"Holy shit! That sounds like something I wannna know!" An overexcited, but gravelly from years of smoking at least a couple packs a day, male voice came yelling out the phone's speaker. Cringing she held the phone away while the voice's owner calmed down. "Take it easy, please. I'm not exactly putting up a billboard on Time's Square, ya know?" She replied, in a much calmer and quieter voice than him. Arianna had not wasted time in getting touch with the contact she and Mason had discussed earlier. Just as she had predicted, the man was excited about it. He always claimed he was too busy to do anything but whatever the bureau gave him, but her family knew better. The guy just as often came in to his head of department with concerning leads that he'd caught wind of on his own. The guy just loved finding interesting things, finding leads and following them to their very end, and though he joked it was a decent paycheck with too much overtime, the guy seemed to like being able to do some good. He had never treated her unkindly and was one of the positive male role models in her and her sister's life from the very beginning of becoming a member of the Lancaster family. Of course, he had been their first illegal taste of beer but he always scolded them for speaking ill of anyone or not wanting to help learn about changing the oil on his car, and never smoked around them. "I just want you to use your talents, find any information that seems worrisome, Al." She could hear the soft clicking of a keyboard as he affirmed his willingness to do so. With a quick agreement on how to contact each other, their was silence in the room at the end of the call.
She sat on the edge of her bed, phone in hand, and taking the room in. It was... as standard semi-budget hotel. It was clean and fairly plainly decorated but it was nice enough and she had not seen many others also in town but was able to tell this one was larger than them. A soft sigh escaped her. This hadn't been how she expected the day to go. Well, it certainly might do her some good to take a quick nap after getting some work done. Sliding her laptop out of its bag she set to it. The numbers and charts were growing fuzzy, needing to rub her eyes more often than usual... It felt like not too long after, she had curled around a pillow and fallen into a nice nap.
~~TIME SKIP~~
With a jolt, the girl shot up from bed. Swinging her gaze to the window through bleary eyes, she realized that night had fallen, the sun shining through earlier having changed to the distinctive neon of the hotel's outdoor sign. Rubbing the sleep from still tired eyes, the young woman shuffled to the bathroom to freshen up. The cool water against her skin certainly woke her up, and she was wistful for her face wash to help even a little more but she was soon puling the basic little hotel comb through her hair. Catching her reflection in the small round mirror made her pause. There sued to be dark circles under her eyes, from too little sleep and too many nights spent staring at graphs and chart and numbers of profits and losses and composing memos that would largely go ignored. Slightly too small dark eyes looked back, a clarity there she hadn't remembered could be, and her skin was seeming to like the cleaner forest air.... All good things, and even with this recent shift in priorities, the scent of danger, and an uncertainty still hanging between her and Mason.... There was a whisper of excitement that also hung in the air,, not dampened by the edge of fear about unknowns. Pulling in a deep breath, she let it out slowly and deliberately, focusing on the motions.
The air had cooled considerably, even with the long sleeve shirt she wished she'd thought to bring a jacket. Pulling her phone out of her pocket, its face displayed seven-thirty in numerals bright enough to cast her face in blue light. "Let's get a bite to eat? Not sure if Britt wants in. Meet at the Timberline?" Hitting 'send', she adjusted her purse and headed out, not minding the couple blocks it would take to reach it. The feline perked up but was easily coaxed to relax when it realized there was no real wilderness quite so close as at the cabin. It was a good night to think about things and realize that although a smaller town and local, the Timberline was one of the nicer restaurants that she had visited while on her trips in for regular shopping and work meetings. It was too late though as she had already reached it. No going back, she strode in with as much confidence as she could realizing that this might get a little awkward, especially if Britt declined. Giving instructions to the hostess to let Mason and Britt know that they need only request to be shown their table, the hostess' eyes widened a bit before she gave a nod and led her to a table tucked into a corner with a good view of the main street. Eyeing the placement and dark green tablecloth, she now definitely knew that everyone seemed to know who Mason was, or at least knew of him. Maybe though, it was her, too, she suddenly realized. She had done it at the last place, and every other place she'd visited while here, and she had not always been dressed so casually either. Eyeing the street, and letting her mind mull over this supposed rising up of shifters... the wine she'd requested, swirling gently in its glass as her gaze absently followed the tourists meandering up and down the street, sky deepening and the lights starting to give a warm glow.
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