Uh, what?

"I was totally unaware of that," I spoke crisply. Damn, that had come out a lot more military than I had intended.

"Oh, you'll love it. There's a robot **** parrot."

Kaila's eyes sparkled as she pushed back her plate of seafood pasta. She leaned one arm back over the arm of her dining chair, and lifted her other arm high in a motion that brought no end of attention to her ample assets. Her mouth came open in what seemed to be an exaggerated yawn.

"Wait, you're going to tell me about a robot **** parrot, then fall asleep? That's horrible." I objected, my eyes still drawn to her body. Wait, she was definitely giving me signals, right? This has got to be a signal. NO, no... don't freaking assume, the last thing you need right now is a freaking... don't be paranoid, just go with this...

"Not asleep, but definitely tired. I actually... are you heading back to the convention center for any of the other panels?" Kaila sat up again, her eyes on my empty plate. "Because I don't really want to sit through another speculation on whether or not Simon and Mal were hooking up."

"Oh come on, that was ONE question." I objected.

"How long did she go on for? How many details did she bring up? I swear it was like listening to my dad rant about the Kennedy ****. " Kaila groaned, her hand wandering on the table.

"So you heading home?" I nodded, feeling a bit crestfallen. She was awesome, I'd give her that, but way out of my league. Hell, the very fact that she'd agreed to dinner was pretty amazing.

"That was a hint to talk about family, Brent." Kaila rolled her eyes, and her hand played gently with her water glass.

"OH, shit. Sorry, I'm really bad at this." I admitted.

"Yeah, I noticed." She chuckled. "I swear it's like you're expecting somebody to run up to the table and drag you away. You married?"

"Wha... no, I'm not married," I objected, "I just, sorry, I don't get out a lot."

"Stop apologizing, Brent. Hint number two, it's really unattractive." She pointed out.

"Right..." I felt a rush of blood flow to my face. "No, not married. No kids, unless you count my kid sister. I live in a real shit apartment and my job sucks. My dad is an asshole, and uh, my mom ran off years ago."

"Cool. My folks live back east, They sold their place in town years ago, and have been living off it since. Nice enough, but they still think that I'm an idiot to try to make it as a musician out here." She shrugged. "I've got a... big family. I'm the second... well, I mean third if you want to get technical, of six kids so they really couldn't keep us around forever, you know?"

"You're a musician? What do you play?" I asked.

"Tenor Saxophone." She smiled. "And you obviously don't go to any of the Tech company events or I might have seen you there. So, I gotta ask, what do you do because you're in way too good shape to be a desk jockey?"

Ok, that HAD to be a signal, right? The look she was giving me was low and almost predatory, while her hand was now toying with the salt shaker.