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"I--well ‘Ene word"

"Jamie"

"Just--take your shot"

He looked back down at the table and, very deliberately, scratched

I picked the cue ball off the floor "You didn’t do anything to me, so you don’t need to feel bad I don’t need a pity win"

"No," he said "I think you need a chance to play"

"That sounded like you’d been rehearsing it for a while"

He scowled "I’ You’re not nice Or if you are, you’re out of practice" I paused "I’m not very nice either God knows Holmes isn’t"

That pried a smile from him, a real one, if sad "I am nice, Jamie I justI haven’t talked to anyone in a while"

We traded shots after that August began playing with an ease that he hadn’t before, pointing out angles, lining up a shot for et my blue two into the side pocket

"Are you in love with her?" I asked hiain Was it his tell? Is this what he looked like when he was upset? "Are you?"

"It’s coe "If you aren’t, then why did you look at her the way you did? When we first arrived?"

August sighed "I’ve been in Berlin for a few years now I do data entry Milo gives me a pile of spreadsheets--nuaskets--and I put it into a computer They came from a computer in the first place, so it’s totally unnecessary It’s fake-work Make-work There are actual things I could be doing for Greystone, but--"

"But you’re a Moriarty" The waitress caust

With a half smile, he accepted it "Because of who my brother is, and who my aunt and uncle are, and so on, and so forth, I can’t be trusted with sensitive infor job, apparently"