"They're not labeled, remember? So we're a little at their mercy," he pointed out — needlessly, it turned out, because by the time he'd finished speaking the refreshment table was in sight and she could see for herself what he meant. A sea of colorful glasses spread out before them, without any indication of what was what. Ford surveyed the glasses a moment indecisively while she continued on about the dance. He didn't miss the leap there — she expected him to accompany her to the dance performance. His immediate reaction was relief, because this absolved him of the responsibility of finding something else to do with himself for the foreseeable future, and he liked talking to her. As he considered why she might want his company, though, he couldn't help a slight worry. He'd asked her to dance at the last party; did she expect that he'd greeted her tonight because he wanted to pick up where they'd left off? Were they flirting again? She hadn't said anything too suspect so far, but he ought to be careful. Flirting for one night right after his talk with Noble had been fine, he'd decided — it was strategic — but it wouldn't be fair to her to go giving off the wrong impression, especially not over the series of several events.
But he did rather like talking to her, and her comment about the tickets to the Nutcracker being too expensive tipped the scales in favor of going along with it. She was easy to relate to, and in the social circles he usually moved in — Cash and the Lestranges, Black's and Macnair, Grace's lawyer suitor, even Tycho to an extent — that was far from a given.
"Alright," he agreed. "Should I take one first, so that if it's awful you know to grab something better?" he offered, plucking a cocktail off the table. It was orange, mostly, though with a slight layer of red at the bottom and electric yellow along the rim. "This is either going to be delicious or it'll kill me," he joked, before taking a small sip. Something tangy — pineapple? — with no discernible taste of alcohol whatsoever. There were some other notes mixed in, but he couldn't identify them right away.
"Did you see the dancers at the Sonata — when was that? No, I suppose you would've still been in school. Clementine didn't come with us," he reflected. "They had dancers and contortionists, though, along with the music. That was — interesting," he concluded, which was an adjective that didn't do the experience justice, but he was hardly going to go into any detail unprompted. "But that's really my only experience with dancers. So this ought to be fun to watch, at any rate. This is —" he took another small sip of the drink, as though to verify what he was about to say before he committed to it. "— not bad at all, if you're looking for a recommendation." He was still trying to pin down the other pieces of the taste, besides pineapple, but it was quite pleasant.
But he did rather like talking to her, and her comment about the tickets to the Nutcracker being too expensive tipped the scales in favor of going along with it. She was easy to relate to, and in the social circles he usually moved in — Cash and the Lestranges, Black's and Macnair, Grace's lawyer suitor, even Tycho to an extent — that was far from a given.
"Alright," he agreed. "Should I take one first, so that if it's awful you know to grab something better?" he offered, plucking a cocktail off the table. It was orange, mostly, though with a slight layer of red at the bottom and electric yellow along the rim. "This is either going to be delicious or it'll kill me," he joked, before taking a small sip. Something tangy — pineapple? — with no discernible taste of alcohol whatsoever. There were some other notes mixed in, but he couldn't identify them right away.
"Did you see the dancers at the Sonata — when was that? No, I suppose you would've still been in school. Clementine didn't come with us," he reflected. "They had dancers and contortionists, though, along with the music. That was — interesting," he concluded, which was an adjective that didn't do the experience justice, but he was hardly going to go into any detail unprompted. "But that's really my only experience with dancers. So this ought to be fun to watch, at any rate. This is —" he took another small sip of the drink, as though to verify what he was about to say before he committed to it. "— not bad at all, if you're looking for a recommendation." He was still trying to pin down the other pieces of the taste, besides pineapple, but it was quite pleasant.
Set by Lady!