"Or what," he says, dismissive, in no mood. Her abrupt shift in emotional disposition is of little consequence. He had forgotten. How had he forgotten. He has always striven to forget until the moments in which it no longer serves him to do so.

He steps back and braces a hand against the table surface, unable to suppress the unmitigated increase in pressure and pain in his head running congruous to the swirl of cognitive dissonance.