> “Yeah... um...” - she sounds a little lost, floundering for words, and he thinks for a second that maybe he should have left the subject alone, maybe there’s a reason, but then she keeps going and finishes an explanation - “You know what it's like ...in, um, here. Couldn't risk the doctors finding out what I was up to.”
Oh? And what’s that? is written quickly - fluidly - the sharper edges rounded out a little, a written match to the playful little smirk that somehow ends up on his face when he looks up at her. He catches it a little too late to keep it from being obvious - he doesn’t want her to think he’s... that this is anything it isn’t - taking the lid off his cup and toying with it absently, taking a drink of the coffee. A change of subject is in order, he decides, but a quick mental recap of all the things he could bring up only produces things that aren’t exactly lighthearted topics of conversation for this sort of morning.
So how’ve you been? is so stupidly typical of a conversation changer that it’s almost as bad as so, this weather... but it’ll have to do.