Something in the air had shifted, he could feel it, things weren't fine after all.

Her replies didn't match what he had been going for. Things were going awry already. The relief of seeing one another again after the disaster seemed to dissipate entirely. Did she think him incapable of restraining himself? It wasn't as if he'd never thought about kissing her or getting his hands on her. He was no Gryffindor however, certainly not brave enough to make a move and she had never given him any indication that her feelings went beyond friendship, which is why he'd never ever tried to go past that line with her. The last thing he wanted was to lose her as a friend, no matter how much he loved her beyond that.

"What do you want me to say, sorry for trying to be a gentleman, for trying to avoid the exact awkward situation we found ourselves in?" Merlin, his father would have his hide. Dory's shenanigans aside, Nemo has never so much as looked at a lady without her permission. Not that he wanted to look at anyone anyway. It was easy to rationalize his unwanted trip to the brothel as a right of passage and only because money was changing hands.

His train of thought was getting seriously derailed the longer he stood there, but he was struggling to wrap his head around the turn this conversation was taking. He wasn't usually this straightforward, but this was Penny, if he couldn't say what was on his mind with her, when could he?