Chapter Text
She had thought that his book would be in print and on shelves before she would see him again. That’s when he would come across the sea, smiling that awkward smile of his and shove the book into her hands, eagerly awaiting her opinion of it with eyes that begged for approval.
Tina, being the practical woman that she was, knew exactly how she was going to respond. She was going to extend her hand to him in a friendly, but formal gesture. They would shake hands, and she would thank him for personal delivery of his work. She would offer to let him stay for dinner, where Queenie would inevitably charm him with her friendliness and grace, and tell him all about how things were getting on with Jacob. They would, of course, offer him a place to stay. The next morning, book delivered and promise kept, he would climb back aboard a NoMaj ship to England, never to be seen again.
Tina carefully replayed this scenario over and over again in her brain, with a sort of desperate hopelessness. It was the only way to drown out the dreams at night, in which an entirely different scene played out. The thing about dreams, however, is that they are only dreams. They are only your brain playing strange scenes in your mind in response to your thoughts, or what has happened in your day, or what strange food you have eaten. True, occasionally dreams were prophetic, but somehow she thought that in the case of romance, that might be unlikely.
Practically speaking, thinking of romance at all toward a man she barely knew and who lived quite far away, was utter nonsense. It was childlike and foolish. She certainly didn’t have time for it.
Though she was beginning to think she had become quite the fool lately, and she wasn’t quite as busy as she pretended to be.
So she built walls of plans and very low expectations, to protect herself from foolish disappointment.
Those plans came to a sudden, violent halt however, when she received an assignment to travel to England with several others for a conference on Non-Magical Relations in Light of Recent Incidents. The Ministry of Magic wished to host such a conference to encourage Wizards and Witches internationally to hold to the Statute of Secrecy, and forward efforts toward peace between magical and non-magical people. It was only out of politeness that anyone was being sent from MACUSA to the conference at all, and Tina had been deemed appropriate for the task, simply because they could spare her. They tried to play it out as if it were a great honor, but she knew that MACUSA didn’t really give an owl’s pellet what the Ministry of Magic had to say about non-magical relations.
When she told Queenie of the business trip, her sister was all aglow with the excitement she could read in Tina. Queenie, however, lacked all of the nervousness Tina currently possessed.
“Well, isn’t that just lovely? You should ask Newt for a place to stay while you’re abroad. Wouldn’t that be nice?”
A blush rose in Tina’s cheek, and though her sister could read her mind anyway, she spoke up.
“I doubt that would be exactly appropriate, now would it? What would Mrs. Esposito say?”
Queenie giggled a little, and Tina smiled.
“Newt’s as innocent as a dove, and I’m sure he wouldn’t mind a bit. Besides, he’d probably just camp out in his case, so you wouldn’t really be staying in the same room at all, now would you?” Queenie said.
Tina turned her back on her sister and began to busy herself tidying up. “You have a point. I don’t think it could do any real harm.”
She could practically feel her sister beaming behind her.
Insecurity nagged at Tina, however, and she glanced behind her at Queenie. “Only…”
Tina’s sister could read her mind as easily as one reads a letter from a friend, and sympathy had welled up suddenly in her eyes.
“Don’t you tell yourself lies now, Teenie! Don’t you dare.” Queenie said firmly.
She finished her thought anyway, as if her sister hadn’t heard it already. “Only, suppose he doesn’t want to see me?”
Queenie stepped over and rested a motherly hand on her older sister’s cheek. “Sugar, that is impossible.”