"Could you- could you sit down?" Graham gestured to the seat across from him, the discomfort wrought by her words in referencing Emma one he should have already expected but had put entirely out of his mind. "Just for a minute?"
Had she anything of her memory of being Red, he thought he might have been able to explain himself a good deal better. Or at least she would have known the conflict between old and new memory, an understanding of what he had had to go through under Regina's rule, all making his need to explain a damn sight less important for a simple dinner invitation. He used the gap in their conversation necessary to allow her to take her seat to straighten out the snarl of his thoughts on the matter.
He wanted to tell her that while he had had something of an infatuation with the other woman, all of it paled beside the knowledge of who Emma's parents were. That even had he not already given his heart to the woman Ruby had once been, years before the Curse had hit and mere days before he had had to trade his heart to the Queen in order to secure Red and Snow's safety, there would have been no future in a flirtation with the daughter of one of his only friend's in the world.
"I am a bit of a mess right now," he told her instead, giving her half of a smile to soften his confession. "But I am not involved with Emma." He leaned in across the table, attempting to tell her all he could not say aloud as he kept his eyes on her. "I promise."
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Had she anything of her memory of being Red, he thought he might have been able to explain himself a good deal better. Or at least she would have known the conflict between old and new memory, an understanding of what he had had to go through under Regina's rule, all making his need to explain a damn sight less important for a simple dinner invitation. He used the gap in their conversation necessary to allow her to take her seat to straighten out the snarl of his thoughts on the matter.
He wanted to tell her that while he had had something of an infatuation with the other woman, all of it paled beside the knowledge of who Emma's parents were. That even had he not already given his heart to the woman Ruby had once been, years before the Curse had hit and mere days before he had had to trade his heart to the Queen in order to secure Red and Snow's safety, there would have been no future in a flirtation with the daughter of one of his only friend's in the world.
"I am a bit of a mess right now," he told her instead, giving her half of a smile to soften his confession. "But I am not involved with Emma." He leaned in across the table, attempting to tell her all he could not say aloud as he kept his eyes on her. "I promise."