Astrid circled Jax slowly, studying him like some kind of rare specimen that needed to be dissected and analyzed.
"This is suspicious. Very suspicious." She narrowed her eyes dramatically. "Are you sick? Dying? Having some kind of emotional breakdown?"
Jax sighed heavily. "I comfort one student and suddenly I'm dying."
"It's unprecedented!" Astrid threw her hands up in exaggerated disbelief. "The Professor Jax I know would have made fun of her for looking sad. Called her pathetic. Maybe compared her to a wet cat or something equally insulting."
"Wet cat?"
"You know what I mean!"
Seris actually smiled at that exchange. Small but genuine. The first real expression she had shown all evening.
Jax felt warmth spreading through his chest. He was happy, as if he had won some small victory by making her smile.
But then his eyes caught movement in the distance. A little girl running toward him with a jolly face beaming with excitement.
