fandomtownies | The Perk; Tuesday Morning [ 02/03 ].

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The Perk; Tuesday Morning [ 02/03 ].

Charlotte's day had consisted mostly of babbling to her dog about how pretty she was and how much of a good girl she was and how much Mommy loved her, so she wasn't noticing anything amiss about the day.

Then again, when she went to the Perk to order a latte to help her get through some work on her laptop and ended up giving the poor barista an entire speech about how it was very important that it be skinny-skinny because her thighs were just thunderous and using anything more than skim milk just made her feel terribly bloated and that she'd like a glass of water with it, too, please, because otherwise, well, you know, coffee cramps and blah blah blah blah blah, she hadn't realized anything was amiss, either.

Even though the fact that the barista mentioned that they only put up with her so well because her boyfriend was one of the place's best customers did seem to put Charlotte off a little, frowning in thought as she settled in at a table to work.

[[ open, of course, even though it seems I can't stop making posts despite a 4-hour chunk of being at work creeping up on me. But, come on. Charlotte babbling is a given for today ]]

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Mina had no trouble keeping quiet today, which was probably for the best. Babbling about her secrets would only end in tears and blood, most likely.

In fact, Mina was unaware anything odd was afoot this morning at all.

She nodded to Charlotte when she came in, and after getting her tea she came over to Charlotte's table.

"I hope I am not interrupting?" she said.

"Oh, well, you are," Charlotte found herself admitting, truthfully, "but that's okay. If it's not you, I'm sure it would have been someone else and a this all gets so tedious sometimes that a little interruption isn't a bad thing, per say, it just means I'll have to work even harder once you've gone. That's okay, too, though! Hard work never hurt anyone! Hard work is good! I'm a very hard worker!"

Charlotte shook her head a little. Boy, she was prone to talking today, wasn't she? She gave Mina a smile.

"Please, Mina, have a seat."

Mina was a more than a little surprised and taken aback.

She sat, regardless.

"I am sure you are quite the industrious worker," she said. "Has the gallery been busy of late?"

She was going to try her best to forge a normal conversation.

"Dull and boring and as barren as my uterus," Charlotte muttered, sighing as she nudged aside her laptop so that she could rest a disheartened chin in her hands as her elbows rested on the table. She actually didn't seem to realize that she was voice what would otherwise be an entirely internal monologue. "No one every comes in and I'm stressing out about trying to find an exhibit to draw them in."

The uterus comment nearly caused Mina's eyebrows to leap off her face.

"Well, now that I am free on Sundays, I shall endeavor to come in regularly," Mina offered. It was about the best she could do.

"Oh?" Charlotte's interest and mood both seemed to perk at the chance to get off a topic that wasn't herself. At this present moment. "Did you switch shifts at the clinic?"

"Yes," Mina said. "I'm now working the shifts on Fridays," Mina said. "Perhaps now I shall be plagued with end-of-the-week office accidents." She chuckled lightly at her joke.

"And hopefully," Charlotte offered with a faint smile, "not too many awkward situations regarding Friday night drinking. I've heard of people putting all sorts of things in very unusual places with too much booze."

And why exactly she was sharing that with Mina, she did not know. She wasn't Samantha here, or anything. She blinked, shaking her head a little.

"I mean..."

Mina was now feeling she had to give up on being shocked during this conversation.

"I can scarcely imagine," was about all she could reply. "Too much drink causes many a terrible thing."

Charlotte's head bobbed several times. "Absolutely. Once I've had more than a few martinis, oooof. I'm like an entirely different person all together."

Yes, Mina had just given up on shock.

"Are you afflicted with the demons of alcoholism, Charlotte?" Her voice was filled with concern.

"What?" Charlotte asked, gaping. "No! Nonono, of course not! I am not an alcoholic!"

"Although," she added in a slightly calmer voice. Slightly. "If I were, I don't think I'd actually tell someone if they asked me, but I'm not! Really, I'm not! I just like to have a social drink or some wine to relax every now and again! Sometimes I go a little overboard, but who doesn't? You know? Really, I'm not. I am not an alcoholic."

"I'm sorry," Mina said. "It was terrible of me to ask. But my recent studies in the medical profession have made me aware of... pleas for help. I was wondering if that was one of them."

"Oh, no," Charlotte insisted. "Nonono. If it were a cry for help, I'd be talking about shoes. Shoes. Now that's where I'd get into trouble..."

There was a faint sigh.

"I want to go shopping for shoes now..."

"Shoes?" Mina said. "Well at least that compulsion I understand, if I personally do not partake of it."

"We should go shoe shopping!" Charlotte bounced a little in her seat, but then paused, holding off her beaming. "Wait, no, it would be a lot of fun to go shoe shopping, but, actually, we should not because I'm not sure I can fully afford to go shoe shopping. And while I know how to manage my money just fine, I know that, in the sight of a good pair of Blahniks, there's no hope. No turning back. Past the point of no return, but at least I'm not as bad as my friend Carrie, Mina, oh, she makes me look reserved!"

"Today that would be quite the accomplishment," Mina said. "I personally have all the sensible footwear that I require."

"Well, it isn't about sensibility!" Charlotte informed her with a slight snort. "It's about making your feet look cute! And pricey!"

"I venture this is something about attracting men, isn't it?" Mina said. "They said similar things of the corset, and while I personally enjoy wearing one from time to time, there are those who tighten them to ridiculous levels and sacrifice their bodies to foolishness."

"Mina," Charlotte said, frowning at her friend a little, "a man's going to look at a corset. They're not going to look at your feet."

"Well," she amended, turning a little red, "a certain kind of man, maybe, but nice shoes are all about you and making other women jealous."

"Why would I possibly want to make other women jealous?" Mina said.

"To prove you're better than them," Charlotte answered, succintly, and then blinked.

"Err, I mean...don't you want to seem like a powerful, successful, intelligent and fashionable woman in the eyes of your peers?"

"I am a powerful, successful, and intelligent woman," Mina said, getting a little proud for a moment. "My confidence in such facts are not tied to footwear."

"But the footwear helps!" Charlotte insisted. "In modern society, trust me, it's all about fashion. You might know all those things, but other people might not, and so you've got to make sure that every little detail, every little tiniest God damn thing is perfect, perfect, perfect, and if it isn't, well, then, all people are going to see when they look at you is a big fat red 'FAILURE' sticker plastered right there on your forehead like a zit on prom night!"

That was all said in one very tight breath, so Charlotte let it out and just sort of stared as if a little surprised by what she said, but, well, she said it. She couldn't very well unsay it and it was true, besides.

"And what, may I ask, does my current fashion say about me?" Mina said. You know, because her height of turn of the century fashion was so up-to-date.

"Oh, I'm sure your clothing would say oodles about your success and intelligence, Mina!" Charlotte insisted with conviction. "In your own time. I mean, here, you look at it and think, 'ooh, Victorian fashion was so divine! I wish I could have been from a place like that!' But anywhere else, or where I'm from, actually, it would take a lot of stares. I mean, the workmanship is to die for but it's just so out of date!"

"That is far more generous than I anticipated," Mina said. "I suppose I could do with some modernization in my wardrobe."

Charlotte just gave Mina the sort of look that didn't even need words to show how honestly skeptical she was of that.

"Some?"

"I refuse to wear these... strapless dresses and miniskirts," Mina said. "There is only so much of my body I shall allow a stranger to see."

"Oh!" Charlotte said. "I agree entirely! A lot of women today think that skin means sexy, but it's just sleezy!"

Suddenly, she turned a bit red. "You don't think I dress like that?" she asked, mortified as she sat there in what she had thought was a very sleek and proper dress.

"Heavens no," Mina said. "You conduct yourself in a very becoming manner, and dress yourself likewise."

Charlotte let out a great big sigh of relief. "Good," she said. "If I didn't, I'd have wondered where in the world I could have possibly be messing it up, or what could possibly be wrong with your eyes because I try everything I can to make myself presentable as a good, respectable future wife."

Charlotte blinked, because she was pretty sure she'd actually meant to just say 'woman,' there, not 'future wife.'

But it was pretty much true.

"You endeavor to become a wife?" Mina said. "An amiable goal, if you can find the right man."

"And that's a pretty damn big if!" Charlotte declared, sounding both despondent and angry all in one. "You spend your whole life, believing in true love and that you'll find the perfect husband, and then you actually find him, get married, and then what? Turns out you were wrong, wrong, wrong. You hate his mother, you're always fighting, he's impotent, you're barren, you can only have sex once you've separated...oh, and he ruins a very expensive nightgown because of premature ejaculations. I don't care that he covered the dry-cleaning bill! And so you realize it doesn't work, divorce, and then you're damaged goods and wind up paranoid that now that you've found another one, the same thing'll happen, aaaallllll over again. Especially since they even look the same!"

Mina reached over to place a gentle hand on Charlotte's. "In many ways, it could have been worse. Some of us sucked our husbands dry and they just... withered away."

Though, Mina meant that literally.

"That's true," Charlotte agreed, a little slowly and wilting a little. Of course, she had taken it as a metaphor. "At least we found out right away rather than having reached our silver all wrinkled and miserable."

"Jonathan was afraid of me, at the end," Mina said. "I would not wish that same sort of pain upon you."

And Charlotte's expression turned into one of extreme sympathy, wilting just slightly more, as her other hand reached to cover the one covering hers. "I'm so sorry, Mina."

"But that is the past," Mina said. "And my life has improved tenfold since his passing. Hardly worth any shed tears, now."

"And at least he died!" Charlotte nodded. "At least you're not divorced."

"It does seem that divorce gives you a stigma of failure," Mina admitted. "And doesn't give you my convenient excuse to send off unwanted suitors." She gave a soft chuckle.

"You'd have to have the suitors first before you can not want them," Charlotte admitted wryly. "I've been sooooo lucky to have met Dale. Did I tell you, I actually thought he was my exhusband for the longest time? They look almost exactly alike, although Dale's younger."

"...now that is extraordinary," Mina said. "And you've... taken to him, just the same?"

"Mmhm," Charlotte nodded, "and I even made sure straight away that I wouldn't run into the same problems in the bedroom that I ran into with Trey."

Which was...very different from what Charlotte was thinking to say, which was mostly just a bunch of babbling about how wonderful Dale was.

"Um."

Mina had to just shake her head and smile. "That is far more than I needed to know. But I am glad you are not... suffering."

"I'm so sorry, Mina," Charlotte said, wincing a little. "I don't know what's with me today. I seem to entirely be lacking a filter. Not that I usually have much of one, but I'm usual much more considerate than that!"

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The Perk; Tuesday Morning [ 02/03 ].

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