Today, Emma is wearing a plain charcoal-grey sweater. Her hair is pulled somewhat away from her face in a loose half-ponytail. She looks worried and is wringing her hands a bit desperately.
"Well," she begins awkwardly, "I've been trying to figure out how to break the news to Harriet about Frank and Jane." She looks distressed and shakes her head. "Ugh, I feel so awful! I'm going to have to break her heart...again...and it's because of me...AGAIN!" She screws up her face with guilt. "Oh, why didn't I listen to Alex!" she moans, shaking her fists in frustration. "Him and his stoopid #leaveharrietalone hashtag..."
Her kvetching is interrupted briefly by the theme song and opening title sequence.
Returning from this, she tempers her self-recrimination a bit, and engages in some self-defence. "Mind you...this time it wasn't entirely my fault. Harriet was already interested in Frank before I even said anything!" She sticks her jaw out angrily as her anger finds a new target, pointing accusingly at the camera. "And Frank is to blame here, too!" She sighs, dropping her hand back into her lap. "But I should have kept my nose out of the whole thing. Oh, poor Harriet."
Her train of thought suddenly takes another turn, and her expression brightens. "But at least I know Jane is okay!" she effuses, holding an arm out towards the camera for emphasis. "Now she can be with the man she loves, she doesn't have to worry about sneaking around all the time, or settling for a job she doesn't want...everything's going to be wonderful for her." She beams, genuinely pleased at Jane's good fortune. "I wish her nothing but happiness," she declares, then looks a bit guilty. "I know I've been resentful lately about her attitude to me, but can you blame her?!" Emma is all understanding and pity as she looks at things from Jane's point of view. "She thought I was stealing away the man she loved! My offers of help must have been torture for her. I understand everything now," she concludes magnanimously.
A beat later, though, her thoughts are back on Harriet. "...Everything except how I'm going to tell Harriet about this." There's more handwringing, and she looks appealingly toward the camera. "I know it's supposed to be a secret, but I owe Harriet the truth." She gives a wry laugh. "This must have been how Annie felt talking to me a few days ago..." she muses.
Her ruminations are interrupted by the brisk sound of Harriet's pumps, tapping their way excitedly into Emma's office. "Oh Emma," Harriet enthuses as she enters, her notepad and phone clutched in her arms, "isn't this incredible news?!" Her face is stretched wide into a characteristic Harriet grin.
Emma gives a little frown of confusion, and turns away from the camera at Harriet sits down next to her. "What do you mean?"
Harriet clarifies eagerly. "About Jane Fairfax. Isn't it crazy?!" Noticing Emma's stunned look, she adds reassuringly, "Oh, it's okay, you can talk about it with me...Ryan told me himself, he was here first thing this morning, dropping off all the thank you notes for the baby shower." She raises her shoulders gleefully and smiles even more broadly. "And a box of gooseberry tarts from Annie." She shakes her head at the generosity of Emma's friend. "Ryan said it was a secret, but that you already knew."
Emma looks even more confused. "What did Ryan say?" she asks.
Harriet blinks brightly. "That Jane Fairfax and Frank Churchill are together! That they've been in a secret relationship for months and months!"
Emma's jaw drops in surprise, and she peers hard at Harriet, who in turn continues to exhibit absolutely no signs of heartbreak. Rather the opposite, in fact; she's practically bouncing in her seat with glee. Since Emma is silent, Harriet bubbles on. "Did you have any idea?" she asks. "I mean, you're always sooo intuitive, you must have-"
Emma interrupts. "I'm starting to wonder whether I have any intuition at all!" she exclaims. "I had no idea until Annie told me about it! Lord, Harriet, are you seriously asking me whether I knew he was in love with Jane? When all this time I've been encouraging you to think of Frank for yourself?!"
"ME?!" cries Harriet, blushing instantly with embarrassment and looking completely dumbfounded. "Why would I think about him for myself?" She frowns with a sudden thought. "You don't think I like him, do you?"
"Okay, look," says Emma firmly after a quick glance back to the camera. She tries desperately to get a handle on the conversation. "I'm really happy that you don't seem to be upset about all this, but you told me, not long ago...in this very room...that you were interested in him!"
"Mr. Churchill?!" boggles Harriet. "No...never. Never! Emma, no, how could you have thought that's who I was talking about?!" In perplexity, she turns away from Emma so that her body is fully facing the camera. Her face, however, is looking down, obviously thinking very hard.
"Harriet!" cries Emma. "What do you mean? Holy Oprah, what do you mean?!"
At this, Harriet jumps up from the bench and paces around the room in consternation. Emma looks with utter horror back to the camera as the penny starts to drop. "Harriet...?" Her breath gets caught in her throat and she looks back at Harriet, who, in her distress, now has her materials in a tight death-grip.
She turns back to Emma, protesting earnestly. "I never thought for a second, Emma, that you didn't know who we were talking about! I know we said we wouldn't say his name, but...I mean...smart, successful, charming, handsome, funny, kind...who else could we have been talking about? I mean," she tempers, wide-eyed, "Frank Churchill is nice and all, but...no!" she shakes her head laughingly. "There's no comparison!" She frowns, looking seriously at Emma. "I never would have thought that he would think of me that way, but you told me 'more wonderful things have happened,' so I started thinking that maybe it could be possible...well...I mean, you've known him forever, so if anyone would know about his feelings, it'd be you-"
Emma's voice rises even higher, to a frantic pitch. "Harriet!" she cries out, shooting yet another panicked look at the camera before getting it back together again. She looks down to collect herself, then sharply clears her throat and pats the seat beside her. "Harriet. Come and sit. We need to talk, and with no miscommunication this time." A firm hand gesture reinforces her point.
Harriet bobs over to the bench and seats herself again by Emma.
Emma takes a very deep breath. "Harriet...are you talking about...Alex?"
Harriet blinks, raising her shoulders in her characteristic self-conscious way. "Of course! I admire him so much, there could never be anybody else." At Emma's stunned, frozen expression, Harriet qualifies further. "We did talk about him," she adds in an uncertain voice.
Emma appears to be bending all her energy towards remaining calm. With great deliberateness, she relaxes her shoulders and looks directly at Harriet. "Uh, not exactly...Harriet, everything you said was about Frank! You practically named him! For heaven's sake!" she bursts out, a nervous laugh escaping her, "we talked about when he saved you from the coyotes, after your car broke down!"
Harriet looks totally blank for a moment, then she laughs and shakes her head. "Oh, Emma, no...you've forgotten-"
Emma purses her lips and her tone gets a touch harsh. "Harriet, I remember it very clearly. I told you it was very natural and romantic that rescuing you would have gotten your attention. And you agreed!" she emphasizes. "You even talked about how it felt to be rescued!"
Harriet bites her lip. "Oh dear...okay, yes, I remember all that, of course...but I wasn't talking about Frank Churchill."
Emma's look is disbelieving. "What?!" she squeals.
Harriet warms to her subject. "No, Emma, I...I was talking about something much more personal...I meant...when Alex offered to take me as his plus-one to the engagement party, after Senator Elton had told me I couldn't go." Here Emma's face starts to fall with awful realisation. Harriet looks to the side reminiscently. "I'd gotten all dressed up, and I was sooo excited, and then Senator Elton treated me like-like...just the help." She winces at the memory. "Unwanted help. It was humiliating!" Her expression brightens. "But then Alex swooped in, and arranged for me to go after all..and as his date, too...his equal! That was when I realised how amazing he is." She sighs fondly.
Emma has clearly become extremely distressed. "Oh my god," she says before she can stop herself. She swallows convulsively, and presses a hand to her middle, swiveling away from Harriet.
Harriet frowns, suddenly realising that something might be seriously amiss. "Emma," she begins tentatively, "does this mean you wouldn't have said anything if you knew who I really meant?" She frowns, and quirks her mouth to one side, thinking hard again. "But then...I guess I'm no worse off now than if I did like Mr. Churchill. I mean," she turns back to Emma, "at least with Alex, it's possible!" Another thoughtful pause, and her face falls. "Okay, so I guess you don't actually think he would think of me that way, after all..."
Emma's face, still turned away from Harriet, is speaking volumes. Harriet's words appear to be causing her actual physical pain. Oblivious to this, Harriet's monologue continues, now more optimistically. "But Emma, you said it yourself, more wonderful things had happened...I mean, that's true even if you didn't know who I was talking about, so...so if Alex does think of me that way, then...it could still happen!" She finishes triumphantly, then wilts a little, looking at the back of Emma's head. "You-you'll be happy for us, Emma...right?"
At this, Emma practically leaps out of her seat and begins pacing the room herself, while Harriet looks on uncertainly, biting her lip. After a few moments, Emma stops and looks penetratingly at Harriet. "DO you think he thinks of you that way?" she asks incredulously.
Harriet's expression becomes very bashful and she looks shyly down at her hands. "Well...yes," she confesses softly.
Instantly, Emma's nostrils flare, and her hands open wide with tension. She swallows hard, and whirls to face the door, her face hidden from both Harriet and the camera. A moment later, she practically jumps as Harriet's phone fleedles cheerfully with a call. Harriet peeks at the device and makes a moue of regret, wrinkling up her nose. "Oh, Emma," she says, "sorry, I have to take this...it's Boxx...they're expecting an important receipt this morning. Can we talk later?"
Emma nods and answers in a low voice, "Sure."
Harriet is already answering the phone as she walks out of Emma's office, her voice fading out as she turns the corner and walks out of sight. "Emma Approved, Harriet speaking..."
The next minute or so shows Emma pacing her office in extreme agitation, holding herself protectively around her middle, pressing her lips together, occasionally looking imploringly up at the ceiling, holding her temples, and even wiping away a few tears; and always, always, with a tortured expression on her face.
Finally, we cut to a view of Emma seated once again, now with the door firmly shut behind her. A few tearmarks stain her face, and she swallows and sniffles as she talks, but she has regained a modicum of self-control. Her voice shakes as she looks directly at the camera and tells the audience. "I've failed."
She closes her eyes for a moment, shaking her head while a few more tears escape down her cheeks. But she pulls herself back together and fixes the camera with a direct look once again. Still shaking her head, she confesses, "I've failed Harriet, and I've failed myself." After a small, appealing glance towards the ceiling, she continues. "HOW could I not have realised it before?" She looks back at the camera and explains herself. "Why am I fine with Harriet getting together with Frank, but feel like this at the idea of her getting together with Alex?"
She trembles slightly as she answers her own question with deep bitterness: "I want to be with Alex! I-I love him...I-I think I've always loved him."
At this, she falls apart a bit again, blinking furiously and looking away with a grieving expression.
A cut, and she's found herself a tissue and is dabbing at her eyes. "It's so obvious!" she cries. "This whole time, I haven't been helping Harriet, I've been horrible to her! Pushing her to like all these different guys! Guys that are completely wrong for her...never once did I think about her personality; all I cared about was making her ambitious! And it's just been one disaster after another! I have never actually helped her, not once! And now-" she cuts herself off, pausing to sniffle again, her eyes focused off in one corner. "She thinks Alex wants her...just when I realise I want him!" Swallowing, she looks back at the camera, and shakes her head again, self-loathing etched all over her face. "Harriet deserves better than this," she resolves. "I must be nice to her. Anything else would be completely unfair." Her eyes widen sorrowfully. "I'll just have to hide how I feel, that's all." She inhales deeply through her nose and speaks resolutely. "I must be calm; I must be nice...and I must find out what's been happening with her and Alex." She gives one last sniff, one last dab at her eyes, puts away the tissue, straightens gamely, and leans forward to dial Harriet.
After a few bleeps, Harriet's nervous face appears on an inset screen. "Yes, Emma?" she asks timidly.
Emma's voice, amazingly, is gentle and serene; perhaps a bit too suave, but Harriet appears to notice nothing out of the ordinary. "Harriet," she opens, "you said earlier that you thought Alex has feelings for you...?"
Harriet smiles tremulously and she nods. "Oh, yes," she agrees.
Emma's eyes get ever-so-slightly wider, but aside from another calming inhale and tilt of her head, nothing else betrays her inner turmoil as she presses on. "And what makes you think that, exactly?" she asks delicately.
An excited litany of reasons tumbles quickly from Harriet's lips. "Well, you said that I should look for the signals, right? And I've been thinking that he's been giving me signals for a really long time now. Um...he's told me lots of nice stuff about myself; he's complimented my work, he's told me I was really important to the company...ummm...he always seems to be there to pick me up when I'm feeling down.."
Emma blinks, her eyes losing focus with the camera introspectively. "Yes...he often tells me how great you are," she muses thoughtfully.
"And then," Harriet presses on, "I was his date to the engagement party," here she glows fondly at the memory while Emma's expression hardens slightly, "...and ever since then, I've just noticed that he seems to take more interest in me! And he's been trying to spend time alone with me, just like you said! He offered to carpool with me, and...and he spent a lot of time with me at the Boxx opening..."
Emma frowns, thinking. "That's true," she admits softly. "He did."
Harriet continues, "And he's been talking to me a lot more than he used to, asking about my...you know, my feelings and stuff, and how I'm doing, and even if I'm dating anybody!"
At this, Emma rocks back in her seat, looking fairly stunned. After a moment, she twitches with a sudden thought and grasps at a straw. "Are you sure he wasn't...I mean, he does hang out sometimes with...with B-Mart, they have 'guys nights' together, playing poker and stuff. Maybe he was actually asking on behalf of-"
Harriet rolls her eyes expressively and cuts Emma off. "Martin!" she exclaims quite loudly. "Oh, no, Emma, we weren't talking about Martin. I know better than to care about Martin, I don't think anyone would even think I like Martin! No, no, no..."
Emma sighs slightly, and she nods. "Okay, I-I guess Alex was asking for himself, then."
Harriet brightens. "And my rides with him have been sooo fun," she adds.
Emma's face takes on a defeated look of realisation. "So...I guess your carpool hasn't been 'all work and no play'?" she asks, stressing the last phrase meaningfully to herself.
Harriet beams, nodding enthusiastically. "He's always so attentive...he's always just so...sweet, and...kind!" she confirms.
Emma swallows, but remains silent, thinking.
Harriet raises her eyebrows appealingly, her voice serious. "Emma, you said, 'Let his behaviour guide yours,' and...and that's what I did. And now I feel," here she shrugs expansively, gathering her thoughts, "like-like it's not so crazy after all that he would like me...you know?"
Emma doesn't seem to know how to answer that. Her face is tense with an aura of sadness which Harriet doesn't seem to notice. Finally, though, she replies, obviously choosing her words very carefully as she goes. "Harriet, the only thing I can say is that...that...Alex is not the sort of guy who would ever try to give a woman the wrong idea."
A delightedly vorklempt expression suffuses Harriet's face, and she bubbles forth with happiness. "Oh Emma, thank you sooo much! Oh, I'm so glad...this is so amazing...and unbelievable! I can't even-"
Emma's nostrils flare and she cuts Harriet off, having reached her limit of endurance. "I'm sorry Harriet, I think I have another call, I'll talk to you later!" she blurts out quickly.
Harriet's quick, enthusiastic 'Okay!' is cut off before she can finish the word, her inset disappearing from view.
Emma's shoulders sag the moment the call ends. Now that no one is watching, she lets herself go, allowing her wretchedness to show on her face, shaking her head disbelievingly. Finally, she can stand it all no longer and gives vent to everything; balling her hands into fists and shaking them quickly in front of her, she screws up her face and cries out, "Oh, I wish I had never hired her!"