leatherbennett
he recognized her, which is why he’d offered the question up in the first place. he gave her a small smile in return as she spoke about her tea and nodded, eyes falling to his coffee. it made him feel better, too. the question she asked made him look back at her, eyes questioning. had she meant to ask him that? normally people didn’t care much to know anything that was going on with him, so he tended to keep his distance.
her question, though… it didn’t seem like it was just an average, normal response. she seemed to genuinely want to know how he was doing. how was he doing? he hadn’t thought about it much lately. he knew he wanted to get back to the store and get to work, but how was he? “um… I’m… okay, I guess.” yes, that was good. okay was a good response, right? he hadn’t truly spoken to someone in quite some time, so there was a bit of hesitation in his response as his eyes finally met hers. “what kind of tea are you drinking? you seem to really enjoy it,” he said with a half smile growing on his lips. it was nice, talking to someone.Â
she recognizes the uneasiness in his body language, his hesitance -- but that’s just something that becomes obvious in her line of work. she wasn’t special, and she couldn’t see things other couldn’t, but it was a little easier for her to pick up on the small things that might go unnoticed by others.Â
“okay...well,” she nods, a small pause between her words, “that’s better than terrible, now isn’t it?” the need to reassure comes to her without hesitation, an automatic response to someone who seems they might need someone to talk to, whether they realize it or not.Â
Now Viv -- he doesn’t need to be mothered, or bothered for that matter, pull back a little.
a small voice in her head rings clearly in her mind, a gentle reminder not to smother the other with a psychoanalysis, he wasn’t a student in her office. the smile he gives her though makes her feel somewhat -- accomplished, and she returns the gesture, her index finger tapping gently on the cardboard sleeve of her tea that keeps her from burning her hand, “It’s a mixture of herbal teas; chamomile, green and lemongrass tea. It’s soothing to the nerves.”













