have you been asleep . ..
it’s rather difficult to express that the answer to this question depends entirely on whether it involves the swift delivery of a hot cup of coffee or not without ( at least to some degree ) admitting that yes, perhaps his heavy eyelids had gotten the better of him for a moment or two; and yes, perhaps his temples, squashed to varying degrees by a cold, confining metal frame in and a ( surprisingly rigid ) couch armrest, did call forth a sensation in him that couldn’t be too far from what it was like to be a canned anchovy. mind you, it’s not the admission as such that seems troublesome. it’s the repercussions—the follow-up suspicions.
in the end, he decides to ignore the query altogether and make the other man the object of scrutinization instead. “... don’t you think that your grand return to law could’ve justified a change in wardrobe? get yourself a sequins suit and liven that courtroom up a bit.” the complicated inner workings of a mildly inconvenienced engraulis anchoita are none of your business, trite.
