He laughed lightly, mostly relieved at their arrival at the club, since he wouldn't have to go into further detail. He didn't want to have to explain to Bethany that it wasn't about shame, it was about a simple reality. His work and his ex-wife had wrung any sense of the romantic from him long before he'd looked a Centurion in the face (or what those toasters had that passed as one) and fully come to terms with the finiteness of his existence.

"Ah, back to business," he teased, his face a mask of amusement.