“Of course I’m right,” she shot back. “Anybody with eyes could see that was a stupid thing to do to a man like you. Imagine! Dumping someone by pretending to go on a date with them and then leaving them by the side of the road! Sometimes I really wonder what in the actual fuck is wrong with people. What, were you supposed to walk back to your house? I mean, honestly.” She flung her hands up in the air. “You’re lucky I saw you, honestly, I mean this isn’t the worst part of the city,” it better not be, she thought, with me here, “but it’s not the best either. Not a place to be wandering around without a clue.”Vex nodded at her words and, at her tirade about what Lucinda had done to him, he felt his own anger at her start to bubble back up in response. “I know. It’s bloody ridiculous!” he said through clenched teeth as he drank down the alcohol she’d given him, sipping at his coffee as well, to ease the burn. Shaking his head at how stupid the whole thing had been, he replied, “I can ‘andle myself, really, but I am glad that you saw me. It’s nice to ‘ave somebody that understands, ‘stead of going ‘ome to an empty ‘ouse.” He gave her a slight, appreciative smile, but the anger at his ex was still darkly visible in his eyes.
A faint smile twitched at her mouth in response, both to his compliment and his smile. She dropped neatly and quickly crosslegged to the floor, looking up at him, and twitched her braid around into her lap. “Understanding is what I do,” she murmured, eyes flicking away. “Forget her. Tell me about you. Vex? Truly? Or is that a nickname the way I’m sometimes called Naienko?”