Ben smiled wryly at her first comment. "Any party and no liquor is an un-interesting mix," he countered easily. The zoo was a not-infrequent host for parties open to the general public (or general society, anyway) and they had always had some selection of alcohol available before, so it clearly wasn't that much of an issue. Maybe she meant hard liquor, which might have been more understandable, but all of Ben's favorite parties involved hard liquor so he was an advocate for it all the same. Jewell did sell champagne now, though — since Ben's successful partnership with the French company last spring, which had been the only good to come out of his 'honeymoon' in Paris.

The tone seemed to have shifted, because she was laughing now and said good to see you in a way that sounded genuine, but even with all of that he was still surprised when she called him Ben instead of Mr. Crouch. Partly it set him on edge, because he knew what Melody would have thought if she could have heard that — what anyone would have thought if they'd heard that, since his history with Bella Scrimgeour was more or less public knowledge — but partly it was almost a relief. It was slipping back just a little closer to the dynamic they'd had all those years ago, and while Ben wasn't particularly interested in revisiting that relationship, it did make him a little pleased to think that perhaps the person he was now wasn't so far removed from the person he'd been then.

"Yeah, good to see you, too," he said, with a quick smile. "Maybe you will."