After a moment's hesitation, Alex leans back in against his side again. Back in California, Alex would never have known how to accept physical comfort like this from anyone except Hellie. Until she'd met Darlington, until Darrow, really, nobody with a dick had ever treated her kindly. It's taking some getting used to. She sighs.

"I think I liked it better when I was telling you about how much of an asshole Darlington is being," she says. "Or at least when we were talking about your tits." That makes her laugh, just a hiccup, really, but it's something.