Fortitude looks extremely confused. "What does your wife have to do with it?" She seems to have an epiphany. "Oh! We have contraceptives, you don't have to worry that I'd get pregnant."

"That's... nice, but it would not be her main objection?"

"What... would be...?"

??? "She does not... want me having sex with other people... without a very good reason?"

"And 'it's fun and I don't have anything else to do' isn't a good reason? --If you're not attracted to me it's all right, I won't take offense."

"You're very beautiful!" It's half true, and half 'I have not had time to work out how I feel about purple hair. ' "Its just we have neither had difficulty conceiving children yet, nor is the fate of Great Tang at stake?" Well, technically it is, if he somehow insults Fortitude. But hopefully she will take the rejection in good grace.

"Your wife sounds very controlling, are you all right?"

"What, no? These are common opinions among women? Usually less enforced,  but not uncommon?'

"Of course lots of people want their spouse not to have sex with other people! But it's very unreasonable to ask for that. You have to remember that your spouse loves you and won't leave you just because they also like other people. Frankly, it's especially unreasonable for a woman to ask it of a man."

... what are the purple haired barbarians even doing? Okay, no he can picture it,  but still.

"I will talk to her." Does that count as politely demurring?

"I don't want to pressure you into it," Fortitude says earnestly. "I don't know if you're trying to give me a soft 'no' and I'm not going to take any offense if you don't want to. I just wanted to make sure you knew I was up for it. Should I get you something else from the bar?"

"I am trying to politely decline. Maybe another time." Read: never, unless it was really strategically important. "I wouldn't say no to another drink, if I would not be taking advantage of your hospitality."

"Okay! Bar can take money from my bank account and I don't know how it adjusts for inflation but I think a drink might be way cheaper for me than for you. What do you want?"

"How about something from where you live?"

Fortitude returns with a cup of what is recognizably tea and a bowl of... something... over rice. There is recognizably cheese, and some sort of bean, and some kind of leaf, and a green mush of unknown provenance.

Of course they eat cheese. "Thank you."

Does the green mush at least taste like its made of plants.

The green mush is made of a plant!

...A delicious, delicious plant. Holy shit. 

 Note to self: see if they are willing to trade for delicious plant. Or trade for the seeds of the delicious plant. Arbitrary amounts of silk for delicious plant seems like a fair trade. "What is this, it's very nice."

"Avocado, but they also put in lime and red onions and cilantro."

"Oh, you have limes too. Good to know we don't have completely different plants." Damnit, he should have spotted that taste, now that's one less thing they can meaningfully offer in trade.

"I feel like I should talk about how to prioritize getting your country industrialized, but I'm a really bad person to do that and time is stopped. So I kind of just want to ask you random questions about how your world works!"

"I can do my best to answer any question I can." Read: he knows the answer and it's not something that should be kept secret.