Martin's discomfort is so evident that John's own delight feels, distantly, a little perverse, but he can't help himself. He isn't even sure why this delights him so much (beyond the satisfaction of a well-placed guess and the sheer novelty of it all), but Martin's eventual, begrudging admission is rocketing him straight to cloud nine.
"Since when?" John asks, or starts to, but he hasn't even hit the final consonant before his own, human intuition once again provides the answer. Martin has always been a bit weird about Norah, stiff and standoffish for reasons John had never bothered to interrogate. But this new information provides fresh context for all that unfriendliness, and the answer spills out of him in an incredulous rush before he can even draw breath: "This whole time?"
no subject
"Since when?" John asks, or starts to, but he hasn't even hit the final consonant before his own, human intuition once again provides the answer. Martin has always been a bit weird about Norah, stiff and standoffish for reasons John had never bothered to interrogate. But this new information provides fresh context for all that unfriendliness, and the answer spills out of him in an incredulous rush before he can even draw breath: "This whole time?"
This is appalling. This is the best.