Severus didn't know whether to be pleased or not - she'd been thinking it, but maybe it was the wine, and she thought it was inappropriate, but inappropriate could go hang - but the frustration mounting as he failed to find some graceful way, some impressive way to resolve it all was pushing him toward not. "It's all right," he said, and at least he had managed to soften his voice a little, to look more startled than cold. Of course he would have liked her to stay. It would be easier to laugh it off, but he really, really didn't want to. "I - You can say what you like. I don't mind." He had tried to choose his words carefully, but they sounded terminally clumsy to him.