She nods. She's good. But boy, what a question, what a scrap of her future to look at head-on. Obviously I'll see him, she thinks, but there's a push and pull to her relationship with Joel that has her conceding ground when she's trodden too close to some line. Showing up on his doorstep in the morning as if they hadn't fought, dropping bombs or little hints and walking away –– isn't getting bitten and then going down fighting so he doesn't have to shoot his partner the biggest concession of them all? Hard to walk back in, after that.

She drums her fingers on the wheel.

"I'll see him," she agrees. "But you should break the news to him first."

Tess can imagine how that'll go, but it's better than blindsiding him completely.