07-26-2014, 03:51 PM
"Enzo it is, then."
She glanced briefly into the hallway before she closed the door, its lock clicking back into place automatically. The shortening of his name felt uncomfortably intimate on her tongue, but only because within her own blood family such things had been personal. Plenty of people went by nicknames, but she'd have sooner called him Vincenzo.
As he entered she watched him with the cursory interest of one stranger to another - or perhaps one predator to another. He was alert, but unthreatened, and Tehya's posture was similarly relaxed. Her attention was direct - she was not shy to look him over, but it was a functional curiosity. Though she inferred meaning from his native language, the foreign words translated no literal meaning. His accent lilted like melody, and his words were polite and pleasantly superficial.
Enzo's gaze washed over her, detailing the small apartment around her tall frame. If there was judgement there she didn't care to read it, and when he did eventually look back at her there was an emotionless cast to his expression, almost as if he chose to see straight through her. The dismissal did not offend her; in fact she almost began to hope that they might learn to pass each other as ghosts, barely impact on one another's lives at all.
A wry corner turned up the edge of her lips at the formal flourish of his gratitude. It had not exactly been her idea to welcome him under her roof so he should spare his thanks, though the courtesy was at least noted. "It isn't a home, let alone mine. Your room is on the right. Help yourself to anything you need."
The apartment was somewhere to sleep, and even less of a sanctuary now it must be shared - at least so far as she was concerned - but the openness with which she offered to share the space was genuine and unreserved. Except in one regard.
"You're used to working with someone?"
She glanced briefly into the hallway before she closed the door, its lock clicking back into place automatically. The shortening of his name felt uncomfortably intimate on her tongue, but only because within her own blood family such things had been personal. Plenty of people went by nicknames, but she'd have sooner called him Vincenzo.
As he entered she watched him with the cursory interest of one stranger to another - or perhaps one predator to another. He was alert, but unthreatened, and Tehya's posture was similarly relaxed. Her attention was direct - she was not shy to look him over, but it was a functional curiosity. Though she inferred meaning from his native language, the foreign words translated no literal meaning. His accent lilted like melody, and his words were polite and pleasantly superficial.
Enzo's gaze washed over her, detailing the small apartment around her tall frame. If there was judgement there she didn't care to read it, and when he did eventually look back at her there was an emotionless cast to his expression, almost as if he chose to see straight through her. The dismissal did not offend her; in fact she almost began to hope that they might learn to pass each other as ghosts, barely impact on one another's lives at all.
A wry corner turned up the edge of her lips at the formal flourish of his gratitude. It had not exactly been her idea to welcome him under her roof so he should spare his thanks, though the courtesy was at least noted. "It isn't a home, let alone mine. Your room is on the right. Help yourself to anything you need."
The apartment was somewhere to sleep, and even less of a sanctuary now it must be shared - at least so far as she was concerned - but the openness with which she offered to share the space was genuine and unreserved. Except in one regard.
"You're used to working with someone?"