Her question had him confused, to be perfectly honest. Wasn’t that the point that she’d made on the rooftop in January? She’d said that once she was married, that was the end of them. Didn’t she want him to disappear, at that point?

“I… I mean, we’ll see each other,” he allowed, shifting his attention to his pants as he slipped them back on. Anything to avoid looking at her, right at the moment, and letting her see how uncertain he felt about this. This might have just been a thing she was saying here and now, and maybe there was no harm to it — maybe her resolve to be faithful to her new husband would solidify once again outside of this little cloak room. But if she was really implying that what she’s said before wasn’t quite as firm as it had appeared…

It wasn’t that he would say no. But he’d spent the past month resigning himself to bowing gracefully out of her life. He’d talked himself around to the idea that it was better this way. A clean break, so that he didn’t just stick around regretting what he couldn’t have. If she wanted to do this again… well, it would stop eventually, he was sure, but in the meantime it would just be a wound that kept reopening every time he saw her.

“Anything else is up to you,” he decided. If that was what would make Melody happy, of course they could keep having little interludes like this — even if it wasn’t, strictly speaking, going to be the best for his emotional health, and even if it was risky and would only keep getting riskier as time went on. “Whatever makes you happy.”