She wasn't happy that she was going to have to work with him, and made a face at him. She felt a little childish, but at the same time, so what? It wasn't like it was going to make him clam up. She saw his slight smirk and wondered if it was reflex or an echo of their past playful relationship. In any case, she knew him well enough to know that he took his job very seriously and that even if he hated her, he'd still do whatever necessary to help the client.
He picked her up at her house and they drove together to the set to meet Cindy, her new client. She sat in silence in his car, looking out the window. She didn't even try to make conversation; if she knew anything about Nico, it was that it was impossible to extract information and she didn't want to make small talk with him like they were back to their old ways.
He asked her about her silence, which surprised her. Was he just being a jerk? Mr. Strong and Silent wanted to chit chat? Her response - "Why? You don't say anything, and I've got nothing to say." seemed to satisfy him.
The actress presented a fair number of challenges - an overdose of antihistamines and a surprise tattoo were two of them, and Nico ended up being put on guard duty to make sure she showed up at the set the next day. She probably shouldn't have been surprised that he appeared at her doorstep that night along with a weeping Cindy, who threw herself in her therapist's arms while Dani glared at Nico.
It turned out that the actress had some problems with her romantic attachments, as evidenced by the restraining order from her most recent boyfriend, and her desperate desire to be with her current one. Dani had tried to counter that the actress really didn't need her boyfriend right then, only to have the actress counter, "Haven't you ever had that feeling, Dr. Santino, where you have something with another person and you can't describe it but it's undeniable? And you had to act on it or you'd just… burst?"
She couldn't help glancing at Nico when Cindy said that. It was pure reflex, and she was embarrassed. She was surprised to see him looking back at her, only to drop his eyes with an expression she thought she recognized but couldn't believe: he looked hurt. She realized she had imagined it a few minutes later, when he redoubled his jerkiness by telling Cindy she could spend the night at the Santino residence. He knew better than that, and she called him on it. He went back to a tactic he hadn't used on her since she first met him, which was to refer to her contract. She finally asked him point blank why he didn't want her at V3. His answer, that he didn't think it was the right place for her, and that he didn't care how she interpreted that answer, ticked her off. She was going to help her client, and he was going to help her do it, whether he wanted to or not. She wasn't going anywhere.
By the time he got back with answers, it seemed like he was ready to collaborate professionally. Good. She'd deal with whatever his issue was with her later. At least there wouldn't be overt hostility.