She knocked before she entered. It seemed polite, though she knew Nathan was expecting her. The door opened almost immediately. When he saw her a smile broke over his face.
"Claire. How are you?"
She shrugged, grinning.
"All good."
"Alright, why the visit?" He stood aside to let her enter.
"Can't I say hi to you now and again?"
"I was actually about to go down to lunch with Angela."
"Oh."
"You could come too if you want."
"Mm." She made a noise of non-committal. "Angela seems weird lately. Peter's off on some A&E course and since I was staying in New York for a while I thought 'hey, why not go and see a Senator?' so I did. Come on, I was feeling lonely, can you blame me?"
She blinked up at him with puppy dog eyes. He sighed, won over.
"Of course not."
She beamed and wrapped her arms as far as she could reach around his midriff.
"It's nice to see you." She murmured, muffled from her face in his chest.
He was taken aback when she had hugged him. He glanced down at her hair shining golden in the bright light now that he'd opened the curtains. But he placed his own arms around her back and held her tightly, smirking over the top of her head. She was so small that she only reached up to his chest; so fragile and delicate that it was impossible to think that she couldn't die. She was invincible. He enjoyed the feeling of her embracing him for a while longer, knowing how disgusted she would be if she knew that he was not Nathan, but the person who she hated above everyone, everything and who she thought she'd seen burn.
"It's nice to see you." She told him.