It was pretty clear to me that on the whole, Cal was sharp-witted, even if it wasn't necessarily always my type of humor. For him to pause like that made alarms sound in my head, wondering if I was diving into a little more than I could chew. I'd never heard of the Auphe. The word felt a bit foreign on my tongue as I mouthed it out — the closest word I could think of was 'off,' but I could tell that wasn't it, given Cal's tone. Well, that and the fact that 'off' wasn't a noun.

"No," I replied, scooping up a little bit of water to wash off my cheek and arm before I reached for my towel, climbing out of the water. If my intuition was right, this talk wouldn't be casual enough for an audience that bobbed in the water, gradually turning into a prune. "No, I've... been so busy these past couple of weeks that I didn't really find the time to pressure people into tellin' me what else is out there. But if you'll tell me, I'd like to know?"

I tilted my head, trying to make eye contact. You could always send a lot of messages through a look. I hoped that mine was reassuring.