“Geez. What is up with you men? Throw some emotion into the mix, and your brains short-circuit or something.”

“Excuse me?”

“I’m serious,” she said. “I see it all the time. The guys who come in here, moody and glum as hell – like you’re doing, by the way – they’re the ones who think their minds are about to explode with all these suddenly murky thoughts in their head. They claim they can’t make heads or tails out of it, that it’s… complicated. And they have a total brain meltdown.” Her hair bobbed from side to side as she wave her fingers at her temples. “Women, we know better. It’s always complicated. Always has been, always will. We just deal with it better.”

He stared at her for a long while before he realized that a corner of his mouth was curling up unwillingly in mild amusement. “Really.”

Celeste narrowed her eyes and huffed again. “Let me put it in terms you can understand,” she said, leaning forward. “You have the imminent destruction of the end of the world on one hand and then you have the girl you love in mortal danger on the other hand –“

Er, love? Hang on second. “I don’t see—“

“Shut up and listen,” Celeste snapped, waving both open palms at him. He tempered the wry grin. “So between the two, a man is going to get royally twisted inside. He’s coming up with all these solutions and then he’s going a little crazy, because suddenly there’s all these ‘buts—‘ coming up. ‘Gotta save the world, but—‘ ‘Gotta save the girl, but—‘ and so on, ad nauseum.”

She was really getting into it now, Maddox thought, watching at the girl with some – just some—curiosity.

“A woman, though,” Celeste said. “End of the world and saving the man she loves?” Celeste shrugged. “We freak out—“

He nearly choked on a laugh.

“—which I may add can manifest in many different ways,” she continued, glaring at him, “and then we go kick ass. Some just skip the freaking out part altogether, but it has its purpose.” Celeste gave him a measured look. “What’s the point in just saving one or the other?”