Main House
"Just pump a Triceraflex and do a silly dance to a lil snip of what you've been cookin'? I mean no harm in asking, right?"

When Holly's eyes went to your phone and returned to you, she saw that you hadn't followed, your eyes still on her. Grin gone, portcullis shut, drawbridge raised.
Like she mis-stepped in answering your question and talking about how she was spending less time with Leo.

Holly just chewed and listened for a minute before taking another drink, her posture stilted and awkward and it wasn't just from the consideration of her nails or her lip tint.

"…I've gotta be a little cautious about that," she answered regarding Moss-Lo. "Information ain't free, even if he's posturing like he's expanding his throughput. Seeing the whole menu creates a footprint of goods — could be he's trying to ID my supplier to cut around me. If he guesses wrong, that's gonna go real bad for him so if I were in his shoes…"

Was this existential indulgence a distraction from other pertinent topics? Sure, but this tangent was not for show.
If you were gonna stamp out the other line of conversation with a terse acknowledgment, she'd move on.

"…I'd wanna be pretty certain if I were him." thinking about the biz undercut her appetite, and she left the other half un-eaten.

"…meth is probably the easiest expansion, good margins and the shit they cook in those Mexican mega-labs is so much better than anything they manage this side of the border off of cope-tier reagents. But soon as he sees it he'll know it's Sinaloa. But he won't know where I'm plugged in, or if I'm exclusive to them or not."

Holly pushed her plate away from herself and just focused on the drink, wearily taking off her petty indoor shades and staring off into the distance like she were doing math. "Be nice if I could afford to plug in some decoy goods in the report, stuff I don't expect him to order in bulk, and stuff that'll throw off his sniffing. What do you think?"

gives time a little bit longer

drinks quietly watching over the bar

thanks the waitress as my drink is delivered

stops a waitress and orders another drink

Main House
"Uhh…" Holly used her pinky finger to navigate her phone, since she just went off the chef's profile and out to the new(ish) spot. "Uhhh, ‘Hoo's on First&rsquol; is the spot — guess it's on First Avenue."

She got situated, awkwardly negotiating with the stool that was more Brix-sized than Holly-sized.
Tortilla managed, pinched, maneuvered around metallic plum-hued talons, appreciated while you explained about the music.

The fizzy Truly helped wash it down behind the effervescent suggestion of lime, and the tilt of the can was interrupted by the muted buzz of your phone in its case.

Eyes back to you.

"…yeah no I feelyou but if you're going that, you gotta do the whole song n' dance. Drop teases every other day, get 'em hot and ready to hear it, get all over social media, big stupid smile, get some collab going so other people can talk about it all shush like they ain't supposed to leak it, like drum up interest."

Crazy being mansplained about how modern music culture works, but she just listened, simply holding that for a minute ask you pivoted to asking how the show went, well…

…if you were willing to take up the burden of breaking the ice, she couldn't reciprocate by being dishonest, so she… braced.

"It's… I mean it's going well. Far less nerves now than at the start, but… it's really awkward, with Elodie. There's a huge, invisible rift. We often don't see her at the shows, and you know how I've been paring down my time with Leo lately…" elbows on the counter, hovering the half-eaten bundle with a few drops of bright-red sauce escaping onto the second taco laying open underneath.

"…we're still finalizing the schedule for how many more showings we're going to do. In the meantime I'm just lucky nothing untoward has been going on in Edgewater. Dragoshi and AJ have been quiet, too."

Holly lifted the taco up, paused. "…what about Chicago?"

watches to see if anybody comes in with a project

The House
Heh, speaking of sexy Karl Urban...

slides out to go finish a paused scene elsewhere

sips my drink more

I take it not here long enough to do that tonight then?

lights a cigarette and blows smoke away from you
"Such a shame. I shall have to rectify that some time soon, I suspect"
giving you a knowing wink

not had a lot of chance for proper misbehaving sadly.

shrugs as our drinks arrive
takes a long drink and smiles at you
"Indeed we have. I trust you have been misbehaving in my absence!"
lol

The House
Poor Rudy. The lab tech should never go undercover.

it has been too long we keep missing each other. I'm doing well, how are you?

"How have you been, Dove? It's been a while. Some of your fans have been missing you!"

Main House
He watched you serve yourself a plate of food, and he would unceremoniously reach across the Island, following your collection like he didn't know what to try until he watched you gather it for yourself.

His plate full, he dropped back down and set about getting a large mouthful of the first sustenance he'd eaten apart from a Protein bar in the morning with his coffee.

"Looks good. What's the place called?"

He continues the superfluous chatter with you, grabbing a small strip of beef that had fallen out of a taco bite to chase the full flavor of his mouthful.

He pockets the food into the side of his cheek, like a squirrel, to answer...

"Nah nah nah Blockhead's done. Finna drop next week, feelme? But if I got the gear, I might as well throw somethin' down. Might just release it all by it's lonesome. One-once it's down that is..."

He reached for his yeti, after he was back to chewing and using the splash of water to aid in his swallow. His phone buzzes, the tips of his rubberized case rattling against the granite— or was it marble?— countertop. Brix leaves the phone sitting where it was.

"Like, you know they don't really care 'bout albums anymore, feelme? It's like single songs and shit. That down there ain't even close to done but throwin' down lyrics felt good, nahmean?"

He takes his eyes off his food, and looks over to you.

"How was the show?"

sees you and smiles

good evening

Out

enters the bar
smiling as I see you are here
orders a round for us as I come and join you