isabelle looked at tony, her tony, sitting there. he had no idea what she was about to tell him. “tony?” she asked tentatively, looking at him, watching him.
“hm?” was all she got in response.
“i … need to tell you something,” she started off, pausing to figure out just how she was going to drop this bombshell. well, no better way to do it than to just outright go with it. “i’m, i’m not a banker. i don’t work for credit disparue. my job is … more complicated than that.” she had to continue. now or never. “i work for the government.”
there was silence as tony stared at her, as if she had grown a third head. “what?” he asked.
“i work for the government,” she repeated. she wasn’t going to go into detail, explaining that she was an intelligence operative or any of the things she had done. this was as close to the truth as she could get without putting tony into any danger.
“like what? a spy or something?”
“something like that,” isabelle nodded.
“you’re trying to tell me that you, isabelle vartan, are some like, secret government agent?” tony asked. of course it would take a while to process. for nearly two years tony had only seen her at home. or at school. wearing pencil skirts and suit jackets. maybe jeans and t-shirts, the occasional dress. he was used to her being isabelle.
“i said, something like that.” she couldn’t offer him more. she couldn’t correct him that her last name wasn’t vartan. her uncle had told her out of necessity, that she needed to remain isabelle vartan at all costs. there were people who were still trying to look for her parents, after everything that had happened right after her birth. “i’m still isabelle, tony, just with a different job.”