"Good for you, Michael. I knew that you'd do well if you ever put your mind to it." Lawyering was not what she'd pictured him doing, but he was such a people person that on second thought it was a good fit.
When he asked about her, she looked away for a beat. "I have been away." She smoothed her skirts in a nervous gesture before she could still herself. Why was it so much more difficult to talk to the boy that she'd once snogged in dark corners than it had been to speak with Richard whom she barely knew? "I have been in China with family." It was technically true even if she no longer had any claim on the House of Li.
The fox whipped her tails, agitated by the near-lie. True falsehood was abhorant to the huli jing.