"Work is fine," Eloise responded, reluctant to have the focus of the conversation on herself when that wasn't the point of her visit. "Nothing too exciting. Just the usual dogs and cats and rats..." It always felt a bit strange that this conversation had to be one-sided, that she couldn't turn the question back on Wayne and ask him how his work was. Well, she could, but any time she did he had to respond with vagueness and generality, and Eloise had taken to simply not asking him at all.
"I'll have mint," she added as she reached into the silverware drawer to extract two spoons. She spooned a bit of sugar into her mug, stirring it around to give her hands something to do. She was glad when the tea was ready and the time for small talk was over. "So what did you want to ask me about?"