"Hey," he protests good-naturedly. "I'm not holding myself back."

Which is an obvious lie, but Jean is doing what he wants to do, and he doesn't want to be mean.

"Besides, wouldn't that qualify as masochism?" he asks gently, saddened by Eliot's change. It's like watching someone walk barefoot on broken glass. "Personally, I've always thought that suffering was overrated."

Bruschetta sounds like a lovely idea. He stands up and brings the bread out of the refrigerator. White, not Lotta's homemade. And most certainly not his mother's, but it will have to do.

"What do you think is going on?"