Chris counts to five and then looks back to Hawke. The least he could do was look in his friend’s eyes. Besides, it would be the best way to tell the validity of Amelia’s claim for himself.

“She saw our greeting and assumed we were together romantically. It startled her enough that she shut down other emotions to spare processing it.” Which still left…something in him, even if she claimed it would be fine. He was less sure.

But that’s not all of it. “She also insisted to me that your feelings ran deeper than you’ve admitted to..”