Penelope Clearwater (clearly_copper) wrote in whatprice, @ 2009-07-21 15:23:00 |
|
|||
Current location: | London |
Current mood: | amused |
Current music: | jazz |
Entry tags: | krishnan shashidhar, penelope clearwater |
A drink, a chat, and some music
Who: Penny & Shashi
When: Monday, 20 July 2009
Where: Cavendish Arms, London
What: they go for a drink between friends and to learn more about each other - a non interrogation
Warnings: grown men being smitten
Status:complete
Fuck Mondays, Shashi thought as he hurried down the street to
the Cavendish Arms. Oh, sure, his back was finally behaving again, and
he'd gotten the stitches out of the cut on his forehead (though he
still had a plaster on over it), but the shite had hit the fan at Mach
1 at MI7 that morning, and no one was happy.
He'd been tempted to try and reschedule with Penelope, but a not-date
with a pretty girl seemed like the thing to get his mind off of the
Day From Hell. Not to mention the fact that, well -- the data miners
had been quite thorough in digging up information on Ms Clearwater and
her work with MP Timms, and it'd be a shame to let all that work go to
waste.
He knew he probably ought to feel guiltier about that than he did. It
wasn't even as if he had any hard suspicions on her; it was all off a
hunch and a vague feeling of what Marsha in Section B called
"hinkiness". Maybe it'd all come to nothing. At least he'd have some
pleasant company along the way.
It was 8:10 when he pushed open the door at the Cavendish Arms and
hurried inside, looking for Penelope.
Penelope had gotten there ten minutes to eight and was seated at the
bar, sipping a glass of white wine while looking over the evening
paper. Spotting Shashi, she smiled and slid down off the stool.
"Glad you could make it. Didn't throw out your back or anything trying
to get here on time, did you?"
"Och, no. Sorry to keep you waiting; have you been here long?" He
glanced over at where a few people were vacating a couple of the club
chairs. "Let's grab those before someone else does, aye?"
Penny nodded as she followed Shashi over to the chairs and took a
seat, sipping the white wine.
"So, an athlete and a government paper pusher? How does that work?"
"Well, you know what they say about all work and no play," Shashi
replied. He caught the attention of a passing waitress and ordered a
pint of lager. "Outside of my day job, I do le parkour. Heard
of that?" Penny noted that the French was perfectly pronounced,
slightly incongruous with Shashi's usual Glaswegian burr.
"No, my French is a bit rusty," Penny admitted. While not entirely
true, it was a perfectly acceptable excuse.
"Does it involve twisting yourself into odd positions?"
Shashi grinned. "Not usually. It mostly involves treating the city
like an obstacle course. Climbing things, jumping over 'em, getting
down a car-park without using the stairs ... Did you see the last
James Bond movie but one, Casino Royale?"
"Ah, so you're the crazy daredevil type," she said with a smile.
"How did you end up a paper pusher. Seems you'd get bored at a job like that."
He shrugged. "'s not what I'm planning on doing for the rest of my
life, mind you," he said. "Mostly it was just being in the right place
at the right time. My brother, he's in the military and he knew
someone who knew someone—you know how it goes. Thought about doing the
Royal Marines thing myself, but I'm not a regimental type."
Penny nodded.
"Well, at least holidays start tomorrow. Unless they have you work all
through the summer. Not sure how things work yet in all the little
ministries and offices. "
Even though Parliament went on recess Tuesday, Penny knew she'd still
be working most of the summer in the constituency. At least Timms
usually took a week in August off, sometimes the one that coincided
with her birthday.
"The Ministry of Defence never sleeps. 'Specially with Afghanistan and
all the rest." He pulled a face. "How about you? Your lot's going on
recess soon and all, aye?"
"We are. Timms isn't one for a long holiday. We'll get a week in
there, max. Spend most of the time working with the local
constituency," Penelope explained. "Different world, sometimes, but
we're back there a few times a month for open forum anyway."
"No rest for the wicked," he said, with a twinkle in his eye. "So
what's your story, then? How'd you end up in politics?"
"Don't tell that to the vicar," Penny teased. "I finished uni, did
some time in social work, liked working with people and helping them
but managed to get fed up with the system soon enough. Decided maybe
if I got into the system, I might be able to change it a bit. That's
it, really, nothing much to tell."
"Aye, a classic story. Where was uni, then? I was at Edinburgh,
myself. History and politics."
"Bristol for social work," Penelope answered. "What possessed you to
go that far north? A girl?"
Shashi laughed. "Och, if only. No, I was born in Glasgow. You may as
well ask me what possessed me to come this far south."
"Tired of freezing your bits off in winter?"
"Who wouldn't be?" There were other jokes Shashi could have made about
bits, but he reminded himself firmly that this was not a date. "It's
where the work was, anyway. From Bristol yourself? Or other parts
south?"
"I don't know. I've read there are the type that live their whole
lives up there. Kilts in winter? Really? Sometimes I think all scots
are mad," she teased playfully.
"No, originally from Shrewsbury. Parents worked in the factories
there. Once both of my parents passed, there really wasn't much
keeping me in Shrewsbury."
"Aye, but my family's Scottish by choice only," Shashi replied with a
laugh. "And there's definitely no kilts in the Shashidhar family." He
chuckled, then sobered. "I'm sorry about your parents. Have you any
brothers or sisters?"
"It's alright," Penny said. "I was an only child, born late in their
lives at that."
He shook his head. "Only child. To be honest, I can't imagine what
that's like. Youngest of six, I am."
Penelope whistled.
"I've friends like that. I seem to attract people with big families.
Must be the lost little lamb look. Books were my company, and I had a
very quiet childhood. "
"Oh, I dunno about lamb..." Shashi began, then stopped himself before
he could say more like a fox. Not. A. Date. "Books, eh? Swot at
school and all that, then?"
"My parents didn't trust the schools. Home schooled me with my aunt's
children. Didn't want me to become pretentious or something. Although,
I ended up working for an MP in London, so not sure they'd be happy
about that."
"Aye, so you must have some interesting views on education, then,"
Shashi said, smiling. He remembered the home-schooled bit from the
files, though of course he wasn't about to let that on. "But you're
trying to do the right thing, and they'd probably look well on that."
"I hope so," Penelope said with a smile as she sipped her mind. "I did
go to uni though. So I got that real world education."
"There're those who might argue how 'real' the university world is,"
he replied, a joke. "Tell you what, Edinburgh's a good school, but it
didn't teach me much about filing requisitions."
"Well, it wasn't Oxbridge," she teased. "I don't any job teaches you
that sort of thing. Or copying or filing."
"True, true. So what else do you for fun, then? Apart from
commiserating with fellow government drones, or at least the ones that
have the nerve to ask you for your number?"
"Read, mostly. Don't have all that much free time. Does scheduling
charity events count as leisure?" she asked with a smile.
He chuckled. "If you enjoy it, maybe it does." He was beginning to
wonder if he'd intuited wrongly that there might be something odd
going on with the girl. She seemed so blessedly normal, totally
without reproach -- like her boss, really. Then again, Marsha had
argued, someone that normal had to have something up her
sleeve. If she was stonewalling him, the woman was doing it expertly
and -- all right, admit it -- very prettily. There would have to be
some kind of follow-up. "And your lucky gentleman friend, he doesn't
mind your busy schedule?" Said very, very lightly, with the sort of
impish expression that indicated she was welcome to tell him to bugger
off on the subject.
"I've grown to enjoy it at least. What girl doesn't like putting on a
nice frock and dancing for the evening?" she asked. "And I have a good
mind for details, so the organisation of it isn't too difficult."
"He's never voiced any complaints. And I'm sorry, but it doesn't look
like the position will be vacant anytime soon."
Shashi raised a hand in a conciliatory gesture. "Didn't expect it to
be. I know when to back down, aye? But I like you and I think you're
an interesting lass, and couldn't we all use another friend or two?"
He grinned.
Penny smiled.
"Aye, I suppose we could. So, what do you do for fun, besides treating
London like your playground?"
"Oh, I like to catch a film when I can, read comics, watch telly. You
know, all the usual stuff. Though I'd rather be taking a run, most
times."
"Athletes," Penelope said with a chuckle. "I just don't get it. Never
been one for sports myself. I understood the theory, love watching a
game of footy, but I'll leave the playing to others. Although I do
enjoy a good film as well. Developed an odd taste for Monty Python
over the years. "
"Och, that never gets old," he replied. "What's your favourite bit, then?"
Penelope grinned.
"The scene with the killer bunnies in holy Grail. Yours?"
"'It's got nasty pointy teeth!'" Shashi said with a laugh. "I like
Life of Brian -- the 'you are all individuals' scene. And I
actually sort of like the Spanish Inquisition bit. Even if they kind
of never did know how to end it."
"But that's the thing about Monty Python, it could just keep going and
going and no one would complain."
"'Cept people do, aye? Most people like things tidy and with a proper
ending. 'S part of why they go to comedy and fiction. Real life hasn't
got that stuff."
" 'There are no happy endings because nothing ever ends,' " Penelope
quoted. "Peter S. Beagle. An American fantasy writer. I think he got
it right. "
Shashi's cheerful smile went a bit melancholy at that, and his gaze
dropped to his pint glass. "Aye, that's the truth and no mistake.
There's only one ending, innit? Ever read any of Neil Gaiman's comics?
Like 'Signal to Noise'?"
"I'm not as much one for comics," she said. "And I apologise for
turning the conversation melancholy. I didn't intend to."
"Och, don't apologise. It's interesting, it is. You should read
'Signal to Noise', if you don't read anything else. Gorgeous art and
great writing. Aye, I was thinking of one of the lines in the book—'we
are always living in the final days. How long have you got? One
hundred years, or much much less, until the end of your world.'" The
corner of his mouth went up in a wry smile. "And I think I've just
killed the conversation stone dead."
"Well, we've already talked politics and now I could launch into
religion and then it'd truly be dead," Penelope teased with a smile as
she sipped her wine.
Shashi laughed out loud. "Just do yourself a favour, aye? Don't get me
started on Kashmir. That'll end in tears, or you pouring your drink
over my head."
"I'd need to order another one for that to happen," Penny teased.
"Touché." He leaned his chin on his hand and looked at her, smiling.
"You're a good lass, Penelope. I hope your fellow treats you right.
Homeschooled too, was he? Or did you meet him at uni?"
"He does, don't worry," Penelope said with a smile. "We met at a pub
watching a footy match, actually. He spilled his pint on me when
Chelsea scored against Man U and well, somehow we got to be mates and
more."
Shashi took a sip of his pint, covering the briefest flicker of
confusion across his face. Hadn't she said something in one of her
emails about meeting him at school? Maybe he was misremembering; he'd
look it up later. "I think that's what they call 'meeting cute', aye?"
he said, amused. "So who do you support?"
"Chelsea when he's around. Man U if I want to upset him. Generally
speaking though, West Ham, even if they don't stand much of a chance
ever," Penelope answered.
"I'll take your word for it. Truth is, I don't know football from a
hole in the ground." He grinned. "I try not to say that too loudly,
out of habit mostly—that kind of talk will get you into trouble in
Glasgow. It's the Rangers or you're a heathen."
"That why you came south? To run away from the Rangers hooligans,"
Penelope teased, even though she was fairly certain Shashi would be
able to hold hies own in a fight.
"Seems a bit out-of-the-frying-pan, into-the-fire, doesn't that? Nah.
Football hooligans can't usually get up to the roof of a housing
estate without the stairs, anyway."
"And you just leap tall buildings in a single bound like a superhero?"
Penelope asked, intrigued. "Sounds like the superheros."
He shook his head, smiling. "Multiple bounds. You should come see
sometime, maybe next time Antoine and I go out, aye? Pity the hour's
getting late, or I'd give you a demonstration."
"Still sounds rather like a superhero. Do you wear a cape when you do
it?" Penny quipped, thinking there were probably a few other things he
would like to demonstrate to her.
"Och, no; capes get caught on things. I don't change into long
underwear either -- too bloody conspicuous." Shashi paused, a number
of other responses coming to mind that could really only get him into
trouble; and anyway, he reminded himself irritably, the girl was
bloody taken. "Next time there's a nice day and Antoine and I
are out for a run, maybe I'll give you a shout, aye?"
"Sure. You've got my number now. Maybe next time we're doing a Monty
Python viewing party, I'll let you know," Penelope offered in
response. He did seem genuinely nice and he was easy on the eyes, but
well, she was already with Charlie.
"Aye, I'd like that," he said, fairly sure that came out as
"reasonably friendly" and not "pathetic".
Meanwhile in the next room, the evening's band was starting up -- a
jazz trio that was inoffensive but uninteresting. Shashi glanced
toward the band, a slightly rueful look on his face. "We'll barely be
able to hear ourselves think over that. Want to go listen, or call it
a night?"
"We can go listen for a bit. Perhaps I can even persuade you to dance
if you continue to be the gentleman," she said with an honest smile,
feeling rather bad for Shashi. After all, if it had only been Gus in
her life, she might be responding to Shashi's advances.
"I'll be on my best behaviour," he said with mock-solemnity. He stood
and offered her his arm.
Penelope smiled as she took his arm, her small frame dwarfed by his much larger one.
"I'll hold you to it," she teased as she let him lead her into the other room.