Ariana had been sitting beside him for several minutes without stumbling over every other sentence or finding herself overwhelmed by the ordinary fact that he was paying attention.
She felt comfortable.
Not completely free of self-consciousness, perhaps.
But comfortable enough to forget about it for stretches of time.
That was new.
Ariana looked toward him as he finished commenting on something one of the Forgemastery students had done.
"You know," she said, "for someone who acts like he doesn't enjoy talking, you have quite a lot to say when you're complaining about people."
Liam regarded her.
"Observation requires commentary."
"Does it?"
"Only when the observations are unfortunate."
She smiled mischievously.
"Then I suppose you must have an extraordinary amount of material."
For a moment, Liam looked mildly surprised.
Then the corner of his mouth shifted.
"Unfortunately."
Ariana laughed.
'That wasn't so hard.'
Liam noticed the change in her demeanor.
