How does janie respond to tea cakes flirtation? Why do you think she reponds the way she does.

The gentleman says that he would love to play Janie at checkers to pass the time. Janie is "glowing on the inside" because nobody has ever asked her to play before. Janie notices how handsome the man is. Janie is physically attracted to Tea Cake and his archetypically African-American features from the first moment that she sees him. She notices his "full purple lips," she admires his "full lazy eyes," with his "lashes curling sharply like drawn scimitars." She notices his "lean, over-padded shoulders" and his "narrow waist." Their flirtatious banter is a different sort of discourse with men than Janie has ever enjoyed before.