"I get it, Vi. It just...fell in your lap. And you didn't want to make things weird. Right?" Aris answers, dark eyes staying on Viola even as she lowers her head and tucks her long hair behind one ear. He swallows. Ever since leaving the memory, he's been trying to put things together and he still isn't certain about much of anything. Had the way she'd been looking at the him-that-wasn't-him wishful thinking? Had those feelings of warmth and longing tangled up in everything there been hers or his? The more he thought about it, the more impossible it all seemed.

"Like I'm doing now, I guess," he admits with an awkward smile, finally looking down at his shoes before going on, "...But I kept something from you too. Maybe you already know. But I think I should just say it, so we can...do whatever we do now."