I’ve been better.
Her heart—and seemingly time itself—froze. For the briefest of moments, a surge of… what was that? Hope? Filled Ginny’s chest. Was he about to admit regret as to their last correspondence? Would she even wish him to?
However when time resumed its progress, any such potential was quashed. Work. He was a healer, and work was demanding. This was hardly reinventing the wheel.
Still, it was a level of honesty that one did not expect from a friend-turned-acquaintance, the rules of appropriate socialization did not quite cover a response to this, leaving Virginia on shaky ground. It was too easy to lapse, too easy to say something she would regret. Dangerous circumstances.
“How sorry I am to hear that, Mr. Podmore,” she offered kindly, but with still the same false cheerfulness that wrapped about her like a cloak. “I often tell George that he mustn’t burn the candle at both ends and, if you’ll excuse my saying so, it appears that you would do well to follow such advice as well!”
Was that too friendly? Overly familiar? Close to the way things were before she had fantasized an entire happy ending, only to have her efforts crash and burn?
“As to myself, I am doing quite fine.”
Quite fine. Hardly a glowing report, but the words had left her now, and could not be reclaimed.
Her heart—and seemingly time itself—froze. For the briefest of moments, a surge of… what was that? Hope? Filled Ginny’s chest. Was he about to admit regret as to their last correspondence? Would she even wish him to?
However when time resumed its progress, any such potential was quashed. Work. He was a healer, and work was demanding. This was hardly reinventing the wheel.
Still, it was a level of honesty that one did not expect from a friend-turned-acquaintance, the rules of appropriate socialization did not quite cover a response to this, leaving Virginia on shaky ground. It was too easy to lapse, too easy to say something she would regret. Dangerous circumstances.
“How sorry I am to hear that, Mr. Podmore,” she offered kindly, but with still the same false cheerfulness that wrapped about her like a cloak. “I often tell George that he mustn’t burn the candle at both ends and, if you’ll excuse my saying so, it appears that you would do well to follow such advice as well!”
Was that too friendly? Overly familiar? Close to the way things were before she had fantasized an entire happy ending, only to have her efforts crash and burn?
“As to myself, I am doing quite fine.”
Quite fine. Hardly a glowing report, but the words had left her now, and could not be reclaimed.
— bee is a goddamn wizard ❤ —