"Oh, believe me, you're not." She shrugged as he took a seat, and smiled in response to his question before answering. Silly of her, she knew, but Tracey hadn't expected to need to lie so early on in the conversation. There was nothing for it now, unfortunately; not like she could just come out and say well, see, my cousin's an idiot and I'd as soon light him on fire as shake his hand.
"I've been busy, you know, work and that." Tracey nodded, as if she believed a single word she was spewing. "Trying to learn how to do something no other artist wants to tell me so I've got to resort to books." That last word was chewed out. Books. What a bloody waste of time.
"And what about you?" she asked, turning around on him. "You're not spending all your time in the flat, are you?"