[Evaly] Benefactor.
RL Date: 7/21 & 7/24/10
IC Date: 4/18/23 --Dated IC for today, even though we started it on Wednesday. But then Hal got abducted by aliens, so we had to wait till Saturay to finish it.
Market, Ista Weyr(#916RJ)
Clustered around the path leading between the beach and the jungle stands a diamond of eight wooden stalls, two to a side. Staffed by a kaleidoscope of Istans from around the island, the market features a changing array of local products from ubiquitous shell jewelry to season-conscious umbrellas and surfboards. It's Buyer Beware, though: the quality of the products varies, but then again so does the quality of salesmanship, and it's just as likely to find a overvalued rip-off as an underpriced treasure.
Open to the air when the weather is good, the market has several tools at its disposal to deal with less genial conditions. The round pit in the center of the stalls, which visitors may choose to skirt or gather around, can be used for a small bonfire on the rare cold days. A big, heavy stretch of oilcloth and a thinner gauze material have been bundled up and nailed to the trees just behind the market, ready to be stretched out for shelter or shade on days that are too rainy or too hot.
Someone is soon to be back in business by the looks of things, a near enough possibility that the booth is in need of a bit of sprucing up. If there was a do-it-yourself guide to, well, anything, Evaly is the type of person that would own and use it; at the moment, she's looking very industrious (and over-warm) while she stands on top of the counter of what will be her new stall, wielding a hammer to remove and then replace a wooden beam that's seen the worst of a wet winter. There's a pause in all the racket to peer off toward Halsten's place of business, presently, looking for her investor. Or someone to torment. Or both!
Hal's place of business is in fact bustling these past few days. Lots of people, picking up razors, little boxes full of pre-rolled cigarettes. It's a different kind of industry, one that involves a lot more smiling and glad-handing and very little manual labor. And finally, at some point, it tapers off enough for him to find his way back to his chair, sink down into it, and start rolling those cigarettes. Whistling as he goes, some jaunty happy little tune, where the lyrics, if it had lyrics, would no doubt go something along the lines of how happy he is to be making lots of money.
"My word," carries over while Evaly hops down, leaving the hammer where her feet were a minute before: plainly visible in case someone is feeling like they need themselves a cheap-as-free hammer. "All of the sudden--" While she crosses the short distance from her future establishment to Halsten's present one, helping herself on around behind the counter to lean in the entrance, arms crossed loosely. "--you almost seem to have a way with people. Almost." Dramatic gasp. "Like a proper salesman. Whatever is the world coming to."
"Just because I'm an ass to you, Evaly, doesn't mean I am to other people," Hal informs her without getting up out of his chair. He puts his feet up, slouches in his chair, folds his hands in his lap, and beams at her. "I sell things. That's what I do. I would be extremely poor if I didn't have a way with some people." And never mind the part where he had help here the other day. "Shouldn't you be out making some money to pay me back, here?"
Like she's just so tickled, hands folding together and brought up under her chin, eyes all big and round and thrilled, Evaly drawls a long, "Awwwww. I get special treatment." And sways all giddily in place from one foot to the other, the portrait of a giddy girl. "Probably," she answers with considerably more realism to his latter question, refolding her arms and leaning her shoulder against the frame of his stall, eyeing Halsten's slouch with an accusing blandness: pot to kettle. "I actually came to tell you good news to that end, if you want to stop being a dick long enough to let me share?"
"Well, you're not a customer. Are you? I seem to recall that you don't smoke--" That she in fact had a really, really bad reaction to the mere idea. "And I don't think you need to start shaving yet." Hand on his chin; Hal means that sort of shaving. He'll just keep smirking now. "Anything else, well, you'd have to have a look around. But yes. I'll stop being a dick. For a moment. By all means, do share, my lovely little investment." And then he's leaning forward, all politely attentive.
"What a good memory you have." Evaly reaches to tap the end of her chin experimentally for a moment, thumb rubbing along the ridge of her jaw before she smiles certainly, no shaving in her immediate future. "Thank you," to his promise to stop the dickiness, helpful, which has her straightening up like business and posture are somehow tied together. "I." Important. "Will be back in business within the week. Things are going remarkably well at this point, so you will be repaid sooner rather than later, and will no longer be entitled to feel like my benefactor. You may now applaud."
Applauding, yes. Hal claps his hands upon command. "Within the week. That's impressive. Remarkable. Of course, you still haven't told me what it is you're doing, but I'm duly impressed." Okay, maybe he's not completely stopping the dickiness. He's trying. Maybe. Once he's done with clapping, he goes back to rolling his cigarettes, creating a growing quantity of them in his little box there. "So what is it, exactly, that you're doing with my marks?" For the moment, he's still entitled to feel like her benefactor, right?
Eyes on the growing collection of cigarettes, Evaly answers a bland, "I'm making matches. On the assumption that they can either use them on your business--" She nods to the cigarettes. "--or on your business." With a thump of her shoulder against the wooden booth. "I'm trying not to have a preference for which one, in the interests of being impartial. It's hard, but I'm working at it." There's a pause and she adds brightly, like it's just occurred to her, "Probably just about as hard as you're working at not being a dick. Impressive, huh?"
"What is it lately with blondes wanting to force me to retire?" Hal furrows his brow at her, and finally stands up, regarding his booth as though it is in fact at risk of spontaneously combusting. "I like my business. I do, however, also very much like matches. Especially good matches. I'm working *really* hard at not being a dick. You're just really cute when I am, and how am I supposed to resist that? I'm a simple creature."
Waving aside his first question, Evaly comments, "I don't particularly care about /you/ in all this. I just like the idea of burning down your business." Her smile flashes sweetly for a second, though the expression is short-lived, leading promptly into a sigh. "I'm flattered, but you being a dick and me being cute isn't really helping you figure out to what end I'm actually using your marks, now is it? You'd think, eventually, you might want to actually find out that part." Shrugging, she leans into a step to take her out of that entrance, adding, "Or not, I guess. You are an odd one."
"You'll tell me," Halsten replies, with a dismissive wave of the hand, "or you won't." So sanguine about either option, you wouldn't think it was his own funds on the line, here. The standing leads to some sorting through various items under one of the tables to come up with a flask which is presumably not for sale, as it is in fact full enough for him to drink from as he comes back and sits down again. "If what you want is to tell me all about the fantastic things you're doing, why don't you? I start to get the impression that you prefer the teasing."
"You're just starting to get this impression?" Evaly asks, eyes widening before she sets them to blinking at Halsten like she's stunned. There's a brief, "Hmn," interesting, and drums her fingers on the counter when she comes around to the customer side, there to lean with her palms flat. Nosily peering at what he's got there, she half-suggests, half-demands, "Give. Then I'll stop being a tease, you stop being a dick, and we'll talk business like we're serious about it, yes?"
Poor, poor Hal, so put upon--well, no, actually, he does seem to be smiling as he takes one more drink and then hands over the flask without so much as a hint of complaint. "I'll do my best. Business. Like we're serious about it." So he schools his facial expression into one that is Very Serious and folds his hands and leans forward just enough to be politely attentive. "So, right, then. Do tell."
Evaly's, "Sometimes," comes just a moment before she takes a drink, tapping the flask on the counter a few times while she continues, "I feel like it would be fun to hurt you." Scraping his flask across the counter, she puts it back into Halsten's range, answering his politely attentive look with one that's entirely serious. Even down to the very stern ahem that precedes her words. "I've been making perfume, and have lately finished enough to properly stock a stall. Further, I've made friends with the Weyr's new glasscrafter, who is being extremely generous to give me bottles on spec."
One thoughtful moment of looking at the flask more than at Evaly, before Halsten picks it up and drinks again. "Business, Evaly. Serious. Remember? You can't just go saying distracting things like that and expect me to pay attention to anything else." Almost-but-not-quite scolding. Still: Attentive. Yes. Back to that. "Perfume--is what you were doing before, isn't it? With all the pretty little bottles. On spec. That's quite impressive. I wasn't even aware there was a new glasscrafter."
Little more than a brief, innocent lift of brows and widening of eyes answers his scold-- who me?-- before Evaly is nodding at the matters of business. "I was. And jewelry and what-not. But I'm actually make it this time, from scratch. Smell." She fishes briefly in her pockets and palms two small vials onto the counter, continuing, "That's because you're incredibly self-involved. If it's not about /you/, why would you notice? But I digress." She says it like /her/ distraction is somehow /his/ fault.
The vials are evidently enough to get Hal to stand, to lean against the counter as he picks one up. He holds it up to the light, eyes on it appraisingly, and then he opens it up, sniffs, makes a beckoning gesture at her. "Give me your hand. That's the test, isn't it? How it smells on, not how it smells in the bottle." Says the man who once professed not to actually like women with perfume. "Everybody's self-involved. I'm just more honest about it than most."
The one is mostly jasmine-scented with undertones of orange to sweeten an otherwise too-powdery scent, the other closer to sandalwood with heavier spices, neither precisely the sort of smell that's going to pair well to Evaly herself. "I think the test is how much of it I can sell, actually, but if you're looking for an excuse to hold hands, this is as good as any." She sticks her arm gracelessly across the counter, wrist turned upward, eyes blandly watching Halsten. "Some of us manage to occasionally stick our head out and see what the rest of the world is up to."
To Hal the self-involved, the concern seems to be primarily trying at least one of them on a warm body which is not his personal warm body. "Well, you're not going to sell much if it's not any good," he observes. Business. Serious. A dab on her wrist of jasmine-and-orange, his hand on her wrist as he does it, nothing tender or affectionate about it. "I pay attention to the rest of the world where it's relevant. To me." Faint smirk.
"Your vote of confidence means so much to me." Evaly folds her unused arm across her stomach, her hand cupped at her elbow to prop her arm so her wrist bends for the whole dabbing process. Tolerant. Barely. "I would think that the posting of a very attractive glasscrafter would be right in line with your version of relevance. Or have you finally come to realize...?" His smirk meets a wrinkle of her nose, not finding it attractive, big surprise.
A slight delay before Halsten actually bends to smell, make a vaguely approving sort of noise and then let her hand go again. "Not bad. Is it a woman, then? Your glasscrafter. I can really only pay attention to so many women at a time. There's not really a shortage of lovely ones. I remain quite wholly uninterested in men. The available selection couldn't compare to the women even if I was so inclined." Ingratiating smile that no doubt is not going to ingratiate him at all to her; never mind.
It's too late for Evaly to wipe her wrist dry, so the next best thing to do is to smell it herself, her nose dipped down to her wrist thoughtfully. Yeahno, with the flowers and oranges and her. She looks across quickly and then levelly at Halsten's question, a lengthy pause in between him speaking and her even beginning to formulate a reply; "Of course it's a woman, Hal." And leaves that part alone. "It's better than 'not bad,' but I'll take it as a compliment that you may have actually batted a lash. I think it's the first time I've seen you react. At all. To anything."
"I'm not sure I was aware that you'd suffered from a bout of blindness," without missing a beat. Hal moves to sit again, to find that flask, to have another drink, and another after that. He puts his feet up and gets himself comfortable once more in his chair. Oh, the strains and stresses of business. "I'm never sure what kind of reaction you want. I think you're doing well. I'm pleased. I might even go so far as to say I'm proud of you. And I'll be even more proud when you pay me back."
"An authentic one? An unrationed one?" Evaly twitches her nose again, repalming her vials and putting them back down in her pocket. She hitches her leg up on to the edge of his counter, leaning so her shoulderblade rests against the frame, one arm folded loosely across her middle and the other partway across the counter, conveniently making her hand near enough that she could catch that flask if he was feeling generous. (Speaking of wishful thinking.) "Anyway, when I'm ridiculously wealthy and you're still here with your feet up selling tobacco, I'll remind you that you might even have gone so far as to say you were proud of me, way back when."
Generosity is Halsten's middle name. What the third one is to allow that to be the case shall remain a mystery. He does indeed hand back the flask; it's getting on near empty at this point. He hasn't gone easy on it, which might account for why he's so comfortably relaxed. "When you're ridiculously wealthy, you can remember how kind I was to you, way back when. How I lent you money at a reasonable rate, gave you advice, moral support--" That may be pushing it. "And then you can wish you'd been nicer to me." Definitely pushing it.
Evaly will just finish it, then, making the most of his generosity, head tipped back so the last couple of drops come right on out of the flask. Wiping her lip with the edge of her thumb, handing it back, she tilts her head with still more blandness; yeah, 'moral support' is definitely pushing it. Confident; "Do you really want me to be nice to you, sweetie? Because I can be nice if that's really what you're after," which she /highly/ doubts, "though I think it would mess up our whole dynamic." There's a quick glance to the ground before her foot finds it, standing off the counter.
Just in case, Hal gives it a gentle shake. Alas, poor beverage, we knew you well. Forlorn look on his face for a moment, he tucks it back away where it came from anyway. "No, I probably don't. It's a failing. But as long as you're obliging what I want..." Spreading smile, which he finally reins in, clearing his throat. "The dynamic. Yes. Well. At least remember me, when you're off dripping with... fine things. That's all I ask. My modest desire."
"I've been obliging what you want all along, Hal. Someone you can't have." Evaly shakes her finger in a chide at his blossoming smile, tsk tsk tsk, and turns away then with her eyes rolling in the look backward that she spares on the walk back to her up-and-coming stall. "Thank you for the drinks, try not to work too hard?" She's entitled to a little derision in her laughter for that comment, right?
She can be as eye-rolly as she wants. Halsten raises a hand to wave after her, grinning. "Good girl." Okay, so as praise goes, that could be seen as a bit patronizing. Or does that change if earlier you've strongly implied that you enjoy the notion of the good girl in question hurting--well, not something to dwell on. The important thing is that he's pleased. Visibly pleased. It's a reaction. "I will do my very honest best. You need any help, well, you just let me know." And then he'll go back to relaxing... before work calls again.
IC Date: 4/18/23 --Dated IC for today, even though we started it on Wednesday. But then Hal got abducted by aliens, so we had to wait till Saturay to finish it.
Market, Ista Weyr(#916RJ)
Clustered around the path leading between the beach and the jungle stands a diamond of eight wooden stalls, two to a side. Staffed by a kaleidoscope of Istans from around the island, the market features a changing array of local products from ubiquitous shell jewelry to season-conscious umbrellas and surfboards. It's Buyer Beware, though: the quality of the products varies, but then again so does the quality of salesmanship, and it's just as likely to find a overvalued rip-off as an underpriced treasure.
Open to the air when the weather is good, the market has several tools at its disposal to deal with less genial conditions. The round pit in the center of the stalls, which visitors may choose to skirt or gather around, can be used for a small bonfire on the rare cold days. A big, heavy stretch of oilcloth and a thinner gauze material have been bundled up and nailed to the trees just behind the market, ready to be stretched out for shelter or shade on days that are too rainy or too hot.
Someone is soon to be back in business by the looks of things, a near enough possibility that the booth is in need of a bit of sprucing up. If there was a do-it-yourself guide to, well, anything, Evaly is the type of person that would own and use it; at the moment, she's looking very industrious (and over-warm) while she stands on top of the counter of what will be her new stall, wielding a hammer to remove and then replace a wooden beam that's seen the worst of a wet winter. There's a pause in all the racket to peer off toward Halsten's place of business, presently, looking for her investor. Or someone to torment. Or both!
Hal's place of business is in fact bustling these past few days. Lots of people, picking up razors, little boxes full of pre-rolled cigarettes. It's a different kind of industry, one that involves a lot more smiling and glad-handing and very little manual labor. And finally, at some point, it tapers off enough for him to find his way back to his chair, sink down into it, and start rolling those cigarettes. Whistling as he goes, some jaunty happy little tune, where the lyrics, if it had lyrics, would no doubt go something along the lines of how happy he is to be making lots of money.
"My word," carries over while Evaly hops down, leaving the hammer where her feet were a minute before: plainly visible in case someone is feeling like they need themselves a cheap-as-free hammer. "All of the sudden--" While she crosses the short distance from her future establishment to Halsten's present one, helping herself on around behind the counter to lean in the entrance, arms crossed loosely. "--you almost seem to have a way with people. Almost." Dramatic gasp. "Like a proper salesman. Whatever is the world coming to."
"Just because I'm an ass to you, Evaly, doesn't mean I am to other people," Hal informs her without getting up out of his chair. He puts his feet up, slouches in his chair, folds his hands in his lap, and beams at her. "I sell things. That's what I do. I would be extremely poor if I didn't have a way with some people." And never mind the part where he had help here the other day. "Shouldn't you be out making some money to pay me back, here?"
Like she's just so tickled, hands folding together and brought up under her chin, eyes all big and round and thrilled, Evaly drawls a long, "Awwwww. I get special treatment." And sways all giddily in place from one foot to the other, the portrait of a giddy girl. "Probably," she answers with considerably more realism to his latter question, refolding her arms and leaning her shoulder against the frame of his stall, eyeing Halsten's slouch with an accusing blandness: pot to kettle. "I actually came to tell you good news to that end, if you want to stop being a dick long enough to let me share?"
"Well, you're not a customer. Are you? I seem to recall that you don't smoke--" That she in fact had a really, really bad reaction to the mere idea. "And I don't think you need to start shaving yet." Hand on his chin; Hal means that sort of shaving. He'll just keep smirking now. "Anything else, well, you'd have to have a look around. But yes. I'll stop being a dick. For a moment. By all means, do share, my lovely little investment." And then he's leaning forward, all politely attentive.
"What a good memory you have." Evaly reaches to tap the end of her chin experimentally for a moment, thumb rubbing along the ridge of her jaw before she smiles certainly, no shaving in her immediate future. "Thank you," to his promise to stop the dickiness, helpful, which has her straightening up like business and posture are somehow tied together. "I." Important. "Will be back in business within the week. Things are going remarkably well at this point, so you will be repaid sooner rather than later, and will no longer be entitled to feel like my benefactor. You may now applaud."
Applauding, yes. Hal claps his hands upon command. "Within the week. That's impressive. Remarkable. Of course, you still haven't told me what it is you're doing, but I'm duly impressed." Okay, maybe he's not completely stopping the dickiness. He's trying. Maybe. Once he's done with clapping, he goes back to rolling his cigarettes, creating a growing quantity of them in his little box there. "So what is it, exactly, that you're doing with my marks?" For the moment, he's still entitled to feel like her benefactor, right?
Eyes on the growing collection of cigarettes, Evaly answers a bland, "I'm making matches. On the assumption that they can either use them on your business--" She nods to the cigarettes. "--or on your business." With a thump of her shoulder against the wooden booth. "I'm trying not to have a preference for which one, in the interests of being impartial. It's hard, but I'm working at it." There's a pause and she adds brightly, like it's just occurred to her, "Probably just about as hard as you're working at not being a dick. Impressive, huh?"
"What is it lately with blondes wanting to force me to retire?" Hal furrows his brow at her, and finally stands up, regarding his booth as though it is in fact at risk of spontaneously combusting. "I like my business. I do, however, also very much like matches. Especially good matches. I'm working *really* hard at not being a dick. You're just really cute when I am, and how am I supposed to resist that? I'm a simple creature."
Waving aside his first question, Evaly comments, "I don't particularly care about /you/ in all this. I just like the idea of burning down your business." Her smile flashes sweetly for a second, though the expression is short-lived, leading promptly into a sigh. "I'm flattered, but you being a dick and me being cute isn't really helping you figure out to what end I'm actually using your marks, now is it? You'd think, eventually, you might want to actually find out that part." Shrugging, she leans into a step to take her out of that entrance, adding, "Or not, I guess. You are an odd one."
"You'll tell me," Halsten replies, with a dismissive wave of the hand, "or you won't." So sanguine about either option, you wouldn't think it was his own funds on the line, here. The standing leads to some sorting through various items under one of the tables to come up with a flask which is presumably not for sale, as it is in fact full enough for him to drink from as he comes back and sits down again. "If what you want is to tell me all about the fantastic things you're doing, why don't you? I start to get the impression that you prefer the teasing."
"You're just starting to get this impression?" Evaly asks, eyes widening before she sets them to blinking at Halsten like she's stunned. There's a brief, "Hmn," interesting, and drums her fingers on the counter when she comes around to the customer side, there to lean with her palms flat. Nosily peering at what he's got there, she half-suggests, half-demands, "Give. Then I'll stop being a tease, you stop being a dick, and we'll talk business like we're serious about it, yes?"
Poor, poor Hal, so put upon--well, no, actually, he does seem to be smiling as he takes one more drink and then hands over the flask without so much as a hint of complaint. "I'll do my best. Business. Like we're serious about it." So he schools his facial expression into one that is Very Serious and folds his hands and leans forward just enough to be politely attentive. "So, right, then. Do tell."
Evaly's, "Sometimes," comes just a moment before she takes a drink, tapping the flask on the counter a few times while she continues, "I feel like it would be fun to hurt you." Scraping his flask across the counter, she puts it back into Halsten's range, answering his politely attentive look with one that's entirely serious. Even down to the very stern ahem that precedes her words. "I've been making perfume, and have lately finished enough to properly stock a stall. Further, I've made friends with the Weyr's new glasscrafter, who is being extremely generous to give me bottles on spec."
One thoughtful moment of looking at the flask more than at Evaly, before Halsten picks it up and drinks again. "Business, Evaly. Serious. Remember? You can't just go saying distracting things like that and expect me to pay attention to anything else." Almost-but-not-quite scolding. Still: Attentive. Yes. Back to that. "Perfume--is what you were doing before, isn't it? With all the pretty little bottles. On spec. That's quite impressive. I wasn't even aware there was a new glasscrafter."
Little more than a brief, innocent lift of brows and widening of eyes answers his scold-- who me?-- before Evaly is nodding at the matters of business. "I was. And jewelry and what-not. But I'm actually make it this time, from scratch. Smell." She fishes briefly in her pockets and palms two small vials onto the counter, continuing, "That's because you're incredibly self-involved. If it's not about /you/, why would you notice? But I digress." She says it like /her/ distraction is somehow /his/ fault.
The vials are evidently enough to get Hal to stand, to lean against the counter as he picks one up. He holds it up to the light, eyes on it appraisingly, and then he opens it up, sniffs, makes a beckoning gesture at her. "Give me your hand. That's the test, isn't it? How it smells on, not how it smells in the bottle." Says the man who once professed not to actually like women with perfume. "Everybody's self-involved. I'm just more honest about it than most."
The one is mostly jasmine-scented with undertones of orange to sweeten an otherwise too-powdery scent, the other closer to sandalwood with heavier spices, neither precisely the sort of smell that's going to pair well to Evaly herself. "I think the test is how much of it I can sell, actually, but if you're looking for an excuse to hold hands, this is as good as any." She sticks her arm gracelessly across the counter, wrist turned upward, eyes blandly watching Halsten. "Some of us manage to occasionally stick our head out and see what the rest of the world is up to."
To Hal the self-involved, the concern seems to be primarily trying at least one of them on a warm body which is not his personal warm body. "Well, you're not going to sell much if it's not any good," he observes. Business. Serious. A dab on her wrist of jasmine-and-orange, his hand on her wrist as he does it, nothing tender or affectionate about it. "I pay attention to the rest of the world where it's relevant. To me." Faint smirk.
"Your vote of confidence means so much to me." Evaly folds her unused arm across her stomach, her hand cupped at her elbow to prop her arm so her wrist bends for the whole dabbing process. Tolerant. Barely. "I would think that the posting of a very attractive glasscrafter would be right in line with your version of relevance. Or have you finally come to realize...?" His smirk meets a wrinkle of her nose, not finding it attractive, big surprise.
A slight delay before Halsten actually bends to smell, make a vaguely approving sort of noise and then let her hand go again. "Not bad. Is it a woman, then? Your glasscrafter. I can really only pay attention to so many women at a time. There's not really a shortage of lovely ones. I remain quite wholly uninterested in men. The available selection couldn't compare to the women even if I was so inclined." Ingratiating smile that no doubt is not going to ingratiate him at all to her; never mind.
It's too late for Evaly to wipe her wrist dry, so the next best thing to do is to smell it herself, her nose dipped down to her wrist thoughtfully. Yeahno, with the flowers and oranges and her. She looks across quickly and then levelly at Halsten's question, a lengthy pause in between him speaking and her even beginning to formulate a reply; "Of course it's a woman, Hal." And leaves that part alone. "It's better than 'not bad,' but I'll take it as a compliment that you may have actually batted a lash. I think it's the first time I've seen you react. At all. To anything."
"I'm not sure I was aware that you'd suffered from a bout of blindness," without missing a beat. Hal moves to sit again, to find that flask, to have another drink, and another after that. He puts his feet up and gets himself comfortable once more in his chair. Oh, the strains and stresses of business. "I'm never sure what kind of reaction you want. I think you're doing well. I'm pleased. I might even go so far as to say I'm proud of you. And I'll be even more proud when you pay me back."
"An authentic one? An unrationed one?" Evaly twitches her nose again, repalming her vials and putting them back down in her pocket. She hitches her leg up on to the edge of his counter, leaning so her shoulderblade rests against the frame, one arm folded loosely across her middle and the other partway across the counter, conveniently making her hand near enough that she could catch that flask if he was feeling generous. (Speaking of wishful thinking.) "Anyway, when I'm ridiculously wealthy and you're still here with your feet up selling tobacco, I'll remind you that you might even have gone so far as to say you were proud of me, way back when."
Generosity is Halsten's middle name. What the third one is to allow that to be the case shall remain a mystery. He does indeed hand back the flask; it's getting on near empty at this point. He hasn't gone easy on it, which might account for why he's so comfortably relaxed. "When you're ridiculously wealthy, you can remember how kind I was to you, way back when. How I lent you money at a reasonable rate, gave you advice, moral support--" That may be pushing it. "And then you can wish you'd been nicer to me." Definitely pushing it.
Evaly will just finish it, then, making the most of his generosity, head tipped back so the last couple of drops come right on out of the flask. Wiping her lip with the edge of her thumb, handing it back, she tilts her head with still more blandness; yeah, 'moral support' is definitely pushing it. Confident; "Do you really want me to be nice to you, sweetie? Because I can be nice if that's really what you're after," which she /highly/ doubts, "though I think it would mess up our whole dynamic." There's a quick glance to the ground before her foot finds it, standing off the counter.
Just in case, Hal gives it a gentle shake. Alas, poor beverage, we knew you well. Forlorn look on his face for a moment, he tucks it back away where it came from anyway. "No, I probably don't. It's a failing. But as long as you're obliging what I want..." Spreading smile, which he finally reins in, clearing his throat. "The dynamic. Yes. Well. At least remember me, when you're off dripping with... fine things. That's all I ask. My modest desire."
"I've been obliging what you want all along, Hal. Someone you can't have." Evaly shakes her finger in a chide at his blossoming smile, tsk tsk tsk, and turns away then with her eyes rolling in the look backward that she spares on the walk back to her up-and-coming stall. "Thank you for the drinks, try not to work too hard?" She's entitled to a little derision in her laughter for that comment, right?
She can be as eye-rolly as she wants. Halsten raises a hand to wave after her, grinning. "Good girl." Okay, so as praise goes, that could be seen as a bit patronizing. Or does that change if earlier you've strongly implied that you enjoy the notion of the good girl in question hurting--well, not something to dwell on. The important thing is that he's pleased. Visibly pleased. It's a reaction. "I will do my very honest best. You need any help, well, you just let me know." And then he'll go back to relaxing... before work calls again.