[Iris blinked and turned in the hallway. She hadn't expected him to follow, not at all. She'd expected, with her agreement to stay, that he would have taken the first opportunity to leave without looking rude. So to see him still there, lingering (uncertainly? That couldn't be right.) in the hallway, asking after her, it set her off-balance. More so even than usual. Was he staying? Did he live here at times, after all, when the Manor was too far away? Was one of the rooms his? She just looked at him for a long, long moment, confusion written plainly across her face.]
I've been alone for a while now. [She finally found the words to answer him, not realizing that perhaps, with the way she looked, with her current situation, they weren't as reassuring as she hoped. And then she faltered, not wanting it to seem as if she thought she had a right to make him leave his own penthouse.] Were you ...staying? [It was accompanied by another confused frown that transformed the words into far less than the invitation they might have otherwise seemed.]