"Do you really think so little of yourself?" Opi asked, her tone disbelieving. How could he have such a low opinion, even with his lothario past?
                              
Nate gave a sardonic smile in response. "Oh I'm fantastic, we all know it." he automatically replied and Opi frowned a little. His response was the playful, joking attitude anyone would expect from him. But this wasn't a real reaction now and she knew it. His moment of honesty earlier was the real way he saw himself.
                              
"Nathaniel, I'm serious. Why do you have such a... dissonant view of yourself?" she demanded again.
                              
"I should let you rest Professor. Thank you for the tea. And for taking care of that for me." Nathaniel just flat out ignored her question and stood up. Ophelia could have tried to stop him but she new better, and let  the young man go.
                              
A deep sigh slipped out of her, a mix of weariness, wariness and an emotional turbulence that would not easily be put to rest. Her health was deteriorating. And she'd thought she had made peace with that fact, that her future was limited to months at best. Which was why she'd never let any clue of her attraction to Colby slip before. He was her TA, a student, younger than she was and deserved someone who could keep up with his active lifestyle. Her niece was a wonderful match for him, and yet she felt...wounded by their dating. It wasn't fair of her, and she knew it. Now added to this was the mystery of Nathaniel's self loathing. There had been little hints of it before this, but now Ophelia knew it wasn't just in her head. He really did not like who he was, and Ophelia seemed to be the only one to see that this was not a new development. Which disturbed her because she knew just how heavy the burden of emotional discontent could be.
                              
Her fingers were tracing over the cover of the portfolio he'd left in her care, but although the temptation to peek into it and see if there were answers hidden in it's depths called to her, Ophelia kept her promise and left the cover closed. She even contemplated just sitting in bed and falling asleep but it seemed that it was not going to be her day to relax to  that extend. There was a knock at her apartment door.
                              
"Oh bother." she mumbled softly and stood up, her entire body screaming at the energy moving demaning.
                              
It took her longer than she wanted it to, for her body to get to the door, but the person knocking didn't batter at her door more. Thankfully whomever it was seemed patient and willing to wait. Not many people knew Ophelia was as sick as she was, most of the time she put on a strong facade and fooled many, so whoever it was had to know how poorly she was faring lately. As soon as she opened the door and saw who was waiting for her, it made sense that they knew to be patient, but Ophelia still felt like slapping her own forehead for not anticipating the visit. She'd brought this on herself afterall.
                              
Grace stood in the door, looking like she was being bold and brave but there was a sheepishness to her eyes that let Ophelia know that her niece wasn't one hundred percent confident in what she was doing just now. "Hey Auntie O.  I figured the goon would be gone by now and I wanted to make sure you had someone as awesome as me around to keep you smiling." Grace announced with a half smile.
                              
Ophelia almost rolled her eyes, greatly amused to hear something that sounded suspiciously like what Nathaniel would say come from her niece. It made sense, those two had grown up as thick as thieves. "Nathaniel has left, yes." Ophelia admitted and let Grace inside.
                              
Her niece was a lot of things, but sometimes observant wasn't at the top of the list. The portfolio Nathaniel had left was sitting out on the table, clearly marked with his name, and yet Ophelia knew that Grace simply didn't see it to realize what it was. "Sorry that going out bushed you like that. If you were feeling sick or tired you could have let me know."
                              
"I didn't want to tear you away from Colby. I know you two are planning matching costumes to the Fall Ball." Ophelia stated, knowing that unlike Nathaniel, Grace was still blissfully ignorant of Ophelia's attraction to Grace's date.
                              
"Yeah. I'm actually proud of the boys for being civil today." Grace gave a cheeky grin. "I wish I knew what it was between them that sparked such male competitive animosity!" she admitted and tripped over the table let to sprawl onto Ophelia's couch. Opi wasn't sure if the sprawl had been intentional or accidental, but either way it was fairly typical of her neice.
                              
Ophelia had a suspicion she knew where the dislike between the two men had formed, and she felt a pang of guilt that Grace was stuck between the two of them. Her best friend hated the man she was dating because her aunt had a slight attraction to the man Grace was dating... It was just so pathetically soap operaish. But Ophelia couldn't say anything on the topic because that would mean admitting to another person that she had that attraction in the first place, which would only put Grace in an even worse place. Because Ophelia knew that her neice would stop everything with Colby to give her aunt a chance, which was stupid because Colby wasn't attracted to Opi at all, evidenced by him asking her niece out. It just gave Ophelia a headache.
                              
"You've gone pale Auntie O." Grace pointed out with an honest lack of tact.
                              
"I think I need to lay down for a while. Sorry Grace. I'm not much of a fun time anymore." Ophelia's voice showed some of the strain her physical weakness and emotional turmoil were tormenting her with.
                              
"Hey, you don't have to be a party animal to be a hoot and a half. You go crash, I'm going to take shameless advantage of your tv and have control of the remote for once in my life ok?" Grace tried to make it seem like no big deal, but Ophelia knew the youngest James was staying around like the chaperone she had raged against having. It was inescapable it seemed, that as much as her body was stripped of her sexuality and vitality, her life was stripped of dignity as well. It was jsut so tiresome suddenly.