The Sterling Nightingale ⟷ Finnick Odair/OC

And you -

Chapter Sixty Nine | And you -

"She was suffering from unconquerable heartache. Deep and achingly she was sorry for herself. Never had she felt so pitiably lonely, so bitterly in want of comfort and of sympathy." Emma Orczy, The Scarlet Pimpernel

"I like what you've done with the place," Dorsey says as he throws himself onto Sil's couch. A manila folder is sitting on the coffee table in front of it, carefully organized. He sees a few tabs sticking out of the side that say 'Capitol Daily' and some other tabloid magazines.

Sil raises an eyebrow at him from where she stands at the kitchen counter and sighs. It seems that everyone wants a piece of the Sterling Nightingale these days. The number of interviews she's been asked to sit for has grown to such an extent that she thought it would be wise to move back into her Capitol apartment until it's all over, hence Dorsey's impromptu and uninvited visit. Recently, he's had a tendency to show up at random hours. He claims that it's because he's bored with the renovations he's doing on the consignment shop, but Sil knows better. He's checking up on her, making sure she's doing alright. It's endearing of him to make such an effort, but unnecessary. Sometimes, it's even a little aggravating, especially seeing as she's going out to lunch soon.

In any case, upon moving back into the apartment, Sil had quickly decided to go into some kind of crazy make-over mood, because all the walls have been painted a new color. The furniture has been changed out – the couch now boasting a sand colored leather, the curtains altered to a creamy gauze – and everything looks like new. Dorsey doesn't know exactly what had brought it on, per se, but he's got a few ideas.

Sil is different, these days. It isn't hard to guess why.

"Thank you, darling," she murmurs in reply, and moves to the mirror that's hanging on the wall by the door to check her appearance. Dressed in stylish black trousers and a crisp button-down shirt, Sil looks as elegant as ever. In a way, she looks even better than ever, but Dorsey knows that this is merely a veneer. Sil is good at wearing her masks, and the recent buoyant, happy-go-lucky version of her is precisely that.

Her new living room is lovely. She had it painted a pretty mint green color. There's a picture of the ocean on the wall. Dorsey hasn't brought attention to it yet and Sil doesn't explain why it's there. She doesn't really need to.

He knows she misses him. That's pretty obvious, too. What's not obvious is why she's not doing anything about it, but Dorsey keeps silent on that, also. If this is how Sil wants to navigate her confusing love life, then that's her business.

She walks over to the couch and reaches for the file on the coffee table. It's been a couple of weeks since she had surgery on her hands, but her fingers still shake when she opens the file up and peers at the contents. She's always moving her hands around when she has a bit of spare time, trying to get her muscles to move as they once did. Even now, as she taps her fingers in what appears to be an idle manner on the file's edge, Dorsey knows there's really nothing idle about it.

He knows a lot of things, but he doesn't bring any of it up.

"I've got a full schedule this week," Sil muses as she reads the beginning to the file. She glances up at Dorsey and smiles, "Caesar's following up on the last interview now that Capitol Daily has published a new article. And I hear that they've asked Gale to come in. Wouldn't that be nice?"

Dorsey grunts out his agreement. "Yeah. Last I heard, the kid headed over to District 2 after Katniss epically rejected him."

Sil hums, trying to keep her voice light. Dorsey has always been blunt and occasionally crass. This aspect of his character has never bothered her overmuch, but suddenly she can't help but wonder if she's been epically rejected, too. Is it possible to be rejected but not know it? She can't even remember the last time she'd talked to Finnick...