Nathan finally walks in the door, all business and seriousness toward the file open in his hands, until he looks up.

It's not a double take. He doesn't do those. Everything is understated. At a distance. But it's there. The surprise. When he'd gone to look at her in a cursory fashion and instead ends up just staring full bore at her, and maybe anyone else would call it blank, but she's learning to count everything else, too. The barest shift in those eyes. The way his hands lower the file just as barely. Steps stopped in their direction, an extra one or so just in front of her desk, reorienting his focus from his desk to hers.

Her. Sitting there. Like this.

The singular scene she knew she'd be when she put it all on.
But couldn't help, like she can't help the smile breaking free.


"So." Audrey pops the word like it's a bottle of champagne.
A sentence in itself, even as she has press it further, pull for more.

Shifts her hand to point up at the brow of her hat. "What'd you think?"