She called his attention and Eisen realized that he’d been too obvious. He hadn’t meant to. He really was happy for her and he wanted her to be happy, whoever it was with. He’d just...hoped, like he had for the longest time, that the particular someone could be him. That ship, as far as Eisen could see, was stuck at port with repairs needed. He gave a lopsided, halfhearted smile and nodded his head, turning his head to look down at where their hands touched. “Yeah, of course. Sorry. The Christmas talk had me out of sorts,” he lied.
And that set the tone for the rest of dinner, of course. Eisen realized it too late. He tried to relax himself a few times, but frankly, he wasn’t sure he had it in him, seeing Lexie so happy and knowing he wasn’t the one to make it happen. It was pathetic, that he was letting this ruin something that Lexie had seemed so excited about, but he couldn’t help it.