Way to a Woman's Heart

"Come down for dinner."

A frown.

"Join me for dinner?"

A shake of the head, paired with a disparaging glance. 

Atticus cleared his throat and tried again. "I would like to invite you for dinner." 

"Better, but still not enough groveling." Sirona sighed, looking at her nails in boredom. She was a healer, but somehow she was once again dragged into fixing Atticus's relationship.

When the king came to look for her, she had expected another emergency. Perhaps the queen had gone into shock, or maybe she had decided to make a drastic escape attempt by jumping out the window.

What she had not expected was for her to watch Atticus ask himself out in the mirror and turn around after every sentence, expecting feedback.

Sirona's eyelid twitched.

"How do I grovel?" Atticus wasn't whining but he had been trying to think of ways to mend the relationship for the past few hours.