Re: Bar: Cat C/Bruce W
She watched as he glanced at the barstools, and she took note with observant moss. She considered offering him a seat in the area of the pool table, but he put an elbow on the back of the chair, and she allowed him his pride. After all, Cat understood about pride. She covered herself in it enough, and it was a very effective balm on occasion. And, of course she had questions.
"I own it, but I don't work the bar unless we're short. I have a staff," and that wasn't so different from the casino back home. Oh, sure, this place wasn't filled day and night with mobsters, and she wasn't wandering the floor in slink and heels, but she liked to think it was nearly the same if one squinted slightly. But she knew what he was asking, and she leaned her elbows on the bar, across the shiny wood from him now, and she deliberated. "It was a cover. One that I no longer really need, but I've grown fond of it. Surprise, surprise and wonders never cease," and that was her working her way back to guarded.
But his question came in a tongue that was often more native to her than English, and the walls that had begun to raise remained at half-mast. "Grabbing me when I'm not expecting it, that isn't a good ideas these days," she replied in Russian. She straightened, and she poured herself a very generous tumbler of vodka, and she forced herself to continue in English. "My memories from the military have been sneaking back. I got startled." She took a long gulp, and there wasn't any show of seduction in the way her throat worked. "They pulled my leash. I'm back on payroll. It's that or the alternative, and we both know much I hate being locked in places I can't break out of." Ah, there, some of the old purr back on her lips.
"How about you? Are you going to tell me about the leg, or are we ignoring the elephant in the room?"