Mina Kulseth (sagacious) wrote in remains_rpg, @ 2016-06-30 22:31:00 |
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Entry tags: | # 2019 [06] june, jane rusten, mina kulseth |
Who: Jane Rusten and Mina Kulseth.
Where: Jane’s apartment, the Capitol.
What: Even though there’s still some awkwardness between them stemming from their last encounter, Mina stops by Jane’s to wish her a happy birthday and stays to help her bone up on her local government knowledge.
When: June 10th, Jane’s birthday, after Jane returns from hanging out with Joel at The Bar.
Jane gone into birthday outing with Joel feeling nervous about the new, prominent role on the city council she’d been offered and left The Bar completely emboldened to own it. Her partner had complete faith that she’d kick her new role in the ass and even though she still had her misgivings, Jane had left her birthday celebration with a plan. A few days earlier, one of her coworkers (a rookie named Hernandez that everyone just called Guppy) had approached Jane after he heard that she’d been chosen for the council and had prattled on ad nauseum about how cool local government was and how she had a chance to make a real difference. She’d tuned it out at the time but after dropping Joel off to Mariah, Jane had trotted over to Guppy’s, still a little tipsy from her earlier jaunt to the tavern, and asked him for any info he had that could help her as a new council member. He very happily lended her a half a dozen dictionary-sized books about local government, Austin city bylaws and municipal codes and wished her the best of luck. An hour later, Jane had completely lost her buzz and was more discouraged about this city council bullshit than ever. It was like trying to decipher ancient Greek into layman’s terms and Jane could not for the life of her wrap her mind around it. She’d never been a particularly good student in school. A decidedly more tactile learner as opposed to a good test taker, Jane found the words and tiny print starting to swim together almost immediately upon cracking the one of the ludicrously huge tomes. Instead of chucking the huge book she was trying to read across the room like she really wanted to, Jane placed the open volume over her face for a few minutes; hoping it would block out any stimuli and quiet her confused mind for a few minutes. Maybe she’d be lucky enough for her brain to absorb some information through osmosis this way. Mina had spent most of the day packing, which seemed an incredible task considering her place was tiny. But apparently a lot of stuff could be accumulated in 3 years, no matter the small space it was stored in. She knew about her dad and Jane going out for her birthday, but made a point in stopping her packing in order to pay a visit to her friend. A birthday unrecognized was very rude, after all. Walking down the hall towards Jane’s room, Mina pushed some of the flyaway hairs out of her face, doing her best to make herself presentable after her day of hard work, then stopped at the door and knocked. Jane sat up, the unread book falling to her lap. She wasn’t expecting anyone. Maybe it was Guppy with another armful of dusty hardbacks for her to peruse. Daunted by the thought, Jane contemplated the idea of placing the book back over her face and possibly drifting off to sleep early but thought better of it. She set the volume aside and padded over to the door. “Mina!” Jane exclaimed with a fair amount of surprise. Jane hadn’t seen or heard much from Mina since the whole blind date debacle over the freenet. It had proven to be an open-mouth-insert-foot situation of epic proportions. Sure, it had been an honest misunderstanding but Jane had been afraid she’d done some irreparable damage to their friendship. Mina showing up at her apartment, on Jane’s birthday no less, seemed to indicate all was not lost and Jane was immeasurably glad for it. Shifting her weight from foot to foot, she trailed a finger along the door frame and smiled bashfully. Now that Jane knew her secret, she wasn’t really sure how to behave herself. Did she pretend like nothing was different between them? Did she talk about how Jane expressed interest in an anonymous person on the internet that actually ended up being her? Did that mean Jane was interested in her? Especially now that Jane knew Mina was also interested in women? Letting out a nervous laugh, she asked, “I’m not interrupting, am I?” “Nah,” Jane replied with a reassuring shake of her head. “I was just studying. Or, trying to, I guess. Never did much cramming in school so I’m not sure if I’m even doing it right. I could use a break, actually. Do you want to come in? Jane stepped aside, opening up the threshold. “Unless you were just stopping by. I don’t want to keep you if you have plans.” It felt overly formal to talk to Mina like this but Jane was worried about frightening her away. She sensed some skittishness in her friend and wasn’t looking to overwhelm her when things were understandably awkward between them. Despite the palpable awkwardness between them, seemingly both of them worried about overstepping boundaries after their almost-internet dating, Mina shook her head and stepped inside the room when she was invited. “No, I don’t have any plans. In fact, I could use a break, too. Packing for tomorrow has reminded me how much work moving is.” Once fully inside the apartment, she stopped and turned to face Jane, leaning against the small dinette table and asked, “What are you studying for? I’ve heard rumors that there will be some effort to reopen the University of Texas campus, but I wasn’t aware that it had started already.” “Oh, it’s nothing official as all that,” Jane said as she shut the door behind Mina and started to clear the couch of the books in case her visitor wanted to sit somewhere more comfortable. She stacked the volumes haphazardly on the ground next to the couch, knowing she should care that she’d lost the page she left off reading but found herself feeling little remorse. The bylaws and zoning mumbo jumbo could have been written in ancient Greek for as much as Jane had retained by trying to read it. “That’s right, you’re out of here tomorrow,” Jane recalled, knowing all too well how Mina felt. She had her own place picked out and approved by the powers that be and had plans to move in within the next couple of days, but not without sprouting a few gray hairs over the process. She had most of her clothing and decorative items packed away; her furniture was the last thing to go, along with the cookware and some kitchen items. Even though the majority of her things were ready for the moving day, she knew and appreciated how daunting the process was. “Can I get you something to drink? I got a few beers in here, or I could make tea or something and then you can tell me all about your new place.” Jane moved to the small kitchen area, rummaging around in the fridge. “You should have called me, you know,” she called over her shoulder. “I would have helped you throw stuff into boxes. I’m a dab hand when it comes to manning a label maker.” Maybe it was the tension between them, but Mina sensed that she could use a little liquid lubrication if they were ever going to calm down. With that in mind, she smiled and said, “Sure, I’ll have a beer.” Once she had the beer in hand and had taken a sip, she asked with amusement, “You have a label maker? You’ve been holding out on me for the past three years. I thought we were friends, Jane.” Jane grinned broadly and then took a quick sip of her beer before placing the bottle on the end table by the couch. She reached into nearby packing box and pulled out her handy dandy label maker. “And here I thought I was an open book,” she said with a laugh. Tapping the keys for a moment, the label maker make a dull whirring noise before producing a small slip at one end. Jane peeled off the paper on the one side and slapped the sticker reading Mina’s beer on her friend’s bottle. “There,” Jane said with satisfaction. She set the label maker next to her beer, plopped down on the couch, and folded her long legs underneath herself. “A sample of my excellent work. If this cop thing doesn’t work out, I could always pick up scrapbooking.” Mina giggled as Jane settled into the cushions and rested her elbow on the armrest and her chin in her hand; making sure Mina had room if she decided to sit down, which worked out because Mina did in fact join her moments later. “So tell me about the new place,” Jane asked, her expression curious and fully focused on Mina. “I want to hear all about it. You’re sharing a house with a friend of yours, right?” Shying under Jane’s gaze, Mina nodded, though kept her gaze down on her beer, swiping her finger over the label to brush away the accumulating condensation. “She was my roommate in college. We’d lost touch for a while but then she popped up in Austin. Um, she’s actually the one who wrote that post…” she trailed off. “Cherry, right?” Jane interrupted, remembering the name she’d been given over the freenet. She was heartened to hear Mina reference their little snafu, even if she still seemed a bit embarrassed by it. Maybe in time they’d even learn to laugh about it. “She seemed nice, if overly enthusiastic.” Jane smiled before turning her attention to her beer label, peeling it as Mina went on. Mina cleared her throat and continued, “Anyway, we found a two-level duplex. I’ll have my own room and bathroom. There is a fenced in yard, but I’m not sure how long it will take me to pluck up the courage to just, you know, sit outside and enjoy nature. Seems unnatural to think about doing that.” “Yeah, that sounds like something out of the ‘Twilight Zone’ compared to what we’re used to,” Jane replied. “But nice. Real nice, Mina. I’m sure you’ll be out in that backyard of yours grilling in no time. Me too, in fact. That is, if I make it out of this stupid city council meeting alive tomorrow.” She gestured to the mountain of books she’d moved to the floor when Mina had entered. “Thought I’d try to read up on some stuff so I didn’t sound like a complete bonehead when they start going off about zoning restrictions and Austin bylaws or whatever it is we’re gonna talk about but it is not going so great.” “You’re not going to be a bonehead,” Mina said earnestly, moving closer to Jane on the couch and reached out to touch her arm. “And I know it would be helpful to know about zoning restrictions and bylaws and stuff, but I think the great part about getting so many people together is that you all have your own fields of expertise. You’re a great cop, Jane, and you have so much experience. That’s going to count for something,” she said, giving a hopefully encouraging smile. “I could help you study, though, if you want.” Jane felt a flush warm her cheeks at the touch to her arm and her friend’s effusive praise. Mina thought she was a good cop! Not only that, she had faith that it was who she was as a person and not what she could memorize and recite that nabbed her the appointment to the council. Even though it somehow it rang true when Mina said it, Jane was relieved and delighted at Mina’s offer to help her study. “Really?” Jane’s eyes lit up. Even if it was Jane’s cop instincts and opinions they wanted at the meeting, Mina was very smart and if anyone could help Jane get a leg up on the tricky technical mumbo jumbo, it was her. “That would be just so awesome. You have no idea.” Jane picked up the volume she had thrown aside when Mina had arrived and handed it to the brunette. She looked so lovely sitting there next to Jane that the cop couldn’t help but stare at her for a moment. They were settling back into their old give and take and while Jane didn’t want to rock the boat, there was an unanswered query she kept going over and over in her mind. She wasn’t sure if she’d be able to concentrate on anything else with it still up in the air and so Jane broached the subject as tentatively as her personality allowed. “So, since you’re going to be the one asking me questions for awhile,” Jane ventured, placing her beer on the end table. “Do you think you’d mind answering one of mine? I don’t want to make it weird or anything it’s just...I gotta know.” Jane paused, glancing up to hold Mina’s gaze. “Do you think that if I wasn't me, and you weren’t you, and we were just two women meeting over the freenet, or at a bar, or hell, any old where. Would you have gone out with me?” Mina’s grip around her beer bottle tightened as her cheeks flushed. She thought they’d been ignoring the elephant in the room but apparently now they were addressing it head-on. Well. Okay then. There were a lot of “ifs” to this hypothetical situation -- including what it would be like if she weren’t still sickly in love with her 100% straight college roommate or what impact not being a 27 year old lesbian still in the closet might have on her romantic life -- but if Mina were a normal woman and didn’t have her million and one hang-ups, why in the hell wouldn’t she go out with Jane. She was beautiful and confident and funny and so caring and loyal. Mina would have to be an idiot to not want to be with someone like that. “Honestly, I’d be surprised that someone like you would even notice me, but, yes,” she said quietly, glancing at Jane out of the corner of her eye. Jane bit her lip and grinned, broad and unabashed. She was pleased, probably too pleased that at the very least Mina found her attractive. Her initial elation tempered slightly as the rest of Mina’s statement sunk in. She was at a complete loss as to why she wouldn’t notice someone as beautiful and selfless and cool as Mina. Even though had Mina flat out told her they couldn’t ever make something of this (never mind that fact her father was Jane’s partner and the teeny tiny fact she wasn’t completely out) she had to know what a complete catch she was. Jane would do just about anything to find someone as pretty and kind and perfect as Mina. Except, there wasn’t anyone like Mina besides Mina and there laid the crux of Jane’s problem. Crushing on someone she couldn’t have wasn’t new to Jane but that didn’t make it any easier to swallow. “It’s really hard not noticing you sometimes, you know,” Jane admitted. Even if it was all hypothetical and she didn’t have a snowball’s chance with her, she wasn’t ashamed to own up to her attraction. Jane nudged her friend with her shoulder, her smile returning. “So stop using those feminine wiles to distract me and quiz me on the first chapter.” Mina just blushed and reached out, stealing the textbook out of Jane’s grasp. “I’ll do my best. Now let’s get started.” |