Familiar Company

He matched her salute. "You've never yet given me a reason to doubt you." A smile settled over his face as he dug in to wrap up their meal.

After he had returned all the dishware to the replicator, he gestured to the couch under the window. "Do we have time for a bit of a lesson? I'll even refresh our cups."

That got a genuine laugh out of Greggory, turning his smirk into a large grin. "I didn't want to do you a disservice by associating a presumed bias. That shouldn't be used as justification to deny you the position. Glad to know you objectively agree with my assessment, however."

He sighed, using a sip of cocoa to clear his throat.  

Greggory shrugged as he took another bite to avoid answering immediately.  After he swallowed, he responded, "She knows we served together. I spoke of being familiar with your methods and performance."

Greggory smiled at Shirik and ate a few bites in comfortable silence before she broached a new topic.

"Well, there's plenty of varieties of pizza we could try, at all levels of spice. I'll be happy to escort you through that culinary adventure. We can trade pizza for linguistic lessons," he said with a soft smile.

He transferred a piece of the combination pizza to his own plate, slicing a bite off and using his fork to keep any loose toppings from falling off.

Greggory turned and, due to the complex specificity involved, manually entered the order. The replicator seemed to take a little longer than normal, but it soon finished producing a single-serve pizza, topped with three different mushrooms and a milder cheese profile.  After Greggory transferred hers to the table, the replicator powered up again, producing a heavier pizza with a variety of meats and vegetables.  He placed both pizzas in the middle of the table and then turned as the replicator made a couple of smaller plates and utensils, which he set in front of Shirik and his own seat.

Greggory actually paused, blinking slowly as her words sunk in. "Do... do you have a flavor profile you want to try? That's one of the delights of pizza, you can do just about anything with it."

"I'm sure you're excelling at those, too, or pushing yourself until you do." He took another sip of his cocoa, more than half the mug drained, and set it down on the table. "So, we're celebrating your promotion: what do you want to eat? I'll follow your lead."