Nina kept holding my hand after the System receipt disappeared, though jealousy had not vanished with explanation. The private date continued around an uncomfortable feeling instead of waiting for perfect confidence; that choice made the evening more intimate than pretending nothing happened.
"I need to tell you the embarrassing version," Nina said, moving our empty plates aside before she released my fingers, "not only the reasonable version I already edited."
"Do you want me to listen before answering?" I asked, remembering how solutions could become a method of ending another person's discomfort.
"Yes," she replied, folding her arms loosely while she searched for language, "please do not defend anyone until I finish."
