Richard had taken a completely different tactic toward dealing with the situation. If anything, he had offered even more protests than he normally did when Kim tried to set him up with women she knew. Instead, work had become the outlet he turned to. Richard was a bit of a workaholic at the best of times, so when he was feeling like this, he all but lived and breathed his casework. Was it healthy? No, probably not even in the slightest, but it was his method for dealing with...or repressing things.
Richard had honestly never expected to get into such a tense situation with Emma, and it was driving him up the wall. Maybe she didn't notice. Maybe it was all some fabrication in his mind. Okay, that wasn't even remotely likely, but a guy could hope, couldn't he? He briefly wondered if she had figured it out. Perhaps he had said too much or betrayed more of what he was feeling than he thought he had. But no, that wasn't possible. Surely she would have said something if she had figured it out.
"Is it really? I hadn't heard that, so thank you. I feel so fashionable now," he said, making a valiant attempt at humor. If he had known that she picked up on his reaction, he would have wanted to kick himself. "What?" he asked quickly, immediately attempting to compensate for his reaction with a light chuckle, but his response had been too sharp, almost defensive...and he knew it. "What do you mean? Why would there be anything I'd want to tell you?" he asked, carefully composing his features in the best expression of innocent curiosity he could muster. "Nothing comes to mind."