"Yeah."

"Hello."

"Am I on speaker phone?"

"You are."

"Why?"

Maggie groaned. "I have been on my feet all day." She let her suit jacket slip off her shoulders to the floor.

"Are you? I can hear… never mind."

She laughed. "I am standing in my kitchen, trying to decide if I should make margaritas, but I don't like to drink alone."

"Oh."

"I take it, you drink alone."

"On occasion, but not like that. Maybe a beer or two."

"Hmm."

"Am I being psychoanalyzed?"

"Not analyzed exactly."

"Hey, I was in New York. I got the Bola. Hell of a thing."

"It seemed like something you'd appreciate."

"Did you notice the engravings on the balls? One of 'em is a deer and the other is a bird."

"I did see that. You know it's not an artifact. They're local made, not relics, but in the style of the ancients."

"No, yeah. It's just, you know, thank you."

"You're welcome."

"So why on your feet all day? I thought you had a desk job?"

"I do, mostly. But I was working with a gallery doing an installation. Mostly you stand around and watch people hang art and pray no one puts a nail through a canvas."

"Sounds…awesome."

She was laughing. "I take it you're not looking for a job as a curator's assistant."

"Uh, no."

"So."

The blender went off and Eliot squinted and pulled the phone away from his ear.

"Sorry."

"So, strawberry margarita or lime?"

"Strawberry."

"Toss in some mango. And then make mango chutney to put on fish tacos."

"MMMm. Except I don't have any fish or taco shells or mango."

"Shame. But now I know what I'm having for dinner."

"Wait. You haven't had dinner yet? What time zone are you in?"

"Uh."

"Are you here? In LA?"

"No, I'm in Portland."

"Oh, for a second I thought maybe we could have that dinner you promised that first date."

"I, uh, we had coffee."

"No, not that date, Dr. Sinclair."

He chuckled. "We did talk dinner, didn't we?"

"Yes, you did."

"Well, the next time Adam Sinclair is in L.A., he'll be sure to call you."

"Okay. Well, I'm going to heat up a frozen dinner and finish my margarita."

"Frozen, uh, and people call me a barbarian."

She was laughing when she hung up.