, and after some thought on it, I decided she didn't get to make that decision without proof. That's what happened the following day.

[ He shakes his head, careful not to dislodge her position. ]

It doesn't matter. I gave her my word on something and then broke it... she has no reason to listen to me now, even if she wasn't right about my being better at breaking than fixing. It's not like I didn't know.