"Rey, you mean?" He remembers a certain network post from a while back - Elleru may call her a lover, but if she was performing her people's mating ritual for her, their relationship must have been pretty serious.

"That's right, I haven't seen her in some time," he notes. Not the first time he's lost track of her; Rey's remarkably adept at making herself hard to find. "She's been ported out, then? I'm sorry to hear that."

And he really is, he's not just stalling for time.