Stavanger Bay with flowers in the sunshine

sandpiper continued her cold stare, as if whatever distant thing she focused on somehow held more interest than the poor soul before her. she would have had to have been chiseled from stone to not notice the tapering defeat that seemed to linger in his voice despite the huff that trailed the end of his statement. inwardly she knew she was being outrageously unfair, but it was too deep in the game now to possibly do anything but batter up.

the way he said it got to her too, like she had hurt him. like he was vulnerable. reluctantly she rolled her gaze to him, her jaw tightened in response. "it's fine." she said, dismissing it with a flick of her head as if she were cracking her neck. "that's good you got someone." she added, a feeble attempt to patch up the giant hole she had punched in the wall of their very weird and stiff conversation.