Think it's just the hearing aids, although I was thinking of switching to an iPhone before we got pulled here. ( it's somewhere between contemplative and off-hand as an utterance, like it's a passing thought he hadn't settled on one way or the other. ) Anyway, I told him they were too small and too fiddly. He offered to get me some better ones, but sometimes the stuff you want is your stuff, y'know? Even if it's not the fanciest and most expensive, ( he adds, reaching for the croissant.

he takes a bite — delicious! — and raises it at her. inelegantly around his mouthful, he says (mumbles, muffled)— ) Thanks.