<em>~Marcus, at dinner with everyone~</em><br/><br/>The banter continued to flow between them, light words being passed back and forth, and Marcus smiled when Tool took it up a notch.  His comment made sense given the flow of the conversations that were occurring, just one more step towards a goal they all knew would probably be reached at some point, but it wasn’t clear if his suggestion was made in friendly jest or out of an actual desire that he hoped to see fulfilled that night.  There were pros and cons to both obviously, just as there were two sides to every coin, and Marcus needed a few moments to think before he would be able to formulate a response.  While all the physical desires were there, brought out by the sheer beauty of the women in the room, he also knew it was a slippery slope they walked.<br/><br/>Eating in silence, using the food as an excuse to not speak, he let his thoughts roll around in his head, glancing around the table constantly.  No one seemed to want to speak in the face of the bold step Tool had taken but that didn’t surprise Marcus much.  There comes a time in a discussion, where inevitably something is said that makes everyone pause and think, and they were at that moment in this one.  Taking a bite of his dinner roll, Marcus turned as the first one of them took the plunge and broke that stale wall of ice that had grown between them.  Bo addressed Tool’s comment with words that were clearly spoken from the heart, each one causing the wheels in Marcus’s brain to twirl round and round.<br/><br/>It was quite obvious that Bo had chosen to take Tool’s words seriously, which clearly then raised concerns in the man’s mind.  Voicing them did not surprise Marcus in the least because, if his instincts told him anything about Bo, they told him that he was an honest man.  That was a trait that Marcus could admire, even if his own actions over these next six months might indicate otherwise, and so he absorbed what was said and pondered it in silence.  He kept a close eye on the group though, curious as to how others would react, and frowned when he saw Mila drop her head.  His proximity to her at the table allowed him some small measure of closeness and so he reached to the side, placing his hand on her knee and giving it a light squeeze of support before withdrawing.<br/><br/>Turning to Mari, the next person to speak, he listened attentively.  He was impressed by her attempt to defuse the situation, agreeing with Bo on one level while also keeping the door open to the future on another.  It was done with skill and finesse, clearly natural traits for the woman, and he found himself nodding to her words even after she’d finished speaking.  Looking around at them, he gave each a smile and a look of compassion before speaking.  “Bo, Mari, wonderful words of wisdom in my honest opinion” he said before he turned to Mila and then Tool.  “And a hearty thanks to the both of you for helping to lighten the mood of what I’m sure has been a somewhat stressful moment for all of us.”  He tipped his glass in cheer then before taking a sip, his body more relaxed than it had been before.<br/>