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Sophie clamped down on the nerves fluttering in her stomach. It was brunch, in a public space, and if it was with someone she’d been more…more honest with, about herself, than she had in a long time, even if it was someone she hadn’t yet met in person, well, that was healthy, wasn’t it? It was a good choice. She was moving forward.
Her phone went off in her pocket, and she pulled it out, part of her desperately hoping it was him, saying something had come up, saying that they’d have to reschedule. She sighed as she saw that it was Eliot. “It’s perfectly safe,” she muttered. “I can handle myself!” She sent the call to voicemail, set the phone to do not disturb, and re-pocketed it, though not before she saw a text pop up.
I’ve got us a booth in the corner. Just tell them your name.
Sophie’s stomach fluttered again, along with a slight twinge of guilt. Honest about the things that matter, she told herself.
The hostess smiled at her. “Do you have a reservation?” she asked.
“Yes,” Sophie said, a bit breathlessly. “I’m Viola, and I’m meeting someone?”
“Oh, yes, right this way,” the hostess said, and bustled off towards the back of the restaurant.
Sophie followed her to an alcove that was almost cut off from the rest of the dining area. “I’ll be back in a few minutes to take your orders,” the hostess said, and Sophie murmured her thanks and rounded the corner. She looked at the man seated at the table and froze.
Their eyes met. “No,” Sterling breathed, face twisting. “No, you did not, this is low, even for you, did you seriously—?”
“What, you think I knew who you were?” Sophie demanded hotly.
“How could you not?” Sterling demanded. “You can’t tell me you didn’t have one your little geeks background check—”
“I didn’t!” she said. “And believe me, they wanted to. And anyway, why would I have planned this? I’m the one who’s been trying to evade you, for years, not the other way around!”
“That…makes a frustrating amount of sense,” Sterling admitted.
“And you can’t tell me you didn’t use Interpol’s resources to—”
“Using those resources for personal reasons would be unethical,” Sterling said silkily, “and anyway if I did want to track you down, I’d start with my brilliant employee who recently reconnected with her estranged stepmother.”
Sophie froze again. Astrid would never forgive her if she screwed up her career. Her heart twisted as she remembered how much she’d already told him about spending time with her stepdaughter, how much she’d already incriminated Astrid now that Sterling could link those messages to her— “Leave Astrid out of this,” she said quietly.
Sterling rolled his eyes. “I have been leaving her out of it. You think I didn’t know she was seeing you again?”
“So what, you’re—using her? Waiting until you can hold it over her and—”
“Criminal informants are useful,” Sterling said, waving his hand. “They’re part of the job. There are lines, of course, but she’s…entitled to managing her own connections. I trust her discretion.”
“And your connections?” Sophie asked cautiously.
Sterling stared at her for a long moment. “Sit,” he said eventually, gesturing at the table.
“You’re just going to let—”
“I don’t really want to tell one of my best agents that I got her mother arrested over a…miscommunication,” Sterling said, pinching the bridge of his nose, “and I also don’t particularly want to sit here eating alone, so…”
Sophie watched him for another long moment and then sat.
“So,” she said, when the silence had stretched.
“So,” Sterling said, very pointedly not looking at her.
“We were going to talk about that Manet exhibition we both went to.”
“We were.”
Sophie sighed.
“Look,” Sterling said, taking a breath. “I have—genuinely—been enjoying Viola’s conversation—is it Viola, generally, now, or…?”
“Sophie’s fine,” Sophie said, waving a hand. “And are you…I don’t think I ever asked whether you prefer Jim or James.”
“James, to my…personal friends,” Sterling said.
Sophie’s eyes widened slightly. “Well then, James…”
The server arrived, and both of them let out sighs of relief as she rattled off the specials in a chipper voice and then took their orders.
“So how have you been?” Sterling asked, when the server had retreated.
“How have I been?” Sophie asked, raising an eyebrow.
“I mean, we ran into each other in Minsk last year...”
“I ran away from you in Minsk. Successfully.”
“Semantics.”
Sophie laughed, and Sterling’s lips twitched upward.
“So Manet,” Sophie said, and they talked, haltingly at first, of art for the next several minutes. Their food arrived, and they both breathed a sigh of relief again at the distraction.
“Twelfth Night,” Sterling said suddenly, snapping his fingers.
Sophie smiled at him. “Just catching up with you, is it?”
He huffed. “You even named yourself after a seduction con,” he muttered. “Were you trying to get called out?”
“Apparently not hard enough.”
“Yes, well.” He shook his head.
“And anyway it’s a survival con,” Sophie quietly.
Sterling raised an eyebrow at her.
Sophie blushed. “It…it’s a con she started because it wasn’t safe to be herself,” Sophie said. She couldn’t quite read the look Sterling gave her, but he dropped the topic.
When the check arrived, they both reached for it.
“You paying creates rather a liability for me,” Sterling said dryly.
Sophie huffed but tucked her purse away. “Well, thank you,” she said when the server had taken the check away. “For…all of it.”
“Well, as we both know, I’m a self-serving bastard when it comes down to it,” he said lightly.
Sophie glanced at him sidelong. “Oh? And what’s in it for you this time then?”
“Excellent company,” he said.
Sophie snorted. “Well, is it still excellent? Or are its returns diminishing?”
Sterling’s lips twitched. “The canal’s lovely this time of year,” he said, as they made their way to the entrance. “If you’d care for a walk?”
“Alright,” Sophie said, and when he proffered his arm, she took it.
They’d wandered perhaps a dozen yards down the trail when Sterling stiffened suddenly, and Sophie looked at him. “We’re being followed,” he said irritably.
Sophie tensed. “By…your people or mine?”
“At least Spencer. Possibly Parker. And, unless I am quite mistaken…” He sighed, then pitched his voice. “Agent Pickford,” he called out. “If you are intruding on my personal life, that would be very unprofessional and I shall be very cross.”
Sophie whirled around, distantly registering a disguised Eliot by the water, to see a flash of dark hair disappear behind a tree at the edge of the park. Movement slightly above caught her eye, and she looked up to see a flash of blonde hair in the branches.
She offered Sterling an apologetic smile. “I did tell them not to,” she said.
“Then maybe you should have warned us!” Eliot’s growl barely reached them. “If you didn’t want us to react when Breanna hacked the cafe feeds—”
“Of course she did,” Sophie sighed. “And I didn’t know—”
“Oh thank god,” a voice from the trees said, followed by a faint yelp.
Sophie looked back towards them, a smile playing at her lips.
“Again,” Sterling said. “It would be hardly professional to—”
“It would be hardly professional for you to be romancing your subordinate’s mother without telling them,” Astrid shot back, coming out from around the tree. “Sir,” she added hurriedly when he glared at her. Her gaze slid sideways to Sophie. “And it would also be…not very motherly to have not told me that.”
Sophie’s heart warmed at the term. “It hasn’t been going on,” she said. “Neither of us knew who we were really talking to.”
“Good, because it also wouldn’t have been very criminally of you,” Parker chirped from the tree.
“Please try to not incriminate yourself or my mother in front of me,” Astrid sighed.
“Or in front of me,” Sterling added.
“Aww, I didn’t know you cared,” Sophie purred, squeezing his arm.
“And I thought you had taste,” Eliot muttered behind her, but Sophie’s attention was caught by Sterling’s gaze, intent on her.
“Really?” he asked quietly. “After this whole morning—”
“This is so weird,” Astrid muttered.
Sterling closed his eyes briefly. “Do you think,” he murmured when he opened them, “that if I kissed you it would bother them enough to leave us in peace?”
Sophie’s lips twitched. “You know, it might,” she said. “Worth a try, certainly.”
He tilted his head, and Sophie was surprised to feel her pulse quicken. She leaned in, still clutching his arm, and their lips met. Distantly she thought she heard their observers offering some sort of input, but Sterling’s lips were sweet against hers, the tastes of cinnamon and coffee lingering on them, and when they broke apart, the park was silent.
“It appears to have worked,” Sterling murmured.
Sophie tilted her head at him. “Was that suggestion only of tactical interest?” she asked.
Sterling smiled. “I would not be opposed to non-tactical applications of it,” he said.
Sophie smiled and leaned into him, and together they began to walk along the canal again.
“I…would like the opportunity to do this again,” Sterling said after a few minutes. He cleared his throat. “If you…”
Sophie smiled up at him. “Maybe I’m done running.”