Noah was startled by Vienna's sudden appearance, nearly as startled as he'd been by Rufus's, and he felt a touch guilty too, even though he hadn't really done anything. He didn't know how long she'd been standing there, had no idea what she'd seen. In a very low voice, Ru had been asking him, "Are you sure?" He hadn't had the chance to answer, and in a way he was glad. He didn't want to impulsively sleep with his ex now that he had something going with someone else, but yeah, there was a part of him that wanted to.
"Hey," Noah said. His tone wasn't sharp at all, more guarded. No, actually, he didn't really want to get into this whole thing in front of Rufus. If the guy read the network posts at all, he felt sure he had at least an inkling of what was going on. Was that why he'd come here today? Because he liked a challenge? Yeah, no, Noah didn't want to go there right now. He had enough to deal with.
"See you around," he said to his ex, doing his best to convey the message get out of here before this detonates with his eyes.
Rufus gave him a long look, a look that said he understood perfectly well what was going on here and didn't like it much, and then his gaze slid over to Vienna, standing with her arms crossed. "Just leaving," he said, the faintest of wry smiles curving his mouth upward. Then he set off down the corridor, casually, as if his departure had been completely his idea. The guy was great at grandstanding, for damn sure.
Noah turned his head to take in Vienna again, and he asked, "You wanna come in for a few?" Clearly, the kind of discussion they'd avoided thus far was at hand, and he didn't really want to have it out in the hall.