The most Ashleigh got in response to her argument was a dramatic sigh, because Higgs had known this would happen. The time he had convinced Lydia to get a dog had been easy. There were people who just needed a push towards a lovely, little four legged (or three legged, as the case might be with Pushkin) creature and they melted upon meeting it. Ashleigh, Higgs was really rather sure, was not a woman who was ever going to melt at the idea of a fluffy companion. Not unless they happened to be some sort of a magical creature that could discuss the intellectual stimulation provided by a variety of art forms. But if Higgs was to ever find such a creature, he would make sure to get Ashleigh to adopt it.
The temptation to rather smugly point out that 'fine' was not a very useful or descriptive word was great, but Higgs also did realise that his three week long 'don't reply to things with 'fine'' didn't quite qualify him to give life advice to people. So instead he nodded before taking another sip of his coffee. It was hardly as if Higgs doubted that Ashleigh's work was anything but fine. Boring, probably, but then Higgs thought that was the default setting of the sort of work Ashleigh did.
Her question surprised Higgs but not enough that he didn't reply almost instantly. "Yes," he told her. "Immensely," and it would, too. Higgs didn't think she liked her job, but Ashleigh, like himself, was a strong believer in doing a job well, even if she didn't like it. "Why?" He asked instead. "Are you planning to quit to do something else?" He doubted it, but Higgs did think it might be good for her if she did. Then again, he was still working as a Hitwizard and Higgs wasn't convinced he enjoyed it more now than he had in the previous eight months.