Alfred wanted to protest that he wouldn't resent her, if he really cared, but he hesitated. He knew first hand how different it was trying to navigate a relationship with someone when all you had to work with was letters. He and Zelda were — fine, allegedly, but actually not great, and he was sure that if he could have just seen her this all would have been resolved by now. So it wasn't as though he could ignore the difficulty of it. Resent was still a strong word, because he couldn't imagine ever resenting Zelda for the situation they were in — but they'd only been dealing with this a few months, not years, and they still got to see each other every now and then even if it was under close supervision from her family.

"Well," he finally said, unsure how he wanted to respond. He'd been trying to champion this thing from the start, because he thought Jo would be happier if she had someone consistent by her side instead of these little liaisons she typically got involved in, but this did seem like an obstacle with no easy fix. He took a long drink. "That's tough," he admitted, with a shrug.