I wanted to write another one of these - so I did:
"Oh! Yes," agreed Jane, and smiled at Tiana, hoping it wasn't too apparent that her mind had wandered a moment ago.
Tiana, however, was hard to fool. She put down her own teacup and arched an eyebrow at Jane. "I'm guessing you stopped listening a while back, because I've been talking about how Naveen and I are going to the moon tomorrow, and you didn't point out how impossible that is."
"Sorry." Jane blushed, but then frowned. "Isn't Naveen in America?"
"Jane! That's not the point!" exclaimed Tiana, sounding amused but exasperated. It was, in fact, a tone she used an awful lot lately, what with Naveen and Louis around. "I was kind of expecting you to point out that you can't just fly to the moon. Honey..." she hesitated. Tiana had known Jane Porter Clayton Greystoke (whatever her long-winded British title was) just long enough that if you had asked either of them, it would have been difficult to pinpoint whether or not they were, as of yet, close friends. Right now, though, she was ready to give things the benefit of the doubt, because Jane looked more scatterbrained than Tiana'd ever seen her before. "Is everything okay?"
"I'm fine!" said Jane loudly, and winced at her own brash tone. She compensated with a sheepish sort of look, and picked up her cup and saucer, sipping demurely.
Tiana waited.
Jane's face emerged half-way from the round of her teacup. She caught Tiana's eye, slopped a bit of tea down her front by accident, and made a small frustrated noise. "Ooh, all right," she grumbled, dabbing at her bodice with a napkin, "I just...I've felt out of sorts all day. Do you ever have days like that - where you get all disgruntled for no reason, and nothing really seems to go right?"
Tiana shrugged one shoulder. She'd had mornings like that, but heading out to work, where she didn't let everything go all wrong, was always a welcome distraction. Work was Tiana's constant, her comfort. Somehow she didn't think it'd help to recommend that Jane wait on tables for a few hours, although it'd definitely get her too exhausted to dwell on things much. And Jane just didn't seem like a really deft sort of person - Tiana tore her mind away from horrifying images of smashed plates and fiery ovens. "...no," she said.
"Oh." Jane looked helplessly at Tiana, and then slid down the side of the couch, burying her face in a pillow. It was just the sort of thing Jane did, and so Tiana just reached for a beignet and munched for a little while.
"tarasdsfshforohwhshang," mumbled Jane.
Tiana side-eyed the messy brown chignon, which was all she could really see of Jane at the moment. "Pardon?"
Jane sat up, wrapping her arms around the pillow as if it were her only friend, looking for all the world like she was about to confess some terrible crime. "I..." she announced gravely, and bit her lip. "I think I've developed a tendre for Shang."
Her audience looked unimpressed. "A what?" repeated Tiana, even as the first twinges of realization began to dawn on her. A slow smile crept over her face.
Having to repeat it would only make it more true! Jane sighed. "A tendre - you know," she cast about for the right words, but emotion and shame had slowed her quick tongue. "I'm - oh, happy isn't the word I want, but when he's around I feel as though I have the whole world at my feet! And when he leaves I think of him, not constantly mind you, but often, and - "
" - your tummy ties itself up in knots and your back gets all hot and prickly and then cold like you're sick," supplied Tiana with a specificity born of experience.
Aghast, Jane stared at her. "Exactly! How did you know that - ?"
"I know," Tiana said wisely, deciding on the spot that it was probably not going to soothe Jane's distress to explain that this was exactly how Tiana felt around Naveen. She couldn't resist laughing at Jane's flabbergasted face, though. "Jane, so you're sweet on Shang - it's not a dirty secret that you should - "
Jane sat up straight. "It's not a secret?!" she repeated slowly, nostrils flaring. Tiana hurried to explain.
"I mean I've thought you were sweet on him for a while, now, so - "
Letting out a groan, Jane mashed the pillow against her mouth until only her wide eyes peeked out over the top. They regarded Tiana with nothing less than horror.
"Jane..." Tiana began quietly, feeling like they'd gotten the discussion off on the wrong foot. "It's not like I'd tell anybody. Not even Naveen," she wheedled.
"No," said Jane, muffled, then sat up again and pulled the pillow away from her mouth. She placed it gingerly on the couch beside her, smoothing away the wrinkles as though by trying to practically smother herself she had done the pillow a great, personal wrong. The pillow did not seem to care. "No, I know - I wouldn't confide in you and then insult you by outright asking you to keep it secret." She uttered a shaky laugh and looked back at Tiana. "But do you think he knows?"
"No," Tiana lied again. The truth was, it was kind of hard to say, because this was Shang they were talking about - and Tiana might not know him that well, but she was sure anybody'd think the serious silent general was a hard nut to crack. Except for Jane, looked like. The more Tiana thought about it, the more she wasn't sure if she thought the situation was cute or strange. Tiana couldn't for the life of her understand what lively, scientific Jane saw in a man like Shang, unless it might be the way Shang seemed to worship the ground Jane walked on...and if Jane had noticed that, she wouldn't be so skittish right now, would she?
"Oh, well, that's a relief anyway." Jane tucked straggling strands of hair behind her ears. Half of them fell back into her eyes anyway, but just now her unruly hair was the least of Jane's concerns. She heaved a sigh, and perhaps it was the rush of oxygen to her brain that helped to clear it. "I don't want anybody to know," she mused, the implication being that Tiana alone would be privy to Jane's feelings. "The less fuss I make over it, the sooner it'll pass."
Tiana's eyebrows darted together. "Jane," she said slowly, "I'm not sure that'll work. Do you really need it to pass that badly?"
For a long time Jane didn't say anything, which was unlike her. In the meantime, Tiana refilled her own teacup and took a cautious sip, wishing she had some honey to stir in. Finally Jane, looking down at her own hands folded demurely in her lap, spoke, barely parting her lips. "I loved Tarzan."
It didn't go unnoticed by Tiana that Jane had spoken of her late husband to Tiana, for the first time, or that she had described her feelings in the past tense. So it took Tiana a while to figure out what to say, too, but then she reached out and squeezed Jane's shoulder. "From what I hear, you've spent a long time in mourning - and I don't just mean the black clothing. Jane...d'you really think you should ignore happiness when it could be right in front of you?"
Jane didn't answer, and Tiana didn't expect her to. The British woman closed her eyes. It was just a bit of fancy over Shang's friendship and, yes, his handsome face. She wasn't - she didn't - It would go away sooner or later. What was she supposed to say?
