jamesie-james:

“Didn’t figure you for the sort,” he said, shrugging and grinning. He rubbed his hand through his hair, which was, mercifully, clean and distinctly sweat-free, as he’d barely started running. “You’ll have to forgive Mary. She gets pretty…defensive.”

Well, he was pretty sure she didn’t have to forgive Mary for anything. He really hated this position he was in. Mary was clearly his best girl, as he’d told her quite honestly only a few days before, but he really respected Andromeda as a person, and he didn’t much enjoy being in the middle of them.

“So,” he said, trying valiantly to change the subject. “How are you on this fine morning?”

“Neither did I,” Andromeda joked, shaking her head. She sighed and nodded, rubbing the back of her neck a bit awkwardly. “I figured as much. I don’t know where she got the idea from that Ted was cheating on her with me, honestly. I guess because we’ve been talking …” she trailed off, and shrugged. Clearly everybody else knew the rest. “I’m not really mad at her, to be honest. I just wish she’d stop jumping on me.”

Andromeda let out a silent breath of relief when James changed the subject, dreading digging herself in any deeper of a rut with this mess than she was already in. “Afternoon,” she corrected with a smile, and shrugged. “I’ve been doing pretty well, actually. Woke up in a wonderful mood, to be honest,” she said, and she still was in a great mood. It was just a bit harder to enjoy the mood with everything that had happened earlier. But she’d sworn to herself that it wouldn’t get her down. She was going to enjoy every minute of every day if it killed her.

“How about you?” Andromeda asked, cocking her head. “Any luck with Miss Lily Evans?”