Sonia gives him a look, just shy of rolling her eyes, and takes another drink before wiping the mouth of the bottle with her sleeve.

"Let me tell you something about Piotr Vorkosigan," she says, leaning in almost conspiratorially, and she has achieved Peak Drunk by now, her words slightly slurred but still perfectly intelligible. "When I first met him, I positively hated him. He's a difficult man to get along with sometimes, God knows how my sister does it. But he is honest, and good God is he ever forthright. If he were really that pissed about your...performance or whatever on your assignment, if he really thought you were a failure and a disappointment, you'd have heard about it by now. He likes to tell these things personally. Honestly, he's probably more pissed that you haven't debriefed him by now. And anyway," she says, letting the bottle dangle from a crooked finger for a moment before swinging it over Byerly's way, "I didn't say you had to be whispering in his ear."

She squints at him, pulling back. "And -- old? Really? He can't be any older than you are."