I'm content to kneel there and let him pet my hair. I could stay like this for a long time. I haven't felt this content since - I don't know. Since I went to sleep lying with Val, I think, with his arm around me. The thought makes me sad. Everything was simpler, then.

"You should go now."

I look up at him. I don't want to go. I don't try to hide that from him. But I'm so very tired, as well, after this. "Must I?" The corner of my mouth's turned up: half a smile.