Author's note: thank you/gracias/merci for all the reviews and suggestions.
- I didn't get a beta nor a better grammar checker, I am just less sick
- I don't know yet when they are going to kiss but they will
- I was very distracted when writing the following chapter b/c I was following the events that hit Paris - the city where I live - and people I consider as colleagues since I am a journalist too so I apologize if today's chapter isn't that great
Chapter six: A French Conspiracy
As Maura tried to adjust her shirt for the thousandth time within a minute, Jane pushed her away and moved her chair a bit further on her left. She then focused back on the computer and waited in silence for the Skype connection.
The last time she had reached such level of nervousness had been when she had met Maura's mother.
After all the things her friend had told her about the artist, Jane had started having doubts about herself and her own ability to reach the Isles' standards. Time had proved her wrong but her stress was nonetheless back, now.
Within a few seconds now, she would meet Margot's parents and lie. Over and over.
She had woken up feeling remorseful towards the entire world. What she had taken at first as a game was turning little by little into a bitter farce because she had become attached to Margot and to a lot of people she had met through this experience: other parents, people in charge of the association. It had barely been a week but her lack of honesty was weighing on her already. Could her fake marriage hurt them?
Alright. It's show time.
A couple in their fifties appeared on the screen. They looked nice and friendly, sitting in what seemed to be a living-room full of books and modern paintings. Jane avoided Maura's gaze at all costs but grabbed her hand nonetheless. Then - as if she had been doing it all her life - she smiled and played the wife card.
"Bonjour...?" She timidly waved at them and straightened up. Perhaps Maura had been right to ask her to put on less casual clothes. She had to look presentable. After all, she had never had the chance to talk with Margot's parents before and she knew from experience how important the first impression could be.
"They speak English, Jane. That's fine. You don't have to do it in French!" Margot laughed before turning back to the screen to speak way too fast for Jane to understand the slightest word.
Meanwhile, Maura was following the verbal exchange with an obvious pleasure; laughing at what must have been jokes, nodding when required. Jane smirked: the straight A's student was back in full mode. She repressed a yawn after what seemed an eternity in a foreign language.
"Jane?"
Maura. The scientist's voice took her out of her daydreams. A bit too late, though. She and Margot were staring at her in the expectation of something she completely ignored. What had she missed again? What had happened?
Her eyes landed on the image of the French girl's parents on the computer screen. They were looking straight at her as well with the same expression on their face.
Oh, awesome. See? Sister Catherine was right when saying you had your head in the clouds and that it would cause you damage one day. You didn't want to believe her? Well, here's the 'one day'. Good luck.
"Ye-... Oui...?" Her nervous laugh fell flat and only when she heard Maura moan did she realize she had been crushing her hand of anxiety. "Oh shit! Sorry, Maur'. I mean..." Time to pretend to be interested. She leaned over and nodded at Margot's parents. "Yes?"
"They asked you if you had liked the wine Margot offered us." Maura smiled politely at the screen while whispering to her friend between clenched teeth.
They obviously needed to rehearse if they wanted to look like the perfect couple.
"Oh... Thumb up! Thumb up! Très très bon, oui!* Ahem... Merci beaucoup. Je... Aimer*... Whatever. I loved it. It was really good. Thanks a lot, guys."
...
"I like this color better. It suits you."
The compliment warmed up Maura's heart. She grabbed the bottle of nail varnish that Margot was holding out to her and opened it. She didn't have a lot of experience with teenagers and was immensely glad to see that things were not going too bad with their host. It was a daily personal challenge.
"Vert émeraude*, right?" She applied a first layer on her tiptoe and pouted admiring the result. "I like it too. Thank you very much."
"Maura...? When did you realize that you were in love with Jane?"
Needless to say that the second layer turned out to be a disaster. Half of the varnish landed on the bedsheet under the effect of surprise. Mortified, Maura looked all around for a tissue thanking in silence her long hair that covered now her face. Her cheeks were burning and her hands were moist. Good thing she was on her bed or else she might have fallen down unexpectedly.
Her reaction made Margot giggle.
"You are timid, aren't you? That's why you don't kiss Jane much? Or that you... That you turn red when I ask you about your feelings?"
Maura observed the bottle of nail varnish for a long moment. The rain was falling down against the window. She could hear the wind blow hard; the branches of the trees fold. A real storm. Jane had left an hour or so earlier to run a few errands. She would be back any time soon, now.
"What pushed you to go to India? Don't take it bad but you don't look like the kind of person who leaves with a backpack and that's what you told me the last time we talked about your tattoo."
The second question forced Maura to look up. She locked her eyes with Margot and felt the bitterness of a smile curl up her lips. Yet she ended up shrugging, not too sure what to reply.
It might have been crazy but – deep inside – she still preferred to give a semblance of explanation to the first question instead. The second one was very personal. And yet...
"For a girl."
She had never said it to anyone. Her parents had probably guessed by then but they had never made any specific remark at the time, even less when she had come back and moved to Boston to start college. A phase. They had probably seen it as a phase, something that wouldn't last. They had been right.
To an extent.
"Jane doesn't know?" Margot sounded worried for the very first time; worried and confused. She had tilted her head and squinted her eyes at Maura. "You don't talk about your exes with her? Never?"
Maura shook her head. She had folded the tissue so many times now that it had turned hard and painful to hold. She let go of it.
"Not about this one. She knows for the other ones, just not for... Not for Dharma."
Margot grabbed her hand to squeeze it then winked with all the ligthness a sixteen-year-old could have. She didn't look judgemental. Not the slightest bit.
"Don't be worried, I won't tell her anything. We all have our... Jardin secret, non?*"
"Why are you speaking French? Plotting against me?" Leaned against the door, Jane smiled before finally walking in. She dropped a plastic bag on the bed and wrinkled her nose. "Gosh it stinks! I hate nail varnish! On the bed, besides? Ugh." She grabbed a pillow and threw it at Maura. "Cold treatment, tonight."
"Like every single night. Your feet are icy, Jane. It isn't very... Very pleasing!"
Maura's giggles made Jane's embarrassment reach a new level. As if caught in the act, she vehemently shook her head at Margot to deny such attack.
"Wow. I go out while it's pouring just to bring back these cookies you are craving for and... And this is how you welcome me back home, Maura? Well, thank you!"
Margot burst out laughing. She grabbed a bottle of nail varnish – shook it – and pointed out Jane's feet.
"I don't mind if they're cold. It's your turn, now. You like the color?"
Glad to see that at least one person in the room didn't try to mock her, Jane nodded and unfolded her legs. Jo Friday jumped on the bed – trotted to her – then sat on her lap. She caressed the dog and let a strange feeling take possession of her, something she had never experienced before.
A sentiment of belonging to the moment; to feel at peace, and loved. She wasn't with her relatives but she still had the feeling to currently be part of a family. Her very own one.
"Now give me some chocolates. I've had a stressful Sunday: first a whole Skype convo in French – then the rain – and now an extremely unfair comment about my feet that are not cold. They aren't, right, Margot?" Jane gasped in horror before Margot's silence. "Oh my God. This is a conspiracy... I knew that you two were plotting against me."
"Oh, not at all. We were just talking about your honeymoon."
Margot's comment got the effect of a very cold shower on Jane. She immediately stopped any kind of dramatic gesture and froze instead. The house turned silent, echoing the sound of the rain on the windows in her back. She swallowed hard, pursed her lips. Had Maura really managed to lie during her absence? She doubted so.
The Maura she knew couldn't do that because if she had had, then she would have already been rushed to the ER.
"Really...?" Her usual hoarse voice raised at least three octaves.
Silence. Why did nobody want to talk anymore? Maura looked impassive while Margot seemed resigned and maybe a tad embarrassed. Jane swallowed hard.
"Oh my God."
One. Two. Three.
Margot her tongue - pointed out Jane with her index finger - and burst out laughing.
"Gotcha!"
...
*Very very good, yes... Thank you very much... I... To love
*Emerald green
*Private world/inner sanctum
