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More than not minding, Tallulah was thrilled to have someone new to hang out with. Constantly popping in and out of town made it difficult to keep up with friendships, as much as she might try, and everyone seemed to have so much going on in their lives lately! Not that Tallulah didn't - summer classes and picking her old job at the pool up certainly kept her busy - but it just didn't seem like she was the kind of busy that other people were, with their grown up concerns and et cetera.

Anyway.

"Nadia!" she called, spotting who she certainly hoped was Methone's civilian form. It was always tricky meeting up for the first time as civilians, what with glamours making everyone's faces seem so different.

"Good to see you," she said, offering the other young woman a friendly hug. "It's such a nice night out - let's find somewhere with patio seating."

Tallulah blushed. She wasn't even, like, trying - not how she got all dressed up to face a bar full of strangers. But hey, she supposed that she was rocking this sundress and these dumb hippie sandals. "Aww, thanks," she said. "You look really good, too."

She let Nadia's arm stay exactly where it was - Tallulah liked having flirtatious friends. "Okay," she said, following Nadia's indication. It was a good suggestion - even without Tallulah mentioning that she was a vegetarian, she'd picked something with plenty of options. "Yeah, let's go there. Tequila's good with anything."

Smiling, Tallulah answered, "No, haven't caught anyone else napping on patrol. I mean I don't go out of my way to look for people who are..." She blushed again, this time with slight embarrassment. "I must seem like the nap police, but I'm not, I promise. I can be cool. I'm very cool."

I am a huge nerd who is currently enrolled in five summer classes, she thought as they sat down. I am not cool.

Tallulah laughed. "Well, I don't think we need any of that in the middle of summer in Destiny City," she said, trying not to picture the mental image. It was just sort of... distressing. "Better to just stick to the refreshing stuff." She felt awkward saying so, though, and hoped that it hadn't been a faux pas.

"Um," said Tallulah, grateful for the slight change in subject, "Yeah. It's a lucky life. Challenging, but, lucky." She blushed. "And I'm glad you think I'm cool. I'm not, but, I'm glad you think I am."

You could take the girl out of model UN, but you could not take model UN out of the girl.

"Anyway, let's not talk about superhero stuff now - it's our night off," she said, reaching for the bowl of tortilla chips that had just been set down between them. "I'm an undergraduate student DCU and a lifeguard at the community center - how about you?"

Was she supposed to mention being married when she was making new friends, she wondered, or would her rings say enough?

Tallulah nodded - Methone had mentioned ballet, but they'd already talked about that a little and she wasn't sure how rehashing the same conversation would go. Probably, she'd just wind up sounding like she'd forgotten the earlier conversation, and that would just be embarrassing. Instead, she picked up another chip and said, "Sounds a little like my mom, but she'd tell you a lot of embarrassing stories about me, too."

"So I guess I should be glad we're eating here instead," she laughed. "As for creeps... well, there's always a few." Wearing her wedding ring could deter the more considerate admirers. For everyone else, well, "I can kick them out if they get too bad. Threatening someone with a ban for the rest of the summer is a pretty good deterrent."

"It's a lot of power for one girl to have," she added. "But I like it."

Tallulah laughed. "Oh, my god, no," she said. "Believe me. You don't." Her parents barely understood the senshi part of her life - she didn't think they'd really grasp how some of her personal relationships worked. And besides, she wanted to spare Nadia the so are you a superhero shakedown.

Lowering her hands, she paused, studying her rings. "No, it's fine," said Tallulah, blushing. "I'm sure you'll meet Nick at some point. We have an understanding." She cringed inwardly. Was that too much? At least with Elzo it had been obvious that he was interested and not just messing around.

"Anyway, no, I'm studying to go to veterinary school," she added, changing the subject. "Let's get tableside guac!"

Nadia wasn't being too forward at all. In fact, Tallulah was glad she'd asked, because it made all this much less awkward for her - at least it was on the table now, so to speak. She laughed. "It's a little bit more complex than that," she said, and left it at that as the waitress appeared - this was hardly the conversation you wanted to be overheard having, was it? Not that she was ashamed or anything like that...

She just didn't want to scandalize the waitress.

"I've always liked cats," she said, shifting easily to tamer subject matter. "Which I guess is lucky for me - imagine being in our line of work and hating cats." She had a feeling you wouldn't last very long.

She watched the waitress walk away and figured they had a few minutes before she would be back with their chips. "What I meant to say earlier is that yeah, Nick's fine with me going out with other people - but he likes it better if I bring them home. He likes to see me with them." She smiled, only slightly sheepish - it got easier to explain this every time. "It's okay if that's not something you're game for. That's just - those are my strings-attached."

Tallulah sighed - had she seemed reluctant? "I'm enthusiastic," she replied, "but not very good at talking about it." She was better once the initial awkwardness was out of the way - or at least, she hoped she was. "But - wow." She laughed. "I didn't expect you to be so cool about it. I always worry about being rejected, which would have sucked, because I want to be friends with you at the very least."

She glanced down at the menu, and then back up at Nadia, smiling brightly.

"Yeah, sounds great to me."