For just a moment, in the brief time spent pushing back her curls, Claire leans into the gesture. She misses that already at home, the tender, familiar touches. She let herself grow comfortable with the idea that as someone who craves connection, she wouldn't want for that again.

"Perhaps we're both fools." She assumed she would be enough for someone who made it clear that his attention was divided from the start.

With her full glass, she toasts him, then stares down into the deep red of her wine. "This won't make it better, but being here with you helps take away the sting of it. The wine helps dull the ache. And you..."

Claire takes a smaller sip of her wine, savoring it this time before turning her gaze back to him. "When the initial fog cleared, I wanted to be alone, and then I thought of you, here on your mountain, the quietness of your solitude." And that's what she wanted. Someone who knew her and would understand. "I hoped you wouldn't mind being alone, together." She offers him a small, grateful smile that doesn't quite reach her eyes, but it still manages to be tinged with warmth.

"I think you and the wine are both what I needed."