ornamental flower show

[middlingalong]

Destang isn't too thrilled with Ivan, but since his lack of thrill takes the form of sending Ivan to a flower show to be out of the commodore's hair rather than, say, confining him to quarters like poor Galeni, Ivan isn't going to rock the boat. He leaves the half-commlink with Galeni in case Miles suddenly has an emergency and goes off as directed to meet the lady he's escorting.

He finds her at the University of London's Horticulture Hall, shepherds her around, makes comments of limited sophistication but genuine enthusiasm regarding the pretty flowers, and excuses himself a couple hours into the affair for a bathroom break.

Comments

[isthisart]

"He was still puzzled about that by the time he talked to me. I told him that if I weren't tied to a chair I would hold out a hand in his direction and see what he'd do with it. He wound up untying one to make the experiment, and he looked at me like I'd electrocute him and dithered about how to react, then shook my hand. And then I had one hand untied for most of the rest of it but didn't think of anything clever to do with that."

[thisvorlunatic]

"Yeah. I don't know. He seemed... very aware of his position as Fake Miles, when we were all down in the seawall - do you know what I mean?"

[isthisart]

"I'm not sure if I do."

[thisvorlunatic]

"Well. 'That one's your husband', for example. And, I don't know, the way he acted around you in general."

[isthisart]

"He put on a convincing act for the ghem we spoke to. And I was glad for the pointer to which of you was which. Ivan seems to be able to tell - I need this." She gestures at the scanner.

[thisvorlunatic]

"Ivan can apparently tell by the fact that Mark seems to like him more than I do."

[isthisart]

"I have the impression that you and Ivan have decided that amongst yourselves a sufficient level of trust completely obviates the need for actual affection."

[thisvorlunatic]

"That's one way to put it."

[isthisart]

"Anyway. You have things to do that aren't listen to me analyze the relationship between you and Ivan."

[thisvorlunatic]

"Yeah."

Clothes all changed, he sits down at his comconsole and scans his orders.

"Looks sticky," he says when he's finished skimming. "This is not going to be one of the fun missions." He extracts the data disk from the comconsole, pockets it, kisses Linya's hand, and heads out.