"You seem startlingly disaffected by that," he says, finally moving from the spot he'd been rooted to to help her off the ground, though she's already managed to pull herself up. To save a little face, he plucks a long string of dark grainy red something off her shoulder and tosses it into the nearby pile with an unconcealed look of displeasure. "It's almost like you were expecting that. I certainly wasn't. So I'd really like to know more about what I just witnessed."

"More importantly." He gives a shake of his head and a nervous look out of the mouth of the alley. "It'll be a pain if we don't get out of here quickly. My place is really close. The Bramford Building. And I know the quickest way to get there."