The square, smoke filled back room of the Party City where The Black Circle had stopped at was to be the setting, the meeting ground between our fearless hero Luca Arzegotti, and the shady Colombian presumed Drug Lords.

Then, we remembered that our hero was none other than Luca Arzegotti. Not so fearless, and definitely not heroic.

"So... Are you just gonna sit there and stare into space, or are we going to get down to business?" Maria asks, fanning smoke out of her face, trying her hardest not to cough. Looking up from the tile floor that caught his interest moments prior, Luca stares blankly up at her. Not responding, barely acknowledging that she had said anything at all, let alone a direct inquiry.

"Well?" She continued, with an exasperated sigh. Catching a bit of the smoke wafting off Pedro's cigarette, she coughs, covering her mouth in the crook of her elbow. A smirk came across one half of Luca's face, the other side remaining neutral. Locking his eyes on the tacky, green wallpaper behind her, he begins to shake his head.

"You want the full story? What kind of a man he is? You don't want to know what kind of a man he is. I'll tell you that much." His voice, unusually scatterbrained and frantic. Each awkwardly phrased question, every sentence was accompanied by a shallow inhale. He coughs once, spitting something onto the floor before continuing.

"No, you only want the answers that help you, huh?" Maria's eyes gleamed, hoping that finally, he'd get to the fucking point. Without thinking further, she nods furiously, hair bouncing back and forth in her self imposed windstorm.

"Okay, fine. I'll bite. What is it you want to know?" It was almost as if, he was forcing himself to be formal. Not even a tinge of sarcasm was tucked within the statement and following question, just a cold detachment from the events, the room itself, in all honesty. Silence overtook the room as Maria, unsure of how to react, kept her eyes trained on Luca's conflicting demeanor. The smirk had spread all the way across his face, but his arms were crossed and he still refused eye contact.

She began to stammer, unintelligible chatter, nowhere near a coherent thought, let alone a sentence. Turning to Pedro, she whispers something in Spanish before averting her attention once more to the man she had waited for. Completely dumbfounded, she could only stand and stare, unable to form words for her request.

"Well?" Luca asked, mocking the voice that she had used on him. A chill went down her spine, causing her to flinch. The smirk faded, lips straightening once more. Finally, he looks back over at her, and takes a couple steps closer.

"Let's go back a couple of steps, shall we? Instead of you telling me what you need, why don't we see the circumstances that bring us together once more? Who is Jeffery Heiman to you?"

"A dirty, no good, rat."

"Excellent! Our views on the man in question are similar!" Inching his way closer, ever closer, he rests a hand on her shoulder. Instinctively, she tenses up at the contact, and he tries subtly to reassure her that he was in fact, benign.

"I guess we are," the roles switched, her eyes now looked to the floor. He moved his focus to Pedro, still smoking his cigarette in the back of the room. "He stole from us. Cheated us. Just like the slimeball guido he is..."

"Hey! Slimeball guido in the fuckin' room!" Laughing, he pushes off her shoulder, falling back a few steps closer to where he was originally. Chuckling herself, Maria returns her eyes back up, studying Luca once more.

"Yeah yeah, whatever. Bastard said he'd hook us up with a contact of his in the UK, took our coke and never sent us any money in return. I'm gonna fucking kill him."

"Jeez! He rips you off once, and you want to give him the old Colombian Necktie? Ain't that a little bit rash?"

"Makes sense that you would think that, wimp."

"No, makes sense that I would think that, because it's fucking stupid." Looks like the regular Luca that all have become accustomed to has returned, poking his head out of the shell of false formality to point out some bullshit, like always. "You make 'em fear you. Rough 'em up real good, and make 'em know just what it's like to cross you loco motherfuckers!"

"You think we're trying to send a message to Heiman? Cute kid, but this is strictly business."

"Who says you can't mix business," he inched closer again, reaching his arm out. "With pleasure?" With that, he pulled his hand back, smacking her on the ass before returning his arm back to his side. Her jaw dropped in shock. Tossing his cigarette on the ground and snuffing the last spark out, Pedro began his walk over to the other man in the room.

"Pedro, go check on the ruffians in the main room."

With a grunt, he obliges, storming past Luca (shoving him aside in the process) and out the door. Once the door closes all the way, she begins to eye up the man standing in front of her.

"Color me interested! How, exactly, would you go about mixing business with pleasure?" This time, it was her who moved closer, resting her hand across his back, between his shoulder blades. As to be expected, he returned the favor, pulling her in closer.

"Well shit, it's a pretty easy process." Without warning, he leaned down slightly and kissed the woman in his clutches on the lips. "You take a personal interest in whatever it is you're doing. You say 'fuck practicality' and focus solely on the fact that you want it done. Then, you do it. As cleanly, or messily as you want. Not caring if it'll help or hinder you in the long run." Another kiss. "But because it's the way you wanna do it."

"That's not a very healthy way to do things, I hope you know that."

"That's the least of my concerns."

She places one finger to his lips, her other hand tugging on the waistband of his jeans.

"In this single, solitary moment, we're thinking in unison."

Walking forward, closely followed by Luca, she leads him to a stairway in the back right corner of the room. Spinning around, she moves the hand of the finger that she silenced him with upward, knocking the snapback off his head.

"Much better. I'll never understand why you insist on wearing those stupid hats..."

And with that, the two disappear up the stairwell, slowly disappearing from sight.