'The less of me you have, the more I am worth.'
Susan stared at the man who in turn stared back at her still wearing the smug look on his face, Susan didn't know what to say, who on earth was he and was he going to tell the commissioner about her lackadaisical approach to her role on her first day.
"Can I help you?" Susan asked as she looked the skinny man up and down with a flick of her wary eyes.
The man chuckled to himself and pushed up his glasses picking up some files on the desk next to her computer station and moving away from it signalling to her that she could sit back down. "I have everything I came for." The man said holding the files up momentarily then placing them down on a free cabinet and flicking through the pages, his eyes scanning through the print for whatever he had had come for.
Susan eyebrows furrowed and her eyes narrowed as she went back to sit at the desk not taking her gaze off him for a moment. The man was tall and as she'd noted before rather slim like he hadn't been eating well for sometime, he had short brown hair combed over neatly to the side and held himself with an air of certainty coupled with a social awkwardness that she could relate to.
She closed the lettings window on the Internet quickly and went back to her programming for the remainder of the day but then the man cut the silence and spoke making her jolt slightly.
"You won't find anything cheap within a good two mile radius of this place if that's what you were hoping."
Susan's eyes strayed over to the man who was still looking at his paperwork, "Thanks, I'll keep that in mind." She said bluntly sipping at her coffee and breathing deeply, it wasn't really the thing she'd wanted to hear.
"Edward." The man said making her look up from her screen to him once again, "Edward Nygma, head of the forensics department here." He smiled with his head cocked to one side looking her over with mild interest.
"Susan Lewis." Susan said quickly going back to her work, she wasn't in the mood for small talk, she wanted this day over with as soon as possible.
"Ah," the man named Edward said, "So you're the Wayne Enterprises employee, not a replacement for Ms. Kringle." He placed the file down and feigned a little more interest for the woman in front of him.
Edward gave the woman, Susan Lewis, further inspection now he knew that she wasn't just some dull paper pusher replacement for his cold lifeless ex girlfriend buried under several layers of earth and snow. The woman before him looked up curiously every now and then from her screen but mainly couldn't hold eye contact with him for very long which either meant she wasn't adept in social situations or she really didn't want him to be there making her feel uncomfortable, he could see her squirming under his gaze slightly, or so he thought. Susan was in her late twenties he guessed with shoulder length rich brown hair curling in around her face and blue cautious eyes peering at him when she thought he wasn't looking, she was slender with pale slightly sun kissed skin, coupled with her awkward attitude, lack of willingness to work and slumped posture he guessed that she'd been put in this position against her will, possibly one of the employees dragged back from overseas. Yes it all added up, he could speak about his deduction with certainty, Edward applauded himself internally though really it had been an easy riddle to solve.
"A change in wardrobe might be advisable too, Gotham climate tends to be more chilly than the Southern Asia temperatures you're used to." Edward grinned waiting for her to look up at him in amazement but Susan kept her head lowered and took another sip of her tea.
Susan wanted 'Edward' to go away, his smarmy and smug attitude along with his unawareness of when to keep his mouth closed was starting to get her back up but she wondered if it was just her, was he trying to be clever or was he trying to initiate some sort of social compassion towards her in his own style, either way he was still extremely strange and exhausting in her current state of mind.
"I have lived here before." Susan said looking up from her screen with a slight smile, "Thanks for the advice though." Susan looked Edward straight in the eyes and held his gaze for a few moments before wishing she hadn't, it was if he were looking right into her soul, trying to work out the inner recesses of her mind and she felt very uncomfortable so she looked away.
The door to the office opened and a police officer called to Edward, he looked around and nodded at the man before they disappeared and Edward turned to looked back at Susan who was leaning back in her chair and typing away at her computer furiously trying to ignore him. Edward was intrigued by her unwillingness to give little away about herself, he guessed she would be around for some time so he'd have the chance to pick away at her mind some more, after all there were little challenges at the moment for him to concentrate on and he found her demeanour, how should he describe it, to his particular taste, standoffish and a mystery to be unraveled.
"Good afternoon Ms. Lewis." Edward smiled down at her, "I'm sure we'll run into each other again." Edward watched as she looked up at him and smiled a final time, "Any questions? ... Don't be afraid to ask." He said before he turned on his heel and left the office.
Susan felt confused, that had been the strangest, shortest conversation in her life, the man was bewildering but she didn't want to dwell on it, she had bigger things to deal with right now and as sure as she was they would meet and speak again she was sure she had to get her life sorted so she found the lettings site she'd previously been on and started searching once again for an apartment nearby, not heeding a single one of Edwards words.
