Marlene kept her smile on, because she was used to that, it was the best way to fool someone, and she did like Nicky so that was fine, but the moment she was out of earshot, she turned to Alastor.
"We drink, fast, and we leave. This is weirding me out," she said. "We're not dating, we're not girlfriends, we're not in a relationship. Why is she acting like this? I swear she's a lot more normal when we're alone. In fact, she's completely normal when we're alone and I like it, but I can't take much more of this. Some of it isn't even her fault. We can't say half the things we would say because of security and you already don't speak, but it doesn't change the fact that it's really strange."