He had clearly stuck his foot in something more seriously than he'd intended to. He straightened in his chair, mostly out of surprise - she was surprising him a lot today, and that look was just the latest shock to the system - but relaxed halfway when she seemed to deflate a little.
"Well, that's all perfectly natural, of course," he said, in a hurry to be in her good graces again. "It happens in the workplace, at least to people who spend more than six hours a day there, I understand. It's not so bad." He smiled, taking up his ice cream again cautiously. "I do remember. I think we decided that your talent ran in the family."