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Post by Shade on Aug 11, 2007 16:26:57 GMT -5
Shade smirked inwardly, noticing his movements and also that he was letting it look just as accidental as she had. Gambit´s behaviour evoked a kind of hunter´s instinct in her although this was just a game. She kept watching him not too obviously though while she was continuing to eat. She noticed she really liked the tie he was wearing - surely she could make use of it at some later point she added in thought, grinning to herself.
"Sweden?" she asked. "How was it? Interesting country?"
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Post by Gambit on Aug 11, 2007 16:45:03 GMT -5
Gambit noticed the amount of attention she was giving him had increased, as did the amount of eye contact they were making, even if by accident. Now there was a danger of it becoming conspicuous for other people around them; he was hoping they'd manage it somehow through the main course.
"Didn' see much of de country, chere," he said. "Jus' Gothenburg. It was a very specialized vacation," he explained. Whatever she would make out of it.
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Post by Shade on Aug 11, 2007 16:53:41 GMT -5
"I see." Shade said with a nod. "I´ve never been there myself but heard it´s worth a visit." An answer just as ambiguous as his might have been intended - she left that for him to interpret. She had to make sure she was giving her food enough attention. When they were usually chatting she had a habit of getting engrossed in a conversation to a point where she would eat rather slowly while her meal got cold which she didn´t mind much - but she wanted to stick to the game which meant she took care to devote more attention and time to her food than Shade would usually have done.
She took a few moments to just eat, then take another sip from her wine, glancing at Gambit briefly over the rim of her glass, her face friendly but not too flirtatious. Pretending he was just a colleague, maybe one she wanted to tease by taking away a little of the obviousness of her flirtling. Following the thoughts of the female agent, she noted he had taken up on her brief touch even though his reaction didn´t admit it. He seemed interested so she watched and waited, seeing what would happen. Watching meaning an amount of eye contact and smiles that was still passable as two people who knew each other through work dining together but which for both of them could be obvious as a disguised flirt.
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Post by Gambit on Aug 12, 2007 6:19:17 GMT -5
Gambit took the pause that ensued as an opportunity to study her and see what she was contemplating in her role at the moment. Not just flirt - she was going to draw up the game for as long as she could, probably, otherwise she wouldn't have slowed down on the small signs she had been giving to him before that.
Pausing like this instead of going directly for the gain, extending the game and keeping patient was always the most difficult part, but it also prolonged the pleasure before the final catch. Gambit knew Shade could stop the game at any moment and just return to her normal loving and teasing mode, but he was grateful she didn't. It was their night to play, and he was intent to make the most of it, and to show her how to.
It was probably time to take this to a new level - a level where they would be speaking about their actual jobs as secret agents, but disguising it as their mock identity. That would be tricky, but the fact that their secret identities seemed to also know one another from work helped a lot. "Jus' for de sake of feelin' updated - what was your latest project at work?"
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Post by Shade on Aug 12, 2007 12:07:48 GMT -5
Shade found she had a firmer grip on her role now. It didn´t cost her as much thinking as it had during the first minutes as she had been constructing things in her head since they had entered, part of her mind occupied with it, instead of merely flirting with Gambit.
He asked her for her job - they knew each other as colleagues in this game and they were in public. Also, as she had `found out´ some minutes previously, they were taped. That ruled out the possibility of talking about business directly. The listener could gather information from that which they didn´t want him or her or them to get, yet it had to be possible for them to communicate. Indirect them, with some sorts of codes.
What did spies do? "Public relations abroad." she said. That could be a disguise for pretty much any sort of mission out of the States. She felt unsure about naming a specific country. That could give away too much for a potential listener. "a company I´ve been working with for a while now." Assuming they knew each other as colleagues that might give him more information than the one who taped them as Gambit the agent might know a little more about her missions and might be able to piece together something - whatever he chose that to be.
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Post by Gambit on Aug 12, 2007 12:45:44 GMT -5
"Do dey seem willin' t' share deir experience?" Gambit smirked and took a sip of his wine. A dangerous question - too obviously touching on their 'spy' identities rather than their fake identities, but he wanted to try it out.
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Post by Shade on Aug 12, 2007 12:50:13 GMT -5
The question was one that was rather ambiguous, Shade noticed. It almost sounded like ´share information´ which would have been clearly into the spy direction but like that just edged around it. Still it told her, Gambit had taken on on her ´code´ which, had she been a real agent, would have been a sign that any further coded pieces of seeming small talk business conversation would be understood.
"Our concepts were new for them, but we offered better service and prices than other companies." she said. "it´s been some work, but it was successful."
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Post by Gambit on Aug 12, 2007 13:03:55 GMT -5
"I wouldn't expect any different from a project where you are involved," Gambit said.
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Post by Shade on Aug 12, 2007 13:10:09 GMT -5
Her eyebrow slightly rose at that, accompanied by a tiny smirk. Hadn´t it been for the ´tape´, this would have been the moment for Shade to tease him about whether that had been intended as a compliment - even Shade the spy would have asked that, but it would have been recorded and she couldn´t have the listener notice obvious signs of flirting.
Therefore she left it at a smile which went without a teasing remark.
"Thank you." she said instead, sounding friendly and honestly flattered by the compliment but not in a way that went beyond business.
"Well, it´s an interesting job, new people, new challenges all the time. What about you? Had any success with that project you had in the planning?" It was a narrow question again, one that was on the edge of being spy talk, but it did not contain any narrowed down information. She assumed both of them knew what they were talking about, the listener didn´t and her words didn´t add anything to his knowledge.
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Post by Gambit on Aug 12, 2007 13:23:13 GMT -5
"Yeah," Gambit nodded, "it's been developed successfully and I believe is now fully sailin' in de right direction." That was applicable to all three levels of the game, so he inwardly marked it as yet another successful response. "Not without your help, too," he raised his glass slightly, "which was one of de things I wanted to celebrate tonight." What were possible other reasons, he had no idea, but it was fun trying to devise new details for their cover story to keep up with words that sprang into his speech seemingly by themselves.
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Post by Shade on Aug 12, 2007 13:29:46 GMT -5
At least to her ears, Gambit´s words bore a faint parallel to his situation now and Shade wondered briefly whether he intended it to sound like this. As he had said back in the hospital this dinner was not supposed to be for celebrating but the mention about her help bore a distant echo of the last few weeks. She smiled at that and raised her glass. "We should drink to successful business then." she said, placing her fork away for a moment, looking at him.
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Post by Gambit on Aug 12, 2007 13:33:13 GMT -5
"We should," Gambit smiled, glancing briefly at his glass and back at her. "To successful business dat creates many unexpected opportunities - let's put it dat way."
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Post by Shade on Aug 12, 2007 13:36:22 GMT -5
"That´s a good way." Shade agreed with a nod and a smile before she lightly clinked her glass against Gambit´s, looking at him while she did so. One of her fingers very briefly touched his. It looked just like another accidental contact, unsuspicious to possible watchers, but clear for both of them. She drank from her glass and placed it back down.
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Post by Gambit on Aug 12, 2007 13:44:35 GMT -5
Gambit suppressed a smirk at her actions. In his opinion, flirting in their context couldn't get any more direct than that. Barely wetting his lips with the drink, he set his glass aside. "Would you grace me wit' a dance, Emily?" he asked, his eyes sparkling with playful interest.
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Post by Shade on Aug 12, 2007 13:48:42 GMT -5
Shade couldn´t fight a broad smile at his words and decided that even her character-for-an-evening would have done the same - interested in him by now, curious about his next steps. Whatever he had in mind, his words also meant they had an alibi for the tape. They could soon move ahead to a more obvious flirting stage. She had finished her meal by now and returned his glance with a similar sparkle in her eyes.
"Of course." she said, smiling.
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