Elliot wished that he had some witty response about the mayor and his activities, but the truth of the matter was that Elliot knew next to nothing about politics, let along the local politics of the island. He was too buried in his science domain.
"Oh. I hadn't really thought about that. That must be..." What? He had no idea what, but settled on the safe choice of, "Frustrating." Honestly, he didn't even know what Jimmy's real job was.
"It was alright." He had avoided getting pounced on by any old ladies, at least. Still, it wasn't exactly Elliot's dream job to hand people towels.
Elliot was becoming aware of the fact that his answers were brief, and shifted slightly. Not talking enough was awkward. He knew it, and he usually knew when he was doing it. what he hadn't figured out was how the hell to avoid its happening. He had to say something, and he took a sizeable gulp of his drink to buy him some more time to think of it, and then, "I'm on break from swimming until next week for Christmas, so that's been nice."