No sad Kevins, on her watch! Just seeing him cringe like that makes her all the more resolute to make this into a good situation. It's only a good thing that it's not that hard--far from disappointment, his answer brings relief. He knows the family waiting for him, and he's only been waylaid. Someday he'll feel all that she feels, it's just not yet. That's good enough. The air around her becomes spring-like and golden, wrapping around them both like a blanket.

"Then, there's a whole new you for me to come to know!"

Her hands settle on his shoulders, again, then slide down his arms to clasp his hands, and she makes a bit of a show of studying him again. The hair, the colorful clothing, once more, remembering the chirping conversation between himself and the girl behind the counter. There's hardly a trace at all of the man who'd one day materialize on their basement floor, half-feral and in a pool of his own blood. No, it looks like he's found some path to all the best parts of himself, in this place, even without them. There's something strangely comforting about that.

"Look at you!" She murmurs, proudly. "Look how you've bloomed!"

And almost the same moment she says it, she notices the ring--a tiny, living rose, where a wedding band should be.

Annnnnd there's the 'girl switch' flipped, and another shower of sparkles comes with it. She looks up at him, her eyes going wide with excitement.

"And you've not been all alone..!"

And above all, at the end of Shelly Rainsworth's day, that is the most important thing of them all: someone has taken good care of him. Apples forgotten, she loops her arm resolutely through his and steers him to the nearest unoccupied table. There's gossip to be had!

"Oh, you must tell me everything...!"