Chapter Text
The door swung open, and a breathless Jane Flansburgh stared into the room.
Eleven pairs of eyes stared back at her.
Among these eyes were those of Robin G., her friend and classmate; Claire F., the drawing tutor; a few other students, some she recognizes more than others; and – possibly the most stunningly attractive woman Jane had ever seen – the model.
“Sorry I'm late, professor!” Jane breathed, after finally tearing her eyes away from the woman in the centre of the room. “My – Someone stole my bike. I pretty much had to run the whole way!”
“That's alright, Jane, I'm just glad you made it here okay. Laura, would you pass the attendance sheet?” Claire, a mousy, bespectacled woman who seemed to love the sound of her own voice, motioned to her. Jane hastily scribbled her name on the sheet before diving behind the easel next to her friend Robin.
“As I was saying, students, this young lady will be life modelling for us today, her name is...”
“Thanks for saving me a spot,” Jane whispered to her friend. “How'd you know I'd make it?”
“Not like you to skip naked lady class,” Robin giggled, prompting Jane to elbow him in the side. It was good-natured, though – they'd been friends since they met during their first year. They'd even tried dating for a few months, before Robin figured out he preferred men, and Jane, well. She wasn't really sure just yet. That didn't stop Robin from teasing her about it, though.
“...now begin the first warm-up pose, you will have two minutes for each of these poses – I want you to really loosen up those arms, just think about the basic form, the really fundamental shapes... we're not focusing on the tone just yet...” Jane felt her eyes glaze over at Claire's rambling; mindlessly fussing with her paper, she focused instead on the woman in the centre of the ring of easels. And just then, the inevitable, unthinkable happened: she took off her bathrobe, placing it in a bundle next to her wooden stool.
Jane swore she felt her heart skip a beat. Sure, this wasn't her first life drawing session, as a third-year art student – nor was it her first time seeing another woman naked, thank you very much – and yet, she still felt as if all the blood in her body was rushing to her face. She also felt like Robin was silently laughing at her.
“Okay... begin!”
Jane blinked a few times, wondering if the woman would disappear. She didn't. She stayed where she was; posed with her legs slightly apart, one arm behind her back. Jane's hand rose to the paper tacked to the easel, but her eyes didn't move from the model. God, she was gorgeous, Jane thought: her pale, willowy frame had every reason to be awkward but wasn't. She had a mop of loose brown curls around her thin face, a prominent nose and lips, smiling shyly at nothing. A smattering of the same brown curls decorated the slight softness just below her navel, leading Jane's eyes down to -
“Next pose, please!”
She felt the unmistakable sense of a stick of charcoal pressing into her arm, and turned to find Robin laughing at her once again. Groaning, she realized she'd spent the last few minutes in complete slack-jawed admiration, failing to make a single mark on the page. Ah, well. She had a whole forty-something minutes left to try.
-
“Hey, I wanted to see that!” an unfamiliar voice said, just as Jane was hastily rolling up her sketches to stuff in her bag.
Jane looked up. It was the model – of course it was – now inches from her face, close enough that she could see flecks of gold in her dark brown eyes. At the very least, she had her clothes back on now. Jane didn't know what she would have done if that wasn't the case. Clearing her throat, she unfurled her sheets, releasing the smell of the cheap hairspray she used as fixative.
It wasn't her best work, she knew that. She'd managed a few decent warm-up sketches after her initial distraction, but found herself erasing her work more than she was actually drawing. She produced two renders of the woman's head – one in profile, she'd spent a good five minutes drawing and erasing the same line, trying to capture the bold curve of her nose and lips – and one of her looking up and to the side.
Gingerly, Jane looked up at the model again, who was studying her work. She stood with a crooked posture, hands behind her back and dark hair falling gently around her face, still with that enigmatic little smile.
“I like them.” There was that voice again, that deep, warm voice. Their eyes met and Jane was lost, agape, willing herself to respond, even a simple 'thank you' – but she just stared. Just as the eye contact was getting uncomfortable, Robin's voice piped up.
“Hey, you were a great model, by the way! One guy we had last term fell asleep during a long pose, which would've been fine, except he rolled over and everyone lost their place.”
“Oh, thank you! I had like, a whole pot of coffee this morning, so no chance of that. Can I see your work?”
Jane quickly busied herself with rolling up her drawings again, silently kicking herself for not being able to say even a single word to the gorgeous woman before her. She wasn't normally shy, not at all, even around other people she found attractive – she didn't know what was wrong with her today.
“...oh no way, she is too! I'm Robin, by the way.”
“I'm – huh?” Jane sputtered at the pair's expectant faces, nervously running a hand through her short hair. The beautiful woman cracked a toothy smile.
“I'm Jane Linnell. Hi.”
“Hi! Oh, I'm Jane too. Jane Flansburgh. Nice to meet you,” She held a hand out awkwardly, silently kicking herself for only thinking of something as stilted and uncool as a handshake, but too late now. The other Jane shook her hand politely. Robin chimed in again,
“Are you a student here too? I don't think I've seen you here before,”
“Me? Oh no, I'm over at the conservatoire. I'm studying composition. No, I was just looking for a part-time job that doesn't involve talking to drunk people, and I thought taking my clothes off for a bunch of strangers sounded way easier.”
“Oh that's awesome! What do you play?”
“Keys, mostly. Some other stuff – sax, some accordion.”
God, could she get any cooler?, thought Jane.
“Look, I've gotta run, but I'll be with you later in the semester, I think. I'm sure I'll see you around. Nice meeting you both,” Jane Linnell smiled. She turned to Flansburgh.
“Bye, Jane,” she said, with another little smile. Flansburgh knew she wouldn't be able to stop thinking about that smile for a long time.