"Christ, Nerium," he says again and scrubs a hand over his face. More and more often lately he's found himself trusting her and now she's gone and done something like this, something that seems to undo every single he has to trust her. If she's capable of meddling in such a way, if she really thinks she's in charge of everyone, Joel doesn't know what to think.

"That's... it's disappointing," he says finally. "Although maybe I should have expected it. I just thought... I thought she needed a friend, you know. Someone who didn't look at her like everyone does." And he'd tried to be that for her. He'd treated her like he treats everyone and she had turned his husband into a merman in return.