[Closed] Tea and the Times

[justice_is_blond]

WHO: Anders, Petrana
WHAT: Overworkers unite
WHEN: Current
WHERE: Petrana's office
NOTES: We'll see.

He knocks on the open door to her office, giving her the usual smile when he comes over with his teapot.

"I'd say we should stop meeting like this but I rather like meeting like this. Is now a good time for a tea break?" As much of a break they ever take. There's an overwhelming amount of work to always be done, sometimes to the point where it feels tangible. Which is why he comes over for tea, or part of why. The company is also welcome.

Comments

[justice_is_blond]

Kind. It's a polite word, a nice word, and he understands it. The question is what is kind after this point? Is it staying neutral and keeping the conversation safe? Surface?

With some, yes. Those who have plenty of people around them, who are not constantly surrounding themselves with work. They likely take the time and opportunity to lean on those around. He doesn't think she does and the way she'd so lightly spoken of loss a few weeks before, mixing it into the conversation, reinforces that thought.

After a sip of his tea he sets the cup to the side and offers out his hands, palm-up.

"I am," he says quietly. "You spoke of something not too long ago and I wasn't sure if you needed to speak more on the topic, or you hoped I would forget it by the time an opening rolled around that wasn't quite as chaotic and charged."

He'd done both before, let something slip that he wanted someone to care about, and let something slip that he hadn't meant to reveal. There are even a couple of things he's never told anyone. It's never been the right time.

[ipseite]

It means a great deal to her that he asks - that he cares.

She allows that feeling to sit for a moment, if only a moment, her own hands closed firmly around her teacup, conscious of the press of her wedding ring between flesh and porcelain. What had she hoped, then, as she had spoken? God, how to even know. Too many things happening, too much to juggle, so much bubbled close to the surface where it didn't belong. Where it does no one any good.

“One day,” is all she says.

Not today.