The girl's confidence was refreshing, and Ariana returned her smile, though hers was knowing, not cocky. She'd have liked to see the girl in action on a packed night, to judge how well her words matched up with her talents. No doubt they would, but still.
Her questions were met with a lack of amusement on Ariana's end, and it had nothing to do with Fiona's bluntness. She reminded herself that Julian had--smartly, in some regard--mentioned nothing to the girl about him not being the only owner of CASKET. Fiona was now left to make her own assumptions about their marital situation based on that fact and this meeting alone. What happened after Ariana left was entirely up to Miss Shepherd and Julian to discuss, if it came to that.
Ariana almost dared to hope it would. How would Julian explain her appearance, silvertongue or no? It'd be a prickly situation for him, to say the least.
"You don't need to worry about anything of the sort happening. This is business, and business only." Ariana's response was curt, and she did her best not to outwardly bristle at the near implication put forward by Fiona--that Julian would stoop to the level of petty bickering while at their shared place of business, and she would stoop along with him. Absolutely not. "There won't be a reason for you to not do your best while on the clock."
And there most certainly wouldn't be, if Ariana had anything to say about it. Funny that she'd been in CASKET for longer than five minutes and Julian hadn't yet rushed out like a meddlesome housewife, overly-concerned as always about who might have walked through the front door. Heaven forbid someone even use the bathrooms without him knowing about it. She checked her irritation, wanting to not sour this discussion. Getting off on the wrong foot wouldn't help her cause any.