Oh Merlin, he wouldn't be wearing a shirt, would he? Someone up there hated her, and wanted to see her suffer. A lot. She flushed slightly, and swallowed with a dry mouth. These were the moments when she didn't understand why she kept pushing him away. Well, there were more of them, too. But ones like these certainly ranked high enough.

"Ath? Umm..."

That wasn't the best way to start things. So it was best to just rip the bandage off quickly, and run.

"I don't want to take up a lot of your time, but I'm leaving for China in like, three days or something and I need someone to take care of Drake while I'm gone. I'd have one of my brothers do it, but Kevin has a baby and I don't trust Adonis and Max lives far away and Joe is a healer and on call all of the time, and I mean, I can't expect my parents to pop in every day, twice a day. So if you want, I mean, if you could, could you watch him for me? Just, you know, walk him in the mornings and nights and feed him and play with him and stuff? If you don't want to, I mean, I understand, whatever.

"And these are for you," she added as an afterthought, shoving the plate at time. "Maybe to butter you up a bit, I don't know."

She was half-tempted to stare at her feet, but instead, she forced herself to look him square in the eye. No matter how difficult it was.