Nora shoved the cactus towards Eli with little finesse. "That's for you. A housewarming gift you can't kill." There, she'd done the polite part of the exchange. She made her way to the sofa, giving April a quick acknowledgment, then sat down so she could openly study Eli. She made no attempt to hide what she was doing, her blue eyes were narrowed in obvious scrutiny as she studied his face, his hair, his outfit, and every other tiny little detail she could record to memory. She was practically vibrating with restrained questions that she was dying to let free.
"Take your time," she told April, hoping whatever she was fixing would give her plenty of time to grill Eli. She wouldn't drill him, but she would grill him. She'd halfway stick to what April asked her to do, but April had to know she was asking the impossible when asking Nora to not go question crazy on a new person.
"So you're Eli." It was an innocent enough statement to start with. It wasn't the first thing she wanted to focus on, but hopefully it would be tame enough to satisfy April's desire to keep Eli free from a torrent of quickfire questions.