Lydia couldn't help but smile back at his greeting. Of course Lydia usually was much nicer and would have immediately gotten on with a normal greeting but today Lydia had to wear her serious pants (or pencil skirt which she actually was wearing today). She was very glad though that he did stand up and join her for lunch. Things could have gotten very awkward quickly if he had just remained seated and continued with his paper work.
"Thank you," she graciously replied at his congratulations. She was impressed he even had read about it at all. She wasn't sure how active he was on the journal network since he went away. Looking up at him she tried to get a read on him, to figure out what was going on, but he seemed somewhat normal? "Of course, I don't drag people to lunch and make them pay, that's just ridiculous," she laughed. What kind of horrible friend would she be if she didn't pay? Lydia didn't think a very good one.
Now she wasn't quite sure how soon was too soon in bringing up the big elephant in the room, er well conversation. He had to know she would know, especially since George had owl'd him, but she didn't want to immediately bombard him with all the questions running through her forehead. Instead she started with a very simple one, "Is today your first day back?"