<span style="font-family:Cairo">As the performance was winding down, but before the music formally ended, Tony managed to settle his own feet down and simply enjoy watching the conclusion. It was a difficult thing to do for him when everyone else in the room was in the mood to dance because it was even more contagious of a feeling for him than it ever would be for anyone else. Being an empath made events like this nearly intoxicating for Anthony Deschenes and it was probably why he hadn’t been to such a place in quite some time. <br/>
<br/>
While he was calming down, Tony managed to overhear a few different things, all that gave him just a little more hope that perhaps Amadan truly wasn’t the same as he’d feared the spaniard would be when they’d been in the interrogation room. <br/>
<br/>
<span class="fixed-color" style="color:cadetblue"><b>“I don’t think I’ve ever seen Fernando working this hard,”</b></span> someone was mentioning. <br/>
<br/>
<span class="fixed-color" style="color:darksalmon"><b>“Nope. Definitely not. That’s good, though.”</b></span> <br/>
<br/>
Tony had to smile because not only was Amadan enjoying himself, but it seemed that he was good for the rest of the people here as well; it really would be a shame to steal such a light from a place like this and after having been here, he was realizing more and more that he didn’t want to be the one to do that. Tony decided that he wouldn’t be the one to do that. A place like this was too special to lose what Amadan offered to it. Although that decision left him in a bit of a bind as far as work was concerned, he was resolved in his choice and he knew that if he thought of changing it, he would remember this night. <br/>
<br/>
Even when the music ended, the environment around them didn’t change. The music got everyone up to the height of their joy, and then the music wasn’t exactly needed to keep it there; the mood just stayed steady on that high. As Tony tried to weave his way back to Amadan, though, he found that there were plenty of other people at Convivio who were all excited to meet him. It seemed that a friend of Amadan’s was a friend to everyone there and given the contagious atmosphere around him, Tony was entirely eager to meet all kinds of new people. He couldn’t quite count how many hands he shook or how many times he heard a new name as a stranger was introduced to him. Then they weren’t a stranger anymore, but Tony wasn’t sure how he would ever keep track of all the names. <br/>
<br/>
There was more food to be had and all of it was delightful. There were a few dishes that didn’t quite suit Tony’s tastes, but he was still respectful about it and no one seemed to mind in the slightest. There were, of course, a few people who added that maybe next time he ought to bring his own dish to share and that wasn’t something Tony intended to argue with. <br/>
<br/>
The event began to wrap itself up eventually, though, and Tony wasn’t surprised at all to eventually find himself standing next to Amadan, the one who’d convinced him to come in the first place. <span class="fixed-color" style="color:thistle"><b>“I did enjoy myself tonight. More than I thought I would,”</b></span> Tony remarked, surprised to realize that he hadn’t thought he would have this much fun when he first showed up. That only made it an even better thing that he had come, though. <br/>
<br/>
Amadan was making a rather pleasant offer and Tony found that he was actually considering it which really should’ve been a problem to him. There was a thing called boundaries in the line of work that he was in; it was generally not encouraged for a detective to pursue further relationships with anyone they encountered through work because it could breach privacy and many other things. Technically, though, even being here probably breached those fine lines. Given how nice it had been to attend Convivio, it was hard for Tony to consider that continuing to press those boundaries might not be a good thing to do. <br/>
<br/>
However, before he could actually come to a conclusion and potentially offer an answer, Tony heard something else and it bothered him. Looking directly at Amadan, the detective wanted to make one thing clear. <span class="fixed-color" style="color:thistle"><b>“You truly aren’t a bad person. Bad people don’t tend to have such a positive effect on everyone around them,”</b></span> he said with a soft smile. <span class="fixed-color" style="color:thistle"><b>“You’re wrong in one way, though. Not everyone thinks you’re a bad person. Look around you.”</b></span> Nearly everyone at Casa Marianella was entirely grateful for how wonderful of a time they’d had that night and most of the fun times came from Amadan’s music; at least, that had definitely been the spark of it all. <br/>
<br/>
Giving that a moment to sink in, Tony continued, <span class="fixed-color" style="color:thistle"><b>“That sounds nice, though.”</b></span> Exchanging phone numbers with Amadan, Tony had every intention of taking him up on his offer although he wasn’t in a position to set anything in stone at the moment; after all, his job could be rather demanding and he knew he was about to make things a bit more difficult on that front. He told Amadan he would keep in touch, though, and he had every intention of doing just that. <br/>
<br/>
It wasn’t until he was walking home that the high from being around so many happy people truly started to wear off. As he walked passed people who hadn’t been there, and start to feel the emotions of a city slowly falling asleep, that was when he truly started to think more clearly again. There was still a smile on his face, though. For once, being what he was really wasn’t that bad.</span>