"Well, that was why Drake wanted me along, wasn't it?" she said easily. She was good at making conversations easy and light; she was almost certain she could diffuse the awkwardness here, too. She thought back to Drake's warnings about Merri's propensity to get overly attached and felt a twinge of discomfort. He was a perfectly nice man, and she was going to feel bad if she had to break his heart, but really, she didn't feel she had done anything to warrant a fixation of any kind.
Drake was going to laugh until he cried.
"I was pretty pissed," she said with another easy smile. "And pretty sleepy.. and pretty wet. That whole outing was basically a disaster from start to finish, especially when everything Wil didn't eat got soaked and we had to go home hungry." She bit off a piece of her scone. "Thanks for this, by the way. The coffee - and the baked goods - are good here. Don't you think?"