"You know, I'm pretty sure it doesn't actually work by adding up all the minutes that aren't spent doing other things," she points out, once the waitress has left with their orders. "If anything, I'd say that makes it more impressive. Work has a way of derailing things."

If you let it. And they always had, in a way she'd sort of assumed they always would, but Steve hasn't. Even knowing what will probably happen. He's still either letting it happen or helping it along, not letting it drift into the daily grind, the chaos and confusion, the adrenaline rush and subsequent let-down after a mission goes off without too many hitches.

He's making it happen. They both are. Must be. It's the only way, and yet here he is, not quite defensive but certainly reserved in a way that makes her want to push every button she can find until he cracks and she can see what's really going on, here. "Especially considering, I mean --"

She tongues her teeth for a second, because this actually is kind of awkward, then feels a sudden and not entirely charitable flash of envy that Danny hadn't been the one getting interrogated by Doris in a safe house, and pushes past the slight waver. "I had no idea he swung that way."

Didn't he have a girlfriend, the last time they met? She's fairly sure she remembers him wondering what to get the girl for Valentine's Day.