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With the rush for everybody to get in new stock for the summer, business had been booming. That didn't even get into people ordering gifts, or Harold having to frown at someone from customs for a day and a half because they had determined that his crates had to be searched. It wasn't as though he was doing anything illegal. No, it was simply another inconvenience and annoyance to add to his day.

Which of course had meant he was due for a pick me up.

Perhaps it was simply because he'd been frowning a lot more recently than usual that the young woman at the counter of TEArimisu had fled more quickly than usual. Or maybe she always ran away that quickly and he was only now just noticing it. Hmmmmm. Did young people have no spines these days? He was hardly the most awful person to ever grace the faces of anybody in customer service.

But Jane's face was definitely at least a bit of a mood-lifter. "Unless you have a recommendation to the contrary?" His voice had a distinct lack of his usual tone to it, as if he was trying very hard to not sound as annoyed as he actually was. "Anything seasonal I should try?"

There was a longer pause before he added, "Have you.....been well?" He'd maybe been a bit much after her disappearance, but ...it didn't seem enough to leave it at just that.

It seemed both of her answers were to the point, and really he could not blame her for being short with him. He had never been a favorite regular and it was a surprise (and likely because he was handling their stock) that she had not just outright banned him yet.

"That sounds pleasant. I think I will have that, then," Harold stated, tone unchanging from the way he usually spoke. Usually he would have needled with more questions - what type of green tea is it, is it flavored, is it loose leaf or bagged. Yet no, he simply took the suggestion at an uncommon face value.

As for how she was doing...well... "I am glad to hear that. It seemed like a sudden pandemic and I would hate to think there were any...lingering complications."

Or he could have just said he had been concerned about her wellbeing.

"Two, please," Harold answered - it'd give a stronger flavor at the very least. A stronger flavor for his mostly unknown tea blend he was only having because Jane had suggested it and no reason more. Perhaps he was simply relying on her good judgement for once.

Except he never did and it was odd that he'd do that all at once like that.

Still, he didn't seem entirely appeased by her reassurances and it read on his face. It wasn't as though the entire incident - not that he knew any details of it - had been entirely a physical ordeal. But Jane was like a cat in some ways - all she gave was on her terms and hiding pain, ills, and much else was perhaps the easiest response she could have to him.

He'd been so wound up in that line of thinking that her inquiry seemed to surprise him - a raise of his brows, a frown far more loose on his face than the usual one, a slight lean of his head.

"Not particularly. Do I look unwell?"

He'd been different.

She said it so plainly - he liked that frankness, but he knew better than to comment so. She likely heard it all the time and perhaps it would come off wrong. Be unwanted. Be inappropriate. Civility wasn't a difficult task to maintain nevertheless.

"I would hope that many worried for you, no different than I do," he admitted. Such a thing wasn't a sign of weakness as far as Harold cared.

As for Jane's first note, he had a simple answer that would perhaps put her own nagging thoughts to rest as well; "You have yet to refer me something that I did not like. I have come to trust your tastes."

....Since when was he the worrying type? Certainly, it was not as though how things worked in his life had changed at all - his assistant was as capable as ever, arrangements made with other businessmen like himself still went as smoothly as ever. Nothing had changed that wasn't an expected thing. So to have that one little deviation pointed out so clearly was.....strange.

The fainted frown creased his expression, a very mild expression to go with so many other faint and mild expressions, but one he found less pleasant to show. While admitting he had feelings in his carefully preened mortal flesh was not a weakness, showing that they were there without his permission was much more uncomfortable for him.

"Since life was uncomfortable with you missing, perhaps."

It seemed such a frank statement had surprised Jane, and Harold couldn't blame her for that. He was honestly surprised by it. But the more she needled at it, the more he found himself tucking it closer to his chest, to somewhere safe and sound.

His name sounded wrong on her lips, unwanted in some way and it was an extra pile of dirt on the hole he buried his own honesty in.

"Is that not what I have been saying?"

Taking the offered cup, he wasn't quick to investigate the smell or flavor of its contents, leaving his previously mentioned trust to it.

"If it requires being said plainly to be said, then yes - I missed you," a bold declaration, considering she barely tolerated him at best. But minced words were better used on more inconvenient things than her.

Still, he took that lead she offered for less personal subjects, falling into the more convenient walls of professionalism once again, noting her gratitude however misplaced it seemed to be to him.

"I need for you to have a good rest of your day, Miss Baker."