[Atta girl. He lifts his cup in a little cheers motion and drops it back on the cart they got it from. He'll take hers too if she's willing to part with it.]

Uh, sort of. I don't take money for it. I like hurting people, but it does nothing for me if they're not into it too. Clients let me cut on them and I kill them when we're done. Most people aren't big fans of pain, so I've got magic puts them in a good mindset for it.

[He huffs out a breath. There's the oversharing. Oh well. If it scares her off now, then it'd scare her off in a couple of years after he spent all this time getting attached and being an awesome friend and teaching her how to play guitar and helping her with her stupid girlfriend problems—and he's definitely never had a friendship implode like that before, but either way, best to get the dealbreakers out of the way early.]

I know how it sounds. I don't do anything that they don't agree to in advance.

[His thoughts flash to Ben: sitting on the floor with the corpse slumped next to him, spotting faces in the blood smearing the wall, the refrigerator humming too loudly.]

Most of the time. Mistakes happen. I usually just tell people I'm a private investigator, which is also true.

[He clears his throat and stuffs his hands into his pockets for lack of something to do with them. This is the most he's talked about himself in a while.]

Your philosophy's a good one, though. About the killing, not the dazzling. Why do you do that?