Oh man, she would love a world is burning call. At least that was her style, she could handle that. It made sense to her, and would make her feel like she was doing something instead of being tempted to drink like a child who just got away from a dry county.
The licking only got an eye roll before she wiped her hand across his own shirt, "Try harder next time, kid." Just to make it worse she patted his shoulder, like a participation trophy. If he was trying to gross her out he needed to use his imagination, alright, she hadn't given a shit about her health or her dignity in the sixties and seventies, she had seen and been in some weird shit. Most of it she was unfortunate enough to remember. "He made the mistake of thinking you could handle your booze." She raised a challenging eyebrow to see if he could come up with an argument for that, seeing as it was hard to object to that. At least he hadn't thrown up on her shoes though, she could forgive most things, but good luck recovering your dignity after that.
Ralph chose silence as the better part of valor - possibly because women were unpredictable and maybe also because he may have casually seen her take a chair to the head once and just...not blink, but what was the big deal about that? "Good. Although I've been making a lot of curry lately, for the winter, if you want me to bring up a pot next time." A pot not a bowl, because Jayati showed she cared in actions and not words, but still never by halves.
As Jayati eyeballed the table her attention was split. She hadn't planned on bringing up work to that level on a night off, especially with him going two weeks without one. But he did have a good perspective, and with her work was a bit different - it was almost like living on base, home and work could merge into one real fucking fast if someone had some explosives and a grudge. "We think someone may have left the door open on purpose. Happened in one of the other neighborhoods too but even they aren't sure." Whole lot of fucking ifs and maybes, wasn't it? Hence the reason for the beard oil instead of sticking with standard alcohol like she usually did, meeting him drink for drink and trusting her blood to keep her upright on the weaker human booze. A possible inside job and a mystery spanning several cities was just the thing.
"Oh, c'mon, aren't you going to join me? What's a little paint thinner between friends?" Ralph snorted but also didn't contradict her assessment as he poured two double shots while she lined up her own, "Put on your big gir panties and drink the damn shot with me." It took a moment of her maneuvering but she managed to land one of her's in, immediately walking around the table after to get another good angle, "Also that duplex thing is creepy as shit, can you imagine someone living in your walls?" That wasn't coded, just her face contorting as she pictured it with an unhappy shake of her head as if it were an etch a sketch. Worst image than the vomit possibility honestly.
The second shot landed, though she almost had two but not quite, and that might've made her cocky because the one after missed.