Holly stared blankly at Bear for a moment when he talked about 'giving sex' while watching a movie and she wondered if she hadn't been clear enough in the first instance when she'd turned the offer down originally. She might not have been, honestly, because someone like Bear often missed subtleties and the more nuanced inflexions in people's voices.
She wasn't a prude, far from it, but she was definitely not a huge fan of talking about it out loud. Blame her years in Afghanistan and Iraq and her reserved, British nature that meant sex wasn't something that she talked about much, even if it was more than occasionally on her mind.
"I meant-" she took a breath, "I meant a friend to watch movies with. Sex is off the table for us, Bear, but I appreciate your concern for my stress levels. That's a line I'm not gonna cross, I don't sleep with agents. Nothing personal."
She let the conversation move on from there: he was pretty pragmatic, it was hardly as if he'd register a rejection in the same way some others might. So she moved with the flow.
"Just a minute?" she asked, lips quirking upwards. "Now, Bear, don't you think we can try to get at least a ninety-second improvement? Bring the sledgehammer. You're gonna need it."
She rocked back on her heels and tilted her head, "So I can meet you in the Hologym in half an hour?"