Chapter 22
Emma: Now, be honest, Frank. How are you? Have you heard from Jane?
Frank: She finally replied to one of my messages.
Emma: And?
Frank: She's... thinking about things.
Emma Approved, ep. 71
August 18, 2014
On Monday morning, Frank was in high spirits. He had talked to Jane the night before, the first message of his she had returned in weeks. True, her initial words had been, "Enough, Frank! I'm so sick of all your messages! Can't you take a hint?" But she had calmed down during the course of their call, she had told him a bit about her future career plans, and she had finally agreed to meet him for dinner on Monday evening to talk further.
The call had encouraged him enough that he decided to do something he had been putting off for a while: apologize to Emma Woodhouse for his behavior with her. Even the heavy morning traffic didn't bother him as he prepped himself mentally for this meeting. He recalled his very first encounter with Emma, which took place a few days after he arrived back in the U.S. He had visited her office to express his appreciation for her efforts in coordinating Annie and Ryan's wedding, and to offer to do something to say thanks for helping him realize that his absence was inexcusable.
He had liked Emma immediately, recognizing her as a kindred spirit. Like him, she was also half-Asian (her mother had been Japanese), somewhat cocky, and a coffee lover. The two of them spent the meeting engaged in a game of "let's pretend": her saying there was nothing he could do to thank her... unless he liked charitable events; him acting like he was completely unaware that she was planning an upcoming event sponsored by Bates Financial Services; and her just pulling "renewable energy" as the event's theme out of the air, as if she hadn't known that he had missed his visit with Ryan and Annie the previous month for a renewable energy conference. In any case, he had jumped at the chance to do something for Jane's aunt, and offered to be a guest speaker for Maddy's event.
The one downside to the meeting was that it was the first time he had overtly tried to hide his relationship with Jane from someone else. Since Jane would be attending Maddy's event, he couldn't deny knowing her, so he said he'd met her in London through work his company had done with her nonprofit. The thinly veiled sarcasm in Emma's gritted teeth response, "Jane's... great" let him know that at least from Emma's perspective, their high school rivalry was far from over. He had to stop his instinct to defend his girlfriend and give the game away, so he claimed that he barely knew Jane and found nothing special about her.
His second meeting with Emma to hash out the final details of his speech the day before the benefit was a much weirder (and in hindsight, more ominous) affair. Emma appeared to take their connection during the first meeting—along with, no doubt, his insult of Jane—to mean something more than he intended. His first clue was how she was attired that day. She wore a pale green slip of a dress that was was designed to show off maximum cleavage and leg, and at intervals leaned over him or away from him to make sure he really noticed. He had noticed all right, and had been thinking about how much better Jane would look in it; his Jane, now back in the U.S. herself, had more of a figure than Emma did, and while the dress' pale color washed out a bit on Emma, it would look vibrant against Jane's skin.
During the meeting, Emma's business partner Alex Knightley walked in and immediately started throwing snarky barbs Frank's way. Frank at first found this bizarre, since Alex had to know that Frank was to be the guest speaker at the imminent event his business was throwing in hopes of generating new clients and revenue. Why would he treat someone in Frank's position that way? It took less than a minute for Frank to figure out the reason for Alex's attitude: he had the hots for Emma and considered Frank a threat. Frank suddenly found himself in the middle of a workplace drama—literally, since he sat in between a flirting Emma and a reacting Alex—and although he continued to talk about the benefit as though nothing was amiss, he found the whole thing hilarious.
His second clue that his friendship with Emma wasn't a good thing should have been when he recounted the tale to Jane and she didn't laugh. Instead, she was incredulous. "Why would you even think I would find Emma flirting with you funny?"
When had the whole dynamic with Alex and Emma ceased to be a joke to him? It was, he knew, not long after Jane had started working for Emma Approved. Accepting a position there was probably a bad move on Jane's part, but she needed a job and Alex had talked her into joining the company. They were interested in moving in a new direction, in focusing primarily on charitable events rather than providing matchmaking services and throwing parties for the rich and famous. Jane's passion, her understanding of the nonprofit world, and her strong work ethic would all be assets to the company in its new endeavors.
However, no sooner had Jane begun working for Emma than the issues between the two women resurfaced. And Frank's problems started almost immediately as well. L.A. transit was a sorry shadow of what Jane was used to in London, and she found herself spending more than three hours each day waiting for or riding the bus for her commute to and from work. Alex, nice guy that he was, offered to carpool with her. Soon after they started going to lunch regularly, which made his sister-in-law Annie speculate that the two were on their way to becoming a couple.
At that point Frank found himself in the position Alex had been in during that second meeting with Emma: seething with jealousy and threatened by another man. It didn't help that he was growing ever more annoyed about having to deny his relationship with the woman he loved. Alex might have backed off and Annie certainly would have stopped her matchmaking attempts if they knew Jane was already taken. But instead, the workplace drama he'd witnessed between Alex and Emma spilled over into his relationship with Jane. And Frank became a player in the game.
From Emma Approved, Frank & Jane, ep. 9. The 21st of July, two days before the Boxx restaurant opening. In this scene, Jane is angry and Frank is snide:
Jane: The Richmond Corporation is expanding, and it's your money that's making it possible!
Frank: It's just business, Jane.
Jane: Oh. I know. I'm just glad you've finally figured out what's important to you.
Frank: And what about you? (in a mocking voice) Shouldn't you be off saving starving orphans somewhere?
Jane: Maybe you're right. Clearly I've lost sight of who I really am!
Frank: Happens to the best of us.
Jane: I need to try some of your... prioritizing, was it? Thank you for the words of wisdom, Mr. Churchill!
Frank: That's what I'm here for.
Jane: Now if you don't mind?
Frank: What, you have work to do? Not a problem. I won't be bothering you anymore. Goodbye, Ms. Fairfax.
Jane: GoodBYE, Mr. Churchill.
From Emma Approved, ep. 61 (note: this scene occurs immediately after the one above):
Frank: It's so sad when people put their jobs above everything else.
Emma: Says the guy who missed his brother's wedding for work!
Frank: A lesson that I've since learned! And that's why we need to have a lot of fun at the party. Do you have a date?
Emma: No, I don't! I'll be too busy handling everything.
Frank: Then find me a nice date for the evening.
Autor's note: And it was at this point that I fell out of love with Frank and almost gave up on this story...
Jane sat in the waiting area of Azeen's, an Afghani restuarant in Pasadena that she and Frank had discovered a couple of months earlier. They had liked it because it was quiet and out of the way, a great place to have heart to heart conversations.
Their favorite place to talk had been the swinging garden bench in the Bates' backyard, but Jane didn't want to have a discussion like this in a place so special to her. Frank used to come over in the evenings and help her and Aunt Maddy work in the garden. Maddy would always go inside at some point, leaving them alone. They'd sit on the bench and set it to gently swing, drinking lemonade freshly squeezed from lemons growing in the yard. Jane would rest her head against Frank's shoulder as they watched the sunset, shaded from the heat by the fruit trees around them, the scents of lemons and oranges sweetening the air. Even the city noises seemed to recede in that spot.
Frank had been true to his word and hadn't mentioned marriage again (other than a tweet about "'eternal bachelor' George Clooney!" when the famous actor got engaged), but in those quiet moments together, Jane herself had started to imagine spending her life with him. She thought about what it would be like to have a home together, with a garden like this, with their children running about. She imagined growing old with him, still sitting together in the evening watching the rosy streaks of daylight slowly vanish from the sky as twilight set in.
Stop it! she told herself. The last thing she needed was to become sentimental about Frank right now. She was beginning to wonder whether it was a good idea to meet with him at all, knowing that it would be hard not to be affected by his presence, but an in-person meeting seemed to be the only way to stop his incessant calling and texting.
To remind herself of the issues they needed to discuss, she started to mentally review the events that had led up to this moment. It began with Diggy's letter about the Richmond Corporation. She had addressed it with Frank when she first returned to the United States, and he had defended his decision to support the agribusiness. "We feed people," he argued. "Maybe the quality isn't as good as from an all-organic company, but the output is much higher, and people are getting fed."
"But you can do better," she'd protested weakly.
Frank shook his head slowly. "Richmond's not perfect, but no one's hands are clean, unless they're living off the grid somewhere. Even yours, Jane."
Jane didn't have a comeback to that, so she'd let the matter drop. That lasted until she received a call in mid-June from her contact at Hygienic H2O, a clean water charity operating in Ethiopia. Richmond Corporation had been buying up water sources throughout eastern Africa, and then turning around and selling bottled water at extravagant prices to the people who lived there. Many people couldn't afford the cost, and so they were left not even with the contaminated water sources that HH2O was trying so hard to provide alternatives to, but nothing at all.
When she broached the issue with Frank, he'd gotten defensive again, despite there being no justification for Richmond's actions in this instance. What good was it to feed people only to turn around and force them to die of thirst?
The issues with the Richmond Corporation were compounded by Frank's friendship with Emma Woodhouse. For weeks it had seemed as though the two of them were conspiring together against Jane, pushing her to participate in activities she felt very uncomfortable with, such as a bachelor/bachelorette auction to raise money to fight human trafficking. Even gentle Harriet, one of Jane's colleagues at Emma Approved who usually went along with Emma's plans, had questioned the wisdom of putting people up for sale as a means to end slavery.
"Sorry I'm late."
Jane looked up to see Frank standing nearby. Thanks to so recently cataloging Frank's sins, the pangs of love or longing Jane had dreaded never materialized, much to her relief. "I'm not surprised."
"There was a lot of traffic—"
"Of course there was. Like I said, I'm not surprised."
Frank frowned. He had been so hopeful about this dinner, especially after his meeting with Emma had gone so well, ending with her wishing him "all the luck in the world" for his relationship with Jane. But Jane's coldness had immediately dampened his good mood.
The restaurant's host soon seated them. Both Frank and Jane were quiet as they looked over the menus and placed their orders. Once the waitress walked away, he pushed himself to speak. "I've left you messages about my divestment from Richmond. What do you think?"
"It's a good thing," Jane said quietly. "I've read that your sale has stymied their plans for expansion."
Frank exhaled. "Does it make a difference for our relationship? That's what I really want to know. I did it for you. For us."
Jane closed her eyes in exasperation. "You still don't get it, do you? You don't do something like that for me. You do it because it's the right thing to do."
"Why does it matter?"
"Because it does!"
"That's not an answer. If the result is the same—Richmond can't move forward with their expansion plans—then why does it matter why I did it?"
She looked at him in sadness. "Because I have to know that I can trust your heart."
Frank swallowed hard. "You can't trust my heart after all this time?"
Jane's anger started rising again. 'You're really asking me that? After all the things you did to hurt me at the Boxx opening?"
"Let's not get into that—"
"Oh, no, that's exactly what we should get into. How could you, Frank? How could you parade around with Emma like that, like she was your girlfriend or something, right in front of me? How could you make fun of my aunt like that?"
"I never made fun of Maddy!"
"Yes, you did! You were laughing at her, along with Emma!"
Frank blew out his breath. "Look, I'm sorry about that, okay? I may have laughed at one joke, but as soon as I saw how carried away Emma was getting, I stopped!"
"But you started. My aunt, who is the kindest person in the world, who was so excited to be there that evening and share her jams, and you humiliated her. You humiliated me!"
"What about all the ways you humiliated me?"
Jane shook her head. "What are you talking about?"
"You know how much I hated lying about our relationship! And what about all the time you spent with Alex? You know I hated that, too!"
"Alex was just a friend, and you know that! I never went around flirting with him, or cuddling up to him, or doing any of the things you did with Emma!"
Frank was breathing heavily. He knew Jane was right, but that didn't diminish his anger in the moment. "That doesn't mean it didn't hurt me!"
Their argument came to a halt as the waitress returned with their dinner plates. Jane looked down at the platter, feeling nauseous. "You know what the difference is between you and me?" she asked after the waitress departed again.
"What?" Frank asked sharply.
"I may have made some bad choices, but I never deliberately tried to hurt you. But you did. You knew the problems I had with Emma, and you chose to carry on with her right in front of me. You"—at this, Jane had to pause, as tears filled her eyes— "you made that crack about saving orphans even though you know that adopting an orphan is one of my dreams. You chose to continue supporting Richmond Corp even though you knew that water rights is one of the most important things I care about. I never meant to hurt you, Frank. I'm sorry if I did, but that was never my intention. You, on the other hand, planned to hurt me, and carried it out to the fullest. And that's why I can never trust you again."
She stopped and reached down to the floor, lifting up her purse. She pulled out her wallet and extracted three twenty dollar bills, laying them on the table.
"What is this?" he asked.
"To cover dinner." What that, she stood up.
"Wait, Jane!" he cried. "I can change! We can make this work!"
"I doubt it," she said. "I hope you have a good life, Frank, but I won't be a part of it."
As she turned to walk away, Frank called out, "At least take your money back, Jane. I'll pay for dinner."
She turned back, her tears replaced with an expression of steel. "Keep it. Or find a good charity to donate it to."
In stunned silence, Frank watched Jane walk out of the restaurant and out of his life for good.
Author's note: This is not the end of things for Jane and Frank. Instead, it is the start of a new beginning.
Going back and re-watching some of the EA episodes was interesting. For example, the one in which Frank and Alex meet for the first time. Alex (Mr. Knightley from the novel—Pemberley Digital changed his first name so that it wouldn't match the villain George Wickham) is of course the hero of the story (and I loved him in EA), so viewers were very much on his side in his conflict with Frank. But watching it again while trying to get inside Frank's head, I noticed that it was Alex who fired the first shots at Frank, and he did so at a time when Frank had done nothing more than be a man whom Emma found attractive. Moreover, Alex continued firing shots at Frank, which Frank ignored for some time before he finally fired back. Even then he did so with a twinkle in his eye as if he found it all amusing, and didn't have any real antagonism toward Alex until his jealousy over Jane kicked in.
Finally, I have a request for concrit. Usually when I write a story that shows both the male and female POV, I keep the two POVs separate in different chapters. However, when I was posting my last story, "The Maiden's Treasure," someone suggested they would prefer to hear both POVs when both characters appear in a scene together. This is the first time I've tried to write that way (and I will do it again in later chapters). Will you please let me know how smoothly and effectively I did so (or not!)? Thanks!