There was something suggestive about the way she replied, something that clued him in to the way the conversation was going. Were they flirting? It wasn't his first time around the block, but things didn't usually come together quite so easily. Leah probably wouldn't have talked to him at all if it hadn't been for--
Don't think about her, he mentally chastised himself. Beautiful blonde smiling at you. Nothing else is important right now, and especially not Leah.
"This isn't socializing? What would you call it?" Cliff asked, raising an eyebrow. He was momentarily taken aback that the words had come to him so easily. She was flirting, and he was flirting right back. Joel would have joked that maybe there hope for him after all, but Cliff knew that whatever "hope" he had was a matter of luck. And he wasn't going to sit around waiting for it to be consistently good.
"But enjoying yourself. That's what I meant. I've never really traveled for work, but I can't imagine it'd be exciting." He shrugged and turned to nod at the stage. It was a bit of a relief to look away from her for a moment. Aileen was attractive, but intense, and he got the feeling that she could get a lot more information out of him than really made him comfortable. "Then again, I'm not 'with the band.'"
Cliff turned back to his beer and took another drink. It would only serve to make him more liable to talk nonsense--one of the many reasons why he rarely over-indulged--but it served to keep him occupied in the moments he wasn't talking without looking like he was dumbfounded about what to say. He wasn't, but that wasn't always the case. "I work with computers," he said, his tone flat to convey just how much he enjoyed it. "Let's just say free tropical cruises are a lot better."