[Listening to his silence might be the longest, loudest thing she's ever heard. It seems to give her all the time in the world to mentally kick herself for pressing the issue. She didn't want to bring it out of the realm of a joke, but she did, and why? It's not like she's ready for anything.
It hasn't been that long. Of course, everything about her life has moved fast since her parents were murdered. Just one flash of experiences after another until here she is very much in love for the second third? time. She doesn't need a clock or a calendar to tell her when it's time to be ready for something, but she's also not over what happened between her and Piotr—her husband.
She's moved on in a lot of ways from that relationship, but it will always be a big part of her. She still loves him and she's still angry at him. Neither has had time to fade or heal completely, and maybe they never will. She was married—maybe not legally with no one to perform an official ceremony and no government to recognize it—but in her mind and heart he was her husband. It was a big commitment, and she can't be reckless in making it a second time.
And of course there is the disappearing acts this prison pulls. How many times has she watched friends leave her life? It was the same back home through death, but in some ways the vanishing was harder. It felt even more random and she felt more helpless against it. Could she handle it if they took that step and then he was gone? Or if he came back without any of those memories?
Neither of them are ready to ask or answer for dozens of reasons and yet her heart felt like it was on pause waiting for him to reply and relief and disappointment came in equal measure when he did.]
Mm...The Articles of Confections? [See? Just a harmless joke.]