[log] now you can't await your own arrival you've twenty seconds to comply

[whatdorosesmean]

"-thank you, truly. Yeah. Have a good day." It's only a few moments after Nick gets off the phone that the cell rings, and for almost a full minute he thinks about not picking up. In the end, of course, he does.

"Dr Hardaway. ...hello, no. No, I'm all free. ...All right. All right. Good day, then."

Right.

Incoming Alya, then. And no

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[sadova]

Not long after, Alya Sadova--dressed in her six-thousand-dollar businesswear, heels and pinstriped trousers and all of that--is at his doorstep. She knocks, and chooses not to wonder whether or not he's got furniture yet. That's part of why she's arriving. If the evidence is unsatisfactory, steps will be taken to correct as much.

They're almost like friends, these two.

[sadova]

"If you're in my hands, Nick, you should be aware they can do harm as well as good," she reminds him, innocently, although again: statement with layers, and this time it's her fault.

[whatdorosesmean]

"That's usually the way, I've found. It makes life interesting, don't you think?" Nick's life is interesting just by dint of it being Nick living it, usually, but he'd never let that get in the way of continuing the emerging theme of not saying anything that can't be interpreted seven different ways, four of them filthy.

[sadova]

"If you like the risk," she says, not looking at him because she's smiling just a little and there's no reason to show that off, even if it's true, "and given your acquiescing to so many of my requests, I think I can draw a few conclusions about what you do enjoy. Though I won't presume to have more than vague ideas."

[whatdorosesmean]

"I'd be interested in knowing what those vague ideas of conclusions might be." It's not a question, or even a prompt - it's a statement of fact. He would be interested, but it's entirely possible that actually asking is not a really good idea.

Still, he's smiling.

[sadova]

Alya does look at him now, carefully, the smile not quite dimmed but not exactly broad, either. "What's my incentive?"

[whatdorosesmean]

"I'll tell you if you're right." It's absolutely true that Nick is a casual and unrepentant liar, but he can almost invariably be relied upon to keep his word.

[sadova]

"I might, then--if I'm in the correct mood for as much." She hails a taxi cab with the ease of ten years in the city.

[whatdorosesmean]

Holding the door for her, Nick gives his genuinely amused look mostly to the sky over Carroll Gardens. "You let me know if the mood strikes you," he says, with a diplomatic tone.

[sadova]

"I think it shouldn't be difficult, as long as you're obliging. Which you seem to be." She pauses, and turns to him, once securely settled, with an innocent expression. "I do regret to inform you-- there won't be anything stuffed with round, plastic globes where we're going." Like his beanbag chairs, you know.

Pause.

"Though I suppose I oughtn't speak for the saleswomen."

And then she turns again, to rattle off the address to the driver, with another one of those perfunctory smiles.

[whatdorosesmean]

"I usually do, until I'm not any more." As absurd as the statement sounds, it's actually entirely true and Nick actually laughs quietly at the rest of her commentary, falling silent.

[sadova]

"'Going with the flow' is dangerous in a city like this," Alya reminds him. It's a weird way of showing she cares, this forceful interfering, but she does know it's not always welcome.

[whatdorosesmean]

"Is that a caution to be more careful or to be less arrogant?" Nick is mild, the self-deprecating humour not entirely a joke.

[sadova]

"It was the former, but frankly speaking I think all men could use a little of the latter." The cab driver thinks they are freaks, for the record.

[whatdorosesmean]

Nick thinks the cab driver is probably right, but he's only having the one conversation here right now and it doesn't involve commentating on internal commentary he's not supposed to know about anyway.

This is probably where 'be less arrogant' comes in.

"You might be right about that." The arrogance that goes along with the way he's lived his life - as he likes to, with more control than most people credit him with - is a dangerous sort, too, even if that's not immediately obvious. Pride goeth before a fall, etc, etc.

[sadova]

"It's been known to happen," she says, dryly, as they pull up on 7th Avenue. Alya pays the driver and indicates the storefront. "I think it should suit your tastes."