Finally! His gamble seemed to have paid off; now he could only hope he'd struck the right balance of tone thus far. He'd wanted to give the appearance of nonchalance, while giving the impression that this was important; in short, that he was only nonchalant about it because he was nonchalant about everything. His mother's use of the word captivating implied she hadn't entirely bought that part, but maybe he had towed the line close enough that it was salvageable.

"Oh, she was rather obsessed with me for a while," he said, tone passive. He frowned thoughtfully at his book (this seemed the safer choice than looking at his mother, where he would have to think not just about the expression on his face but the look in his eyes as well; he was a good liar, he thought, but lying to one's mother was always a dangerous game). "It's why I left Spain. She was..." he paused and frowned again, as if carefully combing through his large vocabulary for exactly the right word to convey her behavior while still staying inside the bounds of polite conversation. "Persistent... and aggressive. I'm happy to hear she's moved on."

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