Re: In-person: Holly W/Noah N
The elephant man had hot hands. It's true. [Deadpan, and he laughed when Noah did that face, the one that was made for melting the hearts of girls and grandmas alike.] Bullshit, and that sweet Sunday school face doesn't work on me. [It did work on him. Absolutely it did. Noah wasn't as pushy now, that was true, but the guy had kinda had bad thing after bad thing happen, right? It had been a lot of down and not a lot of up, and Holly knew that didn't make for pushing and, like, carefree. So, cut the guy some slack, right? He'd been fighting off sads for, like, a month, if not longer. And, like, Holly knew this didn't help. How could it?]
I'll talk about anything you want to when we have more time. [He meant it. He didn't know precisely what Noah wanted to talk about, but he was down for it.] You're safe now. [Because Noah was safe now, and Holly wanted to keep it that way. He also wanted Noah to not get floored by him, which was what he, Holly, thought they hadn't resolved. I mean, he wasn't going to do anything about it. He wouldn't do anything without talking to Noah, because Holly just wasn't that guy. But he was extremely aware that he kept flooring the guy emotionally. He didn't want Noah ODing or getting addicted to Xanax because of him. That was way important to him, and Holly wasn't even a particularly un-selfish guy. So, okay, no running into trees had been established, right? But the rest was still we'll see. But, they were standing now, Holly having taken Noah's hand to haul himself up. Noah was looking at his socks, and Holly tipped his chin with the side of his forefinger.] You make it sound like we're making appointments to discuss things in future. Stop apologizing, and kiss me before I go back to work.