After an extended moment, I pull back, nodding again, slightly, more to signify that I heard him than to agree. Neither of us are that delusional.

I ease away to sit, slowly, not as wearily as I feel, on a boulder half buried in the soft island earth. The fingers of my left hand immediately dig into my knee and that's where the tension stays. I run my other hand over my face.

"...I didn't mean to lose it, like that," I say, when my voice seems steady enough.

"I apologize. Are you all right?" I ask him, lifting my head.