xp_logs | Jane, Amanda - Sunday Afternoon

Jane and Amanda catch up over ice cream.

"...and don't skimp on the hot fudge. Or the sprinkles!" Jane instructed the clerk as she leaned against the ice cream case, standing on her tiptoes. "You can never have too many sprinkles," she a\quite seriously informed Amanda once she was sure that her sundae needs were being met.

The witch chuckled, her expression fond. "So Meg tells me," she replied. For her part, she'd gone with simple, just a couple of scoops of the real strawberry in a cup and she licked the little plastic spoon meditatively. "So, I'm forgiven for taking off as long as I did?"

"Oh sure," Jane agreed distractedly as she paid for her sundae and carefully carried her prize over to their table. "Places to go, world to save. It happens. Just don't get stuck in Montana. Very pretty but there's nothing to do." She grinned over the glass. "It's okay. I know you get busy."

Sitting opposite Jane, Amanda grinned back. "No Montana, check. Unless Remy decides I've done something that warrants sending me out to the middle of nowhere." She scooped up some more ice cream before asking, a twinkle in her eye: "So, this Very Important Gossip of yours... I know it's not you dating Kurt, since I asked that already."

"I. Wait, what?" Jane's eyes widened with shock. "Oh, gosh. No. I mean, he's all very sweet and everything, and okay, his accent is really, really hot, but no. Just. No." Oh, heck. He was just way too old for her. Probably almost Nate's age, even, and Nate could be her father. "No, no. I'm dating this guy I met in Tel Aviv. Rich. But, um. Thank you for thinking I'm good enough to date your brother," she added somewhat meekly once her thoughts settled down. She really did think Kurt was a great guy, just not for dating purposes.

Amanda laughed at the other girl's panicked babble. "Funny, he had sort of the same reaction too... Turns out he's got a thing going with Monet, so you're in the clear." She raised her eyebrows at the revelation. "One of the Elpis guys over there?"

"So I'd heard," she replied, a little piqued at the notion that Kurt had freaked out at the thought of dating her. What was that all about? She was totally datable, and he'd be lucky to have her! She mulled that over for another half second before dismissing it with a shrug and launching into her current favorite topic. "Oh my gosh, so you totally have got to meet Rich. He's like the sweetest guy in the whole wide world, and he does work for Elpis, but he does more of research and adventure-y stuff like Angelo than the files and coffee thing like me. I think you'd really like him. He's super tall with super cute floppy dark hair and this super big smile..." She sighed happily. "And y'know, there's the whole thing where he makes me feel safe and special."

"He sounds really... super," Amanda teased gently, amused both by the momentary expression of pique on Jane's face and then the sudden enthusiasm. "So you guys are doing the distance thing right now while you're over here? Or is one of you thinking of relocating?"

Jane flushed pink. "Yeah, yeah, I know. And it was a complete accident, too. It was so supposed to have been this quickie fling, right?" she confided, leaning across the table conspiratorially, "but then it turned out that I really liked him. What was I supposed to do?" She flung up her hands and sank back in her chair. "So we're doing the long distance thing, but I don't know how well that'll work out because I just keep thinking about how great it would be to be together, in a little house, with maybe a couple little kids..." she knew she was chattering, but she couldn't seem to help herself. It was so nice to be able to talk to someone about all of this. "And I'm so not ready to have kids, but I'm pretty sure I want them. Do you ever think about having kids?"

There was a sudden coughing fit as a blob of ice cream went down the wrong way. After spluttering for a while, Amanda managed to recover enough to croak out: "Me as a mum? Seriously?" Then she flushed a little and lowered her voice to a conspiratorial whisper. "Well, sometimes. But not for years yet. There's too much I want to do and the job's not exactly good for the whole stability thing. Ange and I are having trouble just finding the time to date, let alone think about anything else."

"I think you'd be a great mother," Jane declared loyally, and meant it, too. "And Ange is totally meant to be a dad. You'd have such cute kids." She scraped the spoon around the insides of the glass, thoughtfully. "It'll all work out. Some things are just meant to be, you know"

"I'll settle for helping Manuel with Valentia every so often for the moment," Amanda replied wryly. "And we're talking more again, which helps. If we talk, we can sort most things out. It's when we don't that it gets messy." She looked down at her almost-empty cup. "Just as well none of you were working the other day. We kind of had it out with each other. There was a lot of yelling."

Jane gave her a sympathetic frown. "I'm sorry. But you guys worked it out, right?" Angelo hadn't seemed any more distracted at work than usual, although to be honest she really hadn't been paying attention. "Maybe you guys could take some time off and go on vacation or something? Where it's warm?"

"Mostly. A lot of it was just us being pissed off and too stubborn, I think." She finished off her ice cream, laying the spoon down inside the cup as she wiped her mouth with a napkin. "And we're wanting to go somewhere - I've got to go back to Spain at some point to do more digging on Valentia's background and I asked him along, but with Morgan taking off I'm guessing Ange has the self-defence class back to himself, so I s'pose that'll have to wait."

Jane nodded. "Winter break isn't too far off, so maybe she'll be back by then? Or I guess it wouldn't really matter much if you only went away for a week. And Spain would be pretty, although that still sounds like work." She looked at her empty dish and stifled a groan. There might not be such a thing as too much hot fudge, but the rest of the stuff in a sundae could push you pretty close to the edge. "Anyway, lighter topic. You've got to tell me all about Manuel's sister. I so can't see him with little kids all around. How did that happen?"

The witch smiled, glad for the change of topic. "Oh, that's a whole other story. You might want a coffee or something while I tell it."