Gloria stroked Toby, who hung from her shoulder as an ornament, and said to Sanders, "The moment Angel came back last night, he handed Toby over to me and went into seclusion himself. He said he was preparing to transplant Shapeshifting Softworm skin."
As she spoke, Gloria turned to glance at the wall clock. The hands pointed to noon. "By my reckoning, he should be done by now, right?"
Since last night? Sanders paused, then slowly paced over to the wall clock. After staring at the time for a while, he turned and sat down on the sofa.
Gloria shot Sanders a puzzled look. "What, do you need something from him?"
Sanders nodded. "There are indeed some matters I need to discuss with him."
Yet Sanders did not say what those matters were. As an outsider, Gloria was not in a position to press him, and the topic seemed to end there. Gloria had wanted to bring up something else so the atmosphere would not become quite so awkward, but Sanders barely spoke. No matter how she tried to start a conversation, he would only occasionally respond with an "Mm."
She endured that stifling atmosphere for ten minutes before she no longer wanted to keep it up.
Two cold faces facing each other was not impossible, but there was no need for it.
Gloria was about to find an excuse to leave when Sanders suddenly said, "Don't you find living like this exhausting?"
The question came out of nowhere, leaving Gloria utterly confused. "Living like what? Exhausting? I'm not tired. Or do you mean... emotionally tired? After watching that theater projection box, I do feel a little emotionally drained."
As Gloria spoke, she watched Sanders closely. Though he was speaking to her, his gaze was not on her at all.