"I should hope not," Astoria replied, giving him an almost modest smile. Of all the men in her life, Blaise was always the one she could count on to be generous with his compliments and affection. Her father and brother, who loved her and felt protective toward her, were typical Greengrass men, not showing too much outward emotion so as not to appear weak. To be fair, Astoria often did the same, but she was thankful that she had people in her life like Blaise that brought out the warmer sides of her personality.
Astoria took another sip of her tea, her gaze drawn to the street as Blaise spoke to the waitress. A trio made up of a boy and two girls walked by, their arms hooked together as they talked animatedly about something. Her attention was drawn back to Blaise as soon as the waitress assured them their food would be out soon.
She made a gesture with her hand as if to wave away his request for forgiveness. "It's perfectly alright, Blaise. I'm obviously in one piece, so there was nothing to worry about anyway," she assured him. She wondered what Blaise thought of what was happening now, with the Death Eaters being so active in the world again. She knew it would be easy to ask him. The words were already sitting on her tongue, just waiting for her to speak them, but she didn't. Neutral, she told herself firmly. If you ask him, he'll ask you and coming up with convincing evasive answers isn't as easy as it sounds.
Her eyebrows furrowed in confusion in response to the questioning way Blaise had rephrased her statement about Daphne. "She didn't tell you?" That surprised Astoria. She'd always known Blaise and Daphne to be quite close, so she'd just expected that he would already know she was out of the country for Merlin only knew how long it would be. She didn't have the chance to dwell on it any longer, though, with Blaise's thoughtful warning fresh in her mind. "Of course I'm aware," she said, her tone a little sharper than she had intended. She knew that he was only looking after her, not wanting anything to happen to her, so her softened slightly when she spoke again. "You know me, Blaise, and you know that me staying inside all day is almost torturous. I'm not going to ask someone to accompany me every time I feel like leaving the estate. I'm capable of defending myself should I need to."