@wclfgirl ;; cont.
“ I don’t know who, exactly, EVERYBODY is… since anytime I’ve ever joined you for a drink, I’m usually the only one who cares to show up. ” Her tone remain cynical, but honest at the same time and she sincerely wouldn’t know who else he spent time with. She had never even thought to ask until that very moment, though even then, it didn’t seem pertinent enough to bring up further. Perhaps next time. For now, she circled her finger around the rim of her half-full-half-empty glass and sighed a breath. “ I figured we were long overdue for a drink. From what I’ve learned about you, keeping you in check is impossible. It’s part of your charm; it’s part of your curse… and it happens to be one of a few attributes that keeps me coming back. I don’t think you’re even the type to stay in line with what you should be doing rather than what you choose to do and I’m sure we could end up in one long diatribe about the differences, or lack thereof. ” Before that could happen, she drained the contents of her glass in one swallow, setting the glass down and holding her hand up for a refill. “ Let’s talk about who everybody is first and work our way forward from there, shall we? ”
This was what she chose to focus upon. Of course it was. Collin knew he ought to expect little else from her; in retrospect, it was inevitable that she would prefer to concern herself with his ‘friends,’ or lack thereof, than to respond to his actual question. His lips pressed together in a frown, irritation writing its protests across his features, and he could not help but complain. ❛ If you don’t want to answer the question, you could at least be upfront about it. ❜ Little did he hate more than dissembling, after all. False words and feigned responses, designed to conceal one’s real intent or true thoughts.
But though he cannot help but gripe, to chide her, he permits her to redirect the conversation. ❛ I almost thought you were in collusion with my everybody. ❜ It had seemed some grand conspiracy of late to keep his behaviour in check while he remained ‘imprisoned’ at home, away from war zones where he might do some good. ❛ Let us see... There is, of course, my mother. ❜ They had discussed her in the past with strange thoroughness, and it was a conversation best left un-revisited. ❛ And then my CO. And the man who is, I suppose, an uncle to me, more or less. As you can imagine, none of them are particularly drinking companions. ❜ The last he added as an explanation for his continued, solitary presence when she did join him for a drink.
