"Good." The soft word slipped in his relief that he hadn't done something he shouldn't have. Barely more than a whisper. "They didn't give much time, but expecting me to be there and me gone? That would have been..."

Upsetting. Embarrassing, even though he doubted she would have made the kind of fool of herself that he might have if the roles were reversed.

"Didn't seem right. Enough people..."

He bit that off as the though shaped in his mind. Enough people are waiting for me in vain already. Who? Sometimes, he wanted to tear his hair out, his mind could be so... frustrating.

"I didn't want to... it's not necessary for you to be..." Worried? She wasn't going to be. Right? "... discomforted by my absence. There is pressure enough already."

When had he taken the two steps closer to her?