"You know, for once I'm admiring your resolve, but I was more thinking it's useful for fun. That's the word, isn't it? I swear it's the word you keep trying to tell me is real and exists in our vocabulary." She smiled, further pushing away her thoughts from earlier. "Unless you've been joking all along. Very clever, Marco! I'd never guessed that you weren't serious about not being serious when you didn't want to be serious."

She wagged her finger at him, then gestured with her hand after the kitten looking as if he were to jump off the table take off for one of the far doors.

"Very practical of you, too. In the spirit of practical thinking, you might want to catch him before he makes his break for freedom."