It wasn’t lost on Angelo when her eyes seemed to give him a look over. A smirk spread across his face. Sure he wasn’t really looking for fun, at least he didn’t think he was, but it was always nice to be appreciated. He often found it amusing that while men were normally stereotyped to be the ones undressing potential partners with their eyes that most women were just as guilty if not more so as their male counter parts. She was attractive, and could be a decent candidate for future consideration he supposed though he shook the thoughts from his head reminding himself that she still looked awfully young for his usual tastes.

He chuckled lightly as she said she had been told a few times she was amusing. Her tone was just as entertaining as what she said. It was often the delivery that made more difference than any joke just spoken. ”If I’m right do I get a prize?” He joked with another brief laugh before crossing one ankle over the other and rubbing the back of his neck. He stood silently for a moment as he tried to think over how he wanted to answer her question. It wasn’t like he did anything ’top secret’ and he did have an office where anyone could come drop by. ”I’m a private investigator.” He said simply with a shrug of his shoulders. ”I’m a little nosier than your average bloke.” He added with a grin.

She wondered if this would be a shop that she’d have to come into more often. It was rather empty now, so she couldn’t get a good read on if this was a normal place for attractive bloke to hang out. It could be, she did suppose that many of the products in this shop looked catered to men and the fact that they always wanted to buy ridiculous little gadgets. Callie could admit some of the equipment around the shop looked interesting, but none of it really was in her price range or anything that she found herself in need of. But it still might be a place worth stepping into from time to time… not that she was about to try to start picking blokes up at a damn wizarding equipment shop, because that would a rather odd decision for her to make. However, she didn’t mind anything that resulted in any manner of interesting conversation, no matter the end result. Angelo, for instance, was far more entertaining than she originally would have given him credit for, as she had seem many of the attractive and dumb blokes around and it was rare for there to be a bloke that was attractive and amusing.

This had been particularly true when she had been growing up, as there had been not one child of her parents’ friends that she’d had to interact with that had anything going on that was remotely interesting. They were all content to be lawyers, doctors, stockbrokers—whatever the hell those were, and a sense of humour was not required for any of those professions. And that was just the blokes—the girls were prepared to be housewives and socialites, yet another path in life that apparently had no room for amusement. But she brushed those thoughts aside, unsure where they had come from. That life that she had fortunately gotten out of having wasn’t something she normally wasted time pondering on. Callie glanced around for a moment, coming up empty, and then shrugging, “You know, I don’t have any prizes on me,” she said, making a show of looking in her bag, “Yeah, damn, they must be in my other purse—you’ll just have to be happy with the pride of a job well done,” Callie continued, looking back up at him.

Callie could imagine that being a private investigator was rather interesting, especially given the current state of things in the wizarding world. Him being in here made even more sense now, as a lot of these gadgets could probably come in handy for him, whereas she probably couldn’t find a use for one of them back at Hogwarts, “Well if I had an excuse to be nosy, I’d use it,” she said, grinning, “After all, you can just say you’re prepping for work.”

The bell to the shop door sounded as an older gentleman walked in. Angelo gave the man a nod as he looked over in their direction remembering seeing him at the office for a recent case regarding his daughter and her constant concern over her husband’s infidelity, though the older man thought there had been a more sinister reason the bloke stayed out all night. It turned out just to be an affair which he wasn’t sure made things worse or better. He was sure the older man didn’t know that shortly after that case was closed his daughter joined Angelo in his bed, but that was hardly relevant. He was always discreet when it came to intimacy. He didn’t feel the need to make it obvious that he had shagged a girl. He was far too old for that nonsense.

He grinned at the girl as she began looking through her bag before letting out a heartier chuckle. She was definitely amusing; maybe she could be a bit of fun… He shook the thoughts from his head finding them ridiculous. He had a mountain of work to get back to, and really shouldn’t have stopped to linger. He supposed he could at least give himself some leeway this time. ”A job well done… and no prize for guessing? Where is the incentive in that?” He asked looking her over curiously knowing that could possibly be taken a myriad of different ways. Even with his job entailing a good bit of prying he didn’t let it come into his personal life for the most part. He had enough nosy, gossipy female family members that were sure to keep him up to date on damn near everything regardless if he wanted to hear it or not. ”I have enough women in my family that do the work for me most times.” He said with a raise of his eyebrows.

Callie loved any distraction that got her out of the school for a while. It was how she’d found herself in a shop she rarely went in, after all. She loved working at Hogwarts, but she did go a bit stir-crazy being in the castle as much as she was, simply because she never did know when she was going to be needed. Most nights during the week, she ended up sleeping there because she had patients. So it was simply nice to get out every once and a while, and she was finding this company particularly worthwhile. She found herself unfortunately wandering back to less inappropriate thoughts, which was something that just seemed to happen to her a lot. Men were known for just trying to find a shag and being all unattached and the like, with their mind only on sex but that stereotype was certainly proven wrong often by her own antics. Callie didn’t see a problem with that, really, as it didn’t interfere with her ability to hold an interesting conversation with someone. After all, not everybody just randomly shagged people with no attachments, and more often than not, Callie just got to learn about someone knew while chatting with them and nothing came of it—well, perhaps that didn’t happen often. It wasn’t as though blokes often turned down a chance for a casual shag when the possibility arose, but sometimes she did try to remain appropriate. Occasionally, at least.

“Well, what sort of prize are you looking for and I’ll see what I can do,” she stated, jokingly, though this topic of conversation could be taken in quite a few different ways. Callie hardly even recalled what he had done to merit any type of prize at this point, not that she particularly cared. She’d be willing to give him a hell of a lot of incentives, but she couldn’t say that out loud. After all, she still had no idea what he was thinking about the possibility, and she was never one to assume. Her smile widened at the mention of women in his female, as that would certainly get the job done. “That’s what we do—women know all… apparently,” she replied, shrugging. Nosiness did seem to be a trait that many women possessed, after all, Callie had seen that over the years, and she supposed she couldn’t be that bint that tried to set herself apart and be different than the rest. Everyone had their moments of nosiness.

Leo wondered if he should leave the conversation soon as it felt like it might be turning into something else that he wasn’t sure he’d really want to happen. His indecisiveness seemed to drive him nutty when it came to things personally. He was always very sure of himself when it came to his work. He had to be or he would get absolutely no business, even if he had to fake it. But he couldn’t seem to really decide what the hell was going on in this situation as the girl asked what kind of incentive he was thinking of. He knew it could be meant in many different ways, but he had caught her looking him over quite a few times. Of course it had been obvious to him seeing as what he did for a living, but part of him knew she was young and he had nieces that couldn’t be much younger than her.

”Nothing that comes to mind right at this moment.” He chuckled shifting on the balls of his feet slightly. Yes, she was definitely too young. She had to be more than a decade younger than him and that just didn’t feel right to him. ”You would get along famously with the women in my family. They all seem to feel the same way when it comes to their ridiculous opinions.” He added with another light laugh. Now he would never say such a thing around the women in his family, he would be sure to be hexed into next year if he did.

Her mind was focusing back in on the fact that he more than likely had a girlfriend. Although the joke he’d made about incentives could be looked at in several different ways, his response to her was polite but certainly not thinking about anything inappropriate. It was too bad, really, but she was able to brush things off relatively easily. Callie certainly wasn’t going to be offended that he wasn’t interested, as that would just be absurd. This was still an interesting conversation, and not every encounter she came across turned into a shag… that would be absolutely ridiculous. “Well then, the pride of a job well done it is,” she said, lightly, finally recalling that the only reason this talk of prizes had come up was because he’d guessed her a daredevil. Sometimes she did find it quite amusing how conversations progressed. “Though you’ve taught me a valuable lesson in keeping prizes in my purse for situations like this.” Callie added, keeping her voice solemn.

Callie had done a lot since she’d graduating Hogwarts, as far as jobs were concerned. She’d worked in the most random of places, though nothing really had stuck. With how many jobs there were in the wizarding world, it was a wonder that she’d found anything that she liked enough to stay with. She’d only worked at Hogwarts for a few months, but so far she wasn’t getting that restless. But she was realizing that a job like private investigation would be quite interesting as well, because it would definitely be something that was different every day—different cases, and the like, or so she would assume. It was further proof to her that there were a hell of a lot of options for jobs that sounded interesting, and it was a bloody wonder that anyone managed to pick only one. “Well if the ridiculous opinions are right, we just keep ‘em coming. Actually, even if they’re wrong, really,” she stated, laughing. Callie found that there wasn’t much that she couldn’t joke about, which worked well for her, particularly with the additive of being impossible to offend. There were certainly women would may just be offended that he’d called a woman’s opinion ridiculous, even when he was clearly bloody joking. It was always awkward when someone couldn’t take a joke, she mused, finding that people seemed to be in worsening humors as situations got a bit more tense around the wizarding world.

Angelo smiled politely at the girl before letting out a light chuckle. ”Maybe you can pick up some prizes while you’re here. They look like they have some interesting little gadgets.” He said glancing around. His eyes fell onto quite the odd looking device. He picked it up examining it closely. It almost looked that it had to deal with broom care. He paused to think for a moment if his niece might want it… or even know what the hell it was. She had been having a rough time. Maybe an oddball gift might brighten her day, or make her think he finally went mental. Either way would be a win in his mind.

He shook his head with a snort of amusement at her next comment. ”Oh no you already messed up, all the women in my family are always right even when they’re wrong.” He laughed lightly thinking about his cousins and sisters. He had to admit that a good portion of the time they were pretty spot on, but even if they were off the mark it was best to let a sleeping dog lie… or trick one of the other men on calling them out on it and watch the poor bloke be torn to shreds verbally. But at the end of the day everyone still loved each other and laughed it off. There was no such thing as grudges, well at least they tried not to hold them. He glanced down at his wrist noting the time. ”Well I’m sorry to be so rude, but I really should be going.” He said glancing down at the girl with a bright smile.

The conversation had taken a bit of an odd turn, with the bloke getting oddly cordial all of a sudden compared to the more talkative and amusing way he had started out. Not to say that he’d gotten rude in the slightest, quite the opposite. It just seemed that he was checking out the conversation, which was fine by her. Callie was never one to try to run her mouth to keep a bloke from doing what he wanted to do. Hell, they had just run into each other; conversation wasn’t even required from that, particularly not to this extent. “I like prizes that are a bit more simple—and by that I mean that I don’t have to spend money on,” she replied, jokingly, taking a look around the room at the myriad of devices about. If she were to explore the store for a while, she was sure she’d find something that held some interest to her, but she found that blokes were just fonder of these gadgets.

“My mistake, then,” Callie said, laughing. She was less like that, really, finding it a bit aggravating when some people thought that they were right all of the damn time; that kind of cockiness just bordered on arrogance, which she found that she had very little patience for. Callie knew that she did need to finish up her errands and get back to the castle. It was an off time, but one really did never know when a student was going to come up with some absolutely insane way to injure themselves. She had never realized when she was a student at Hogwarts just how silly some of these stunts that were pulled were, though perhaps that was because she never really got injured from anything ridiculous she’d done at Hogwarts. “Of course—I understand. Sorry I kept you,” she replied, smiling in return. There really wasn’t much left for her to do, if she recalled the purpose of her trip to Diagon Alley correctly. This side-trip in here had thrown her off a bit in what she needed to do, but she was still sure that she could get it all done in time. But she supposed the reason they’d found themselves in this situation to begin with was her running into him on her way back to the door, so she’d have to wait for him to move before she could head over to the apothecary.

Angelo had felt guilty for even looking at the girl in a way that could be taken as interest though he had been briefly interested in the prospect of something more happening. Part of him cursed himself for having some sort of moral compass. He was getting older now and it was starting to show as he noticed his more ‘boyish’ traits were fading. He would always be a lady’s man for the most part, but he wasn’t a spring chicken anymore. He chuckled at her comment. ”The best things in life are free I’ve heard.” He replied with a smile. She seemed like a nice girl though she probably had an edgier side. Thankfully he didn’t see that so he could stick to his guns and not feel like an old pervert. She was far too young.

He shook his head with a smile. ”They aren’t that bad really. It’s just an amusing family trait with the women. They are pretty good sports about it when proven wrong… if you can run fast enough.” He joked. He really did need to get out of their before he changed his mind. He just wished his bloody mind would just figure everything out in real time. No it would be far more appropriate not to give things a second thought. For all he knew he was probably coming off like as arse with how polite he had become in the middle of the conversation. ”Don’t apologize. It was very nice to meet you and have an entertaining conversation for once.” He laughed lightly before stepping to the side to let her through.

Callie supposed, if she was trying to figure it out, that this bloke was probably quite a bit older than her. She was absolute shit at guessing how old someone was, and normally didn’t bother with it, but it certainly seemed possible. She had no idea why her mind had wandered to that topic, as it really wasn’t important to her how much older or younger someone was than her in terms of making friends or striking up interesting conversations. Or shagging, as long as they weren’t… well, she supposed she didn’t particularly like shagging anyone younger than her, but besides that she didn’t take much note of it. “That is a saying for a reason, I’ve found.” Callie agreed, smiling widely.

From the sound of it, Angelo had a pretty large family—though she could have just been assuming that, really. Any manner of family seemed like a lot to her since she had none, but that certainly wasn’t something worth dwelling on. She didn’t want her parents’ lives just as much as they didn’t want her there, so it all worked out. But having a big family chasing each other around did sound entertaining to Callie, even if it was something that she couldn’t fully picture and know if she was thinking about it correctly, since it was something she had never experienced. “Well, that sounds like a hell of a way to stay in shape,” she replied, jokingly. Quickly, Callie tried to determine just what she needed from the apothecary, as there were some supplies for potions that she was out of. “Nice to meet you too,” Callie replied, brightly, before sliding past him. “Maybe I’ll see you around,” she added, with a smile, before heading to the door.

-END OF THREAD-