"Tell me you're taking the Mickey at a really inopportune moment." Alastor didn't know what to make of any of it. "I tell you I love you, something I would never say to anyone else, and you want to quibble over an adverb?"
This. This was what was driving him crazy. No matter what he said, it wasn't enough for her. It was distracting him at the office and no matter how he felt, he had to wonder if it was good for either of them to keep going round like this.
"You said it yourself," he said with an exasperated sigh. "People fall in and out of love all the time. Being in love is fleeting. If that's what you want, then no, we don't feel the same." He turned to go back inside. "Fleeting isn't in my nature."