James waiting for Ariella to finish speaking. At first he was studying her words and movements but after a bit he realized that there was probably no reason to do that with her. "Winning was alright I guess. It was our first class so I expected it to be a rough start." That was an understatement to what actually happened. Ariella blaming herself was something he didn't expect. He stopped himself from saying something stupid. His usual approach did not really apply here. 

Being honest with himself James did not have much experience with comforting people. In the workplace people usually kept their personal problems to themselves. There was also the fact that Ariella was an attractive young woman that seemed to have some kind of attachment already. Generally he avoided that kind of situation entirely because that meant they wanted something. But so far she's given no reason to believe that was the case here. He also didn't have much to his name so there wasn't much worry there. And he was thinking too much again. 

Finally he spoke to her worries. "I don't think you should put all that weight of your shoulders. My team all made some plans so we were working together. I also don't think that Shane planned to turn into that thing. A lot of stuff we got lucky on."