"At the very least… you could have looked for me, after the Entrance Banquet."
Lucavion didn't answer right away.
Jesse watched him search for it, as she had watched him hunt an opening against Valeria, except there was no blade to read here, only the small shifts crossing his face while he decided which version of the truth to hand her first.
"I thought you needed space."
It came out smooth enough to sound rehearsed, though she doubted he'd ever said it aloud before. The respectable answer. The one that let him stay the considerate party even while explaining why he'd done nothing.
'Space.'
There had been a time when Jesse might have accepted the word for what it appeared to be. She might even have been grateful for it. She might have taken the distance he had placed between them and called it consideration, because consideration hurt less than the alternatives.
She had met too many people since then.
