The silence held for one beat.
Then two.
Vanir was still looking at my eyes through the glasses with that expression.....the one that had no existing category for what it was finding.
I adjusted the frames.
"I'll tell Alicia her glasses need an upgrade," I said.
The tone was Flat and Unhurried. as someone buying himself a second while he worked out what had just happened.
Vanir looked at me.
Not the estimate-updating look from earlier. Something more focused than that. The expression of a man who had just said something he wasn't expecting to say and was now deciding how much further he wanted to take it in a room full of people, with someone he had met approximately forty minutes ago.
"Those glasses aren't the issue," he finally said.
.....
He didn't explain everything.
