Arran liked Evan, and he was pleased that, now that Evan was no longer his architect, they could continue being friends. "We'll invite him over to help us," Arran decided. "Andrew can come too. Evan might like that better than a party." Arran thought Evan would probably still come to the party, he didn't seem to hate them or anything, but he might prefer getting to sit down and do something with fewer people. It was not a thought Arran thought he would've even had a couple of years ago, he would've just assumed that everyone liked parties, because he did. It was pleasing, noticing that he had actually made progress. Arran felt sure that both Chloe and Terence had helped with that, helping him learn not to only focus on the negative. "I love you," he said, reaching for some soap so that he could help wash Chloe, too. "I'm glad you showed up to our blind date, the second time, and took me to jump off a cliff." Imagining his life without Chloe in it was just sad, and Arran was glad he didn't have to.
Having experimented, a little, with meditation when he'd been injured, Arran sort of got how breathing exercises could be useful. He'd never actually found they helped him all that much, but the stuff he'd read had talked about how they could be helpful with anxiety, so it made sense they'd be useful for panic, too. "It's good they knew what to teach you," Arran said. "It took my teacher a while to figure out how to make an Obliviator funny." The constantly new Defence Against the Dark Arts teachers while he'd been at school hadn't done Arran any great favours, in that regard. He smiled at Chloe's promise. "You'd be an excellent defence," he said. "You could tell it that it didn't have any legal right to obliviate me, and then it would have to go away." And, if that failed, Arran was sure Chloe would also defend him in other ways. "Did you do duelling?" he asked. "I can imagine you being good at duelling."