Silo is indeed waiting for Nina in the Bamboo Bar, with the Thaijitos at his elbow. He slides one over as she sits. "You're late."
"Drinks first, talk later." Nina's flattered that Silo remembered the drink she likes(never mind that it's his favorite too). She's missed Silo, but she's not about to say so.
"Fine by me."
"Good." Nina takes a sip of her drink. "Isn't Gulf going to be disappointed that you're in town and not seeing him?"
"Are you jealous?" Silo waggles his eyebrows at her.
"Answer the question Silo." While Nina is clearly here for business, she wants to pretend to have a social conversation first.
Well, then, fine.
"One," Silo holds up a finger to illustrate his point. "I saw Gulf last night, so he's not disappointed. Two, Gulf is not neither my boyfriend nor my husband so why the hell should he care who I'm with? Even if that happens to be you."
"So Gulf knows about us, then." Nina isn't really sure why she's surprised. She just is.
"Gulf knows just as much about you as you know about him. He's not jealous, and you shouldn't be either. We're adults, and since not one of the parties concerned is in a committed relationship with anyone else, I am allowed to date both of you at the same time, right?"
"Right." Nina looks just a little chagrined. "Sorry."
"It's ok." Silo's answering smile is genuine, with just a little bit of a flirtatious edge. " Because you're not here to visit me, so dates are out of the question this time."
"Right." Nina says again. "This time."
"Ok, then. Now that we've pretended to socialize we can get the reason why we met here in the first place? I booked the room you wanted--"
"I saw that, thank you."
"--though why it had to be in my name--"
"Necessity."
"Are you going to tell me what that means?" The glare Nina shoots him makes Silo shut up. At least long enough to look her over. She's someone who has always fascinated him—actually, one of the few people he can stand. Nina works in Intelligence, like him, and most of the time, she called him for professional reasons.
Sometimes she called him for other, more personal, reasons.
That's why her number is marked as a Favorite in his contacts.
"You're staring at me."
"I missed you." He says it in English, but in the past that's been even less effective than when he says it to her in Thai; so he's not surprised that instead of a smile Nina raises her eyebrows at him.
"Don't flirt."
"Is it flirting if I'm telling the truth?" This gets him another glare, so Silo tries to be more businesslike. "I was actually really surprised to get your call."
"So was Bel. As far as he knows, I'm here on rest-leave."
"Other people would call that vacation."
"I'm not 'other people'."
Silo's grin is back. "No. You certainly are not. What are you actually here for?"
Nina sips her drink, rolling the tangy, slightly bitter liquid on her tongue before answering him. "Someone tried to push me out my apartment window yesterday."
!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!
Silo chokes, barely managing to stop his spit-take. The expression on Nina's face tells him she is not joking. "That's not what I was expecting to hear."
