Evan smirked and nodded when she pointed out that he'd thought of everything. "And so the tables turn," he winked, recalling that he'd said almost the exact same thing to her barely a week ago. "Ah, how nice it is to be on the other side of that fence." His smile was playful and he poked his tongue out from between his lips. "Je t'aime aussi, cher. Tres beaucoup."
Though he caught the change in her expression when she mentioned their long-standing joke, he didn't call attention to it right away. Instead, he logged it away, to bring up when they weren't having a romantic evening. When spirits didn't seem to be high. Evan was almost sure that the fact that he was the one who'd put the compound together was the reason why people didn't like him. That and the fact that O'Brien had always had a thousand negative things to say in correlation with his name. Once again, a thing that would go unmentioned. "Happier than I've been in years, cher. Much happier." And that was a fact.
"I need an excuse?" he asked as though the thought of him needing an excuse to touch Leah's ass was an offensive thought, brushing his hand over it as though emphasizing the question with the action. Just because he could. "Because if I need an excuse, I wonder what it was all those times I didn't have one." He chuckled.
It was hard, coming to the realization that this conversation could go any number of ways. Sure, that was the case with most conversations, but this one... could go very, very badly. He was aware of that, completely aware, but it was something that he needed to ask. Something that he needed to know.
A few new friends. He frowned. "I don't think being with me will do you many favors there," he mused. He didn't have a whole lot of friends either. Not anymore. Aside from her and Marigold, and sometimes George and Daniel, when they so chose, Evan didn't really have anyone. It was a painful realization.
Deep breath. Band aid approach. That was the best way to do this. Right?
"What's... what's your stance on marriage?" he asked her.