A couple of slow days had passed since their catch up, and Jane decided that it was time for action.

Hey Maura – Do you wanna go out again sometime?
Jane sent cautiously.

She smiled when she opened the text message.

Hello Jane,
That would be lovely. Did you have something in mind?

Jane played it cool:
Nah, not really. Just thought it might be something to do.

Fair enough. Still, I would love to. Is there a day or time that best suits you?

Mm… Nope.
She sent.
ACTUALLY!
She typed immediately afterwards to get Maura's attention.
Probably Sunday if that's okay?

Maura let out a small giggle as her phone vibrated three consecutive times as she received Jane's texts.
Sunday is perfectly okay. Perhaps lunch?

Can't say no to food. ;P But seriously, sounds good. Where d'you wanna go?

Maura thought for a moment before responding.
Hm, there is a delightful restaurant close to my home I have been meaning to try. It is food of Chinese persuasion with a modern twist.

Yum, Chinese sounds great. Pick a time and I'll see you there.

•••

Jane arrived early again, and was seen to a table that Maura had booked in advance. The restaurant was on the second floor of a building (its top floor) and covered quite a large area. Jane guessed that it could probably seat about 100 people when full. For now, though, only about a third of the restaurant was occupied, most of which were large families or groups of friends. She suddenly felt like the number of guests she was dining with was very, very intimate.

As she waited she had a quick look through the menu. She was quite astounded by the number of dishes that were available. And she loved that the menu had pictures of all the delicious foods. If she wasn't hungry before, the menu had definitely put her in the mood.

"Hello Jane," she said with a smile. "Have you been waiting long?"

Jane had had her head buried in the menu, and was a little startled when Maura arrived. "Nah, not at all," she smiled. "This place is awesome," she said with quite an impressed look on her face.

"I certainly hope so. They have traditional Chinese chefs, and the team is led by an American chef by the name of Alex Punt who is quite a trendsetter in the food world," she said as she took her seat.

Jane wasn't at all surprised that Maura knew all this, and simply sat in awe.

"Are you very hungry?" Maura asked politely.

"Starving, actually," she said unapologetically.

"Good, then this meal should be a pleasant one," she smiled.

"Oh sorry," she said shaking her head in realisation. "I haven't even asked, how are you?"

"I am well, thank you. How are you today, Jane?"

She was always so proper, and it gave Jane this unbelievable sense of respect for her, considering herself and her family spoke so… 'unproperly'.

"I'm good, thanks," she winced a little as she tried to sit more comfortably.

"Are you alright?" Maura asked in a concerned tone of voice.

"Oh yeah," she smiled honestly. "Yesterday at work was just a little rough," she understated.

Maura was visibly perplexed and felt she must enquire further. "What happened? Are you alright?"

"Oh yeah, yeah," she insisted, not wanting to worry Maura. Honestly though, she didn't really think much of it anyway. "Took down a local drug dealer and he decided to fight back a little," she shrugged as if it were nothing.

Maura's eyes grew more concerned, and a little impressed.

"It's nothing, really," she said honestly. "Anyway, what do you want to eat?"

She sensed that Jane wasn't really interested in discussing it and allowed the topic to change. "Hm, I had a quick look at their menu before I arrived and I must say everything looks rather delicious," she said, delving into her menu. Looking up at Jane though, she said, "A friend of mine mentioned that the Eight Steamed Dumpling platter is a must."

Jane looked back to her menu to find the dish and read 'prawn dumpling, pork dimsim vegetable dumpling' before remarking "I get it! 'Cause this place is called the Eight. That actually looks really good."

Maura looked at her with a straight face and said, "You were hoping there were eight of them, weren't you?" She raised an eye brow.

"What?" She feigned outrage. "No! Never!" Her outrage began to fade into an unwaveringly straight face as she spoke each word. "Maybe. Sort of. Yes. I was." She said, only managing to maintain it for a second before bursting into laughter. "But hey," she tried to say honestly, "three's not bad. I can work with that," she smirked cheekily.

She smiled this great smile and shook her head before looking back to the menu.

Jane did so too momentarily before curiously looking up and asking, "How'd you know?" Genuinely wanting to know the answer.

Maura smiled, but not quite as widely this time and said, "You simply seem like the type of person who would appreciate food."

She took a moment to contemplate her answer before she said, "Can't argue with that," and smiled.

A few moments passed as they each inspected their menus looking for the perfect dish/es to order.

"Do you know what you would like?" Maura asked politely as she looked up from behind her menu.

"Mm…" she thought, "Yes. You?"

"Yes, I do. I have decided I will try the stir-fried ee fu noodles with mixed mushrooms in abalone sauce."

"Aba what?" Jane asked, fiercely trying to suppress her urge to make an ABBA joke.

"Abalone," she repeated. "It is the name for any sort of sea snail belonging to the Haliotidae family," she explained frankly.

"Oh," she said buying time as she decided how to respond. "That's, um, cool." She hated that she used 'um' because she thought it made her sound insincere (or worse, dumb) but, all the same, tried to move forward with the conversation. "I take it you eat this sort of thing a lot?" If she were honest, she was a little intimidated by the idea that she often ate fancy foods at fancy restaurants. She remembered that in high school, and even now, she always wore the most elegant outfits that you could tell would have cost a fortune. It wasn't just her clothes though. She was always so well composed, even at sports days she somehow managed to have every aspect of her presentation in order.

"No," she said quite truthfully. "Whilst I have certainly eaten abalone previously, I only know that because I have always had an interest in biology, not just that which is relevant to humans." As she spoke, her facial expressions were less deliberate and more natural as she clearly became quite happy thinking of the topic at hand.

As Jane watched her speak, despite the slightly unusual subject of conversation, she slowly but steadily developed a smile. Had it been anyone else, she probably would have still been intimidated by how smart they were (instead of how much money they had), but with Maura it was different. She never made Jane feel dumb. In fact, she was one of not many people who truly had faith in just how smart she really was. Wow, she thought to herself. If she wasn't impressed by Maura's intelligence and intellect before, she certainly would have been now. "So, how'd you end up teaching history?" She enquired genuinely.

Before Maura could answer, the waiter arrived. "Do you know what you would like?" She asked with quite a strong Chinese accent.

Jane nodded, allowing Maura to order first.

"Alright then. May we please have 2 serves of the Eight steamed dumpling platter, one serving of the stir-fried ee-fu noodles with mixed mushrooms in abalone sauce, and a glass of the Alois Lageder Riff Pinot Grigio," she finished looking up to the waiter who was studiously noting it all down at their notepad.

"Yes, Miss," she said ever so politely. Turning to do Jane, she asked, "And for you?"

"Um, could I please have the sweet and sour pork with pineapple, some fried rice and just a bottle of Blue Moon please?" Jane smiled as she finished speaking, quite pleased with her order.

"Yes, Miss. Is that all?" she asked courteously.

Jane looked back to Maura, who she could have sworn was staring at her as she ordered her food, to see if they wanted anything else. After gauging an unspoken look in her eyes, she turned back to the waiter and casually said, "Nah, that's all, thanks."

As the waiter walked away, Maura complimented genuinely, "good choice!"

Jane smiled. "I'm a sucker for sweet and sour dishes, and the pineapple is just a bonus," she added lightly.

"I could not agree more. Although, I've always thought that pineapple was an unusual layer to add to foods considering it can be so sweet or sour depending on a number of factors. Chefs simply have a talent that not everyone is blessed with, I suppose," she said truthfully.

"Yep, and I'm thankful for it," she said lightly. "Lord knows my best dish is one that goes in the microwave," Jane added with a different kind of honesty.

Maura sounded a small laugh, as required by social etiquette before remarking, "I must say, it's a little surprising that your mother never taught you to cook. It's an important skill to have."

"Yeah," she practically groaned. "Ma tried to teach me, it was just not my forte. I was busy playing sports and stuff, cooking just wasn't a priority," she responded casually.

"I suppose that is fair. As a teenager, even I had different interests to my mother; still do actually. All the same though, the preparation and consumption of food is not only important, it is something you should be able to enjoy," she paused before a smile grew. "Flavours to be created and tasted, nutrition for good health…" Once again, she stopped, this time thinking for at least a third item to add. "Oh; Company to be enjoyed, of course," she smiled.

"Yeah," she admitted. "I would actually like to learn a little more… Basic survival meals, at least," she said truthfully and yet in the most joking way she could.

She nodded in full support. "Perhaps I could teach you a dish or two," she offered in a friendly manner.

Although she was pretty sure Maura meant nothing by it, a slight feeling of queasiness rose in her stomach at the proposal.

Maura, continuing on her own little tangent went on to say, "It would be fun to teach someone to cook. I already have a dish or two in mind that I think you'd rather like." She paused. "History also supports the idea of women cooking being quite sexy too," she pointed out.

Jane's eyes widened in surprise as she was drawn back to reality with a single word.

"Although I don't necessarily agree with the patriarchal approach to the way various cultures of humans have lived, it is our history. I think it relates back to quite a primal notion of good food makes for a good nurturer, and a good nurturer makes for success of our race." The entire time she spoke, she barely flinched in reaction to anything around her. It was as if she were so engrossed in her train of thought that nothing could come close to disturbing her.

Still in shock of the word 'sexy', Jane managed to practically choke out, "yeah, I know what you mean."

Thankfully, their entrees arrived within moments of Jane's awkward response. She smiled with relief and gave the waiter a nod to show her gratitude.

"Thank you," Maura said kindly as her plate was laid down in front of her.

Looking down at their plates, they were delighted to see that the serve of three dumplings more than lived up to its expectations.

"Wow," she muttered. "It actually looks like the picture," she exclaimed, quite impressed.

Maura agreed. "The colours are so vibrant. I always think it's so interesting to see foods traditional to one culture adjusted to better suit another," she said genuinely interested in the concept.

Jane had to have another look at her plate, as she was now certain that she'd missed something that was very clear to the person she was dining with. Not too surprisingly, the foods on her plate had not changed. They were still three decently sized dumplings, each wrapped with different shades of reddish pink dough. "Pink food is American?" She asked, a little cynically. "Do we have a flamingo fetish or something?" She joked.

Maura laughed a small giggle. "Not pink food," she corrected, "simply the idea that food needs to be a little more pleasing to the eye for it to be found appealing; particularly when a food is not native to the region. The pink wheat dough," she stated, "is simply a means by which to get the audience's attention. From there, you can then explore the different flavours associated with each shade of pink."

Not many people could persuade Jane to reshape her views of food but, in just a few sentences, Maura had succeeded. "Huh…" she said in realisation. "I never really thought about it like that, but that's really cool," she said genuinely. "At the academy we did a whole lot on desensitisation and how it can affect people's behaviour and how it can usually be linked to something in the media. Not the media like the news, but just sort of everything we see and hear. Although ours wasn't as focused on how appealing food is." She added that last sentence as if to make sure that Maura was aware that although she'd just said something smart, she wasn't (or so she believed).

Supportively and very truthfully though, Maura was quick to the mark; "Exactly!" she assured. "It's the very same concept and can be applied in many circumstances, whether it is immediately noticeable or not," she smiled.

Jane found a smile growing on her face with a mind of its own. Here she was, sitting before an intelligent, beautiful, and ridiculously kind woman, and yet no words were coming to mind, just a smile.

Maura took her first bite into one of her dumplings, and Jane was soon to follow. As she placed the remaining portion of the dumpling onto her plate, Maura began observing Jane with quite a number of thoughts running through her head. After swallowing her food, she simply placed her hands on the table and tried to speak confidently. "Jane, may I ask you something?"

Jane's eyes shot up from her plate. She had only just bitten into the last part of one of her dumplings and was now stuck with food in her as if she had forgotten how to chew. As normally as she could, she chewed and swallowed her food before saying, "sure," as she raised a napkin to her face in case she still had food in her mouth.

Without drawing too much attention to the fact, Maura took a deep breath before working up the nerve. "Please don't take this the wrong way," she said with care in her eyes. "I sometimes experience trouble deciphering what others intentions are in social situations," she spoke carefully.

Shit. She gulped a little.

"My apologies, I am rambling. I will just ask…"

She's nervous too. Why is she nervous? Why am I nervous?

"Is this a date?" She finally managed to say.

Jane practically choked on her own saliva. "Ah…" She paused; she couldn't really think of what to say. Was it?

"Oh gosh, I'm sorry. Please forget I said anything." Maura shook her head, almost trying to shake off the awkward feeling.

"No, no. Don't feel bad."Jane didn't mean to give Maura any reason to think she'd need to apologise.

Maura still looked overwhelmingly uncomfortable.

"Can I be honest?"

"Of course. Your honesty is something only you can control. You don't need permission."

She nodded slowly. "Well, honestly, I don't really know." That surprised herself a little.

"You don't know?" Maura was a little confused.

Jane saw no option but to relent. "Nope… Not really. I mean, I like you, I think. I always kind of have. And I know this may be kind of weird for you, and maybe it should be weird for me, but I don't know… You're just kind of amazing," she paused. "And not a guy…" That last part made her feel a little uneasy and even less sure about this whole thing than she was before.

Jane now looked pretty mortified. "Jane," Maura said with a kind smile. "I didn't bring it up because I was outraged by the idea. In fact, it's an idea that I don't mind the sound of," she admitted.

Her eyes lit up a little. "Really?" She had to make sure.

"Really," she said smiling a little larger this time. "I certainly won't pretend to know whether this will work out or not but even when you were my student I've thought you were immensely bright, and strong and caring," she paused. "I'd be lucky to be able to even spend a little time with someone like that." She smiled so gently at the end, almost as if she was hoping Jane felt the same.

The corners of Jane's lips turned up, almost unwittingly, and there was a strange sense of peace that she hadn't really felt since that day at the shopping centre.

Thank you kindly for reading.
Hope you enjoyed this chapter. All feedback is welcome and appreciated.

Have a safe and happy holiday season. Much care,

CC