Re: [Tea: Daniel/Claire]
Claire would always and forever associate tea with being sick. That was why she didn't like it. It was also much more fun to give Daniel a difficult time about pretentious water. "If I need to entertain people that demand tea be served in order to even make the trip to see me, even if it is not to their taste, I should be able to do it to their standards." Shot back with that playfully sassy snark that could have been serious if it weren't for the spread of warm affection in her eyes.
The phone would not twang at him. The song was not even on his phone any longer. She was not interested in actually torturing Daniel as the tease was enough for her, so she shrugged her shoulders and smirked as if he should be resigned to his inevitable phone breaking fate. "Most people don't spend hours upon hours listening to music. I happen to work in a place that requires background sound for people to drink to. As for that incessant racket in particular, the entire bar is a tribute to him and his vast number of works. He's very anti-police, but the police often frequent the bar. You should ask Jude about it."
Daniel crawled his way through the menus, and Claire was patient in watching him poke at his phone so he could learn the proper way on his own, but she did give a couple of positive and negative hums to guide him when it took a little too long. She sighed happily though to share what few artists she knew with someone she respected the opinion of. "Max Richter does beautiful work. I learned of him from his recomposition of Vivaldi. He is very much a minimalist and it weaves in interesting contrast to the Four Seasons." There was little music she knew outside of hymns, but the well known classical works she could recognize more often than not. Johnny Cash and The Beatles were very new acquaintances.
Claire didn't give up. She hadn't then, she hadn't before that, and she wasn't now. The problem laid in the fact that people in town heard what they wanted to hear when she spoke instead of what her words meant. 'Not coming back' did not immediately equate to 'dying horribly' in her vocabulary, but other people took it that way. When it had come to Corinthian, a creature that struck fear into demon and angel alike, drastic measures needed to be taken. She'd made a trap as a last resort, but for that trap to work had required her to be banished elsewhere alongside the nightmare. Carver was the only one that could have saved her, and it would have been easier had he not been in Rome. Within that jewelry box was the necklace Carver gave to her for Christmas and two letters, one for Carver and another for Daniel, as she assumed Daniel would have opened it to ensure the contents. Those letters had been forgotten in the aftermath, and spelled out all of the mysteries that she'd needed to deal with. Perhaps it was bleak, but it was honesty, and Claire wasn't the type to shy away from the dangerous truth of the situation. She was a martyr, not a coward.
Talking about Carver was like pulling off a scab thought long since healed only to discover that the wound was still fresh and bleeding. "I kissed someone else at one of the town gatherings that he did not go to." She paused as she handed him one of the mugs of tea, then gave him a look through stormy eyes that betrayed how difficult speaking of sexual things was for her. Virgin sensibilities and all that. "Well, more than a kiss. Had the sun not come up when it did, she and I would have easily slept together. He took it as betrayal. I suppose it was from his point of view. It is hard to betray someone when you do not even know your own mind, as happens during the gatherings." Oddly enough, Claire and Daniel did not often speak of the parties or the resulting drama, and this most recent one was no different. After all, she was certain that he'd never let her live down the fact that she'd been some kitten in a vinyl shop. He wouldn't even have to say anything. One of those looks, like the one he gave her when he walked inside earlier, would be enough to completely disarm her.