Andrew winces; that's worse than one of his excuses. The second one is at least a little better.

"The entire shared dream is a trick of the rift," he points out. He hesitates a moment before he adds, "I don't think it was just you. I met a man named Topher in that dream and quite frankly, he was almost entirely incoherent. Raving. Sad, really. Then I met him in the waking world, ooh, yesterday, and he was fine." Except for the part where he passed out on the kitchen floor and still can't be roused. Andrew winces again and decides not to share that bit.