Chapter Text
Things did not get better on Friday.
Glinda awoke with a splitting headache, no doubt thanks to the bottle of wine she’d nearly polished off the night before. The sun shone too brightly and the birds chirped too loudly (it still amazed her that she could hear birds chirping at all in the city) as she readied herself for work. Her hair wouldn’t curl right, she couldn’t find the pair of tights she needed for the outfit she chose, and she’d just run out of bread so she couldn’t even have her usual breakfast of toast with jam and butter before she set out for the day.
At work, her headache persisted, and she wasted too much time rubbing her temples and squinting at her typewriter. Every time she clacked one of the keys, the noise made it feel like a nail was being hammered into her head. She barely finished her draft in time for it to be submitted. Naturally, there was an unexpected visit from one of the higher-ups which meant her boss no longer had time to read through the draft she’d just scrambled to complete.
“We can see to it on Monday, Miss Upland,” Morrible, her boss, said as Glinda approached her. She seemed to be getting lunch with whoever this random suited executive was.
“But, I–” Glinda began, but she was cut off.
“Just take the rest of the day,” Morrible said as she looked Glinda up and down disapprovingly, “you look like you need it.”
Glinda stopped dead in her tracks and Morrible kept pushing onward to the elevator. She should probably be more offended by that than she actually was, because regardless of any hangover, Glinda always made it a point to look her best, but the bags under her eyes were mighty tough to conceal this morning.
Morrible wasn’t exactly the most approachable woman, but she seemed to have a particular distaste for Glinda, for whatever reason. Maybe it’s because Glinda had better style than the old crone, or maybe it was because she could sense that Glinda did have a talent for writing that was being wasted on these silly, insignificant stories she always seemed to be pushed to publish. Or maybe it was because she was blonde.
Glinda should have been happy that she was being let off early–normally, she would have been delighted–but the first thought that sprang into her mind was the fact that leaving early meant she would not be catching her usual train later today, and the possibility of seeing Elphaba would be wiped away completely.
She groaned to herself. She’d been so caught up in her hectic morning, she’d hardly spared the Elphaba situation much thought. As she clicked down the hall in her heels, she considered her options: she could go to the new exhibit at the Museum of Ozian Art she’d been wanting to check out to kill some time, maybe grab a bite to eat, or go to the bookshop to pick out a new title (one that may catch a certain someone’s eye on the train) before coming back to the station.
It wasn’t until she glanced at herself in the small mirror in her office that she realized how utterly ridiculous she was being.
Her head throbbed, her hair was still refusing to sit right (though that was something only her keen eye would truly notice), and the bags beneath her eyes were much more apparent than she originally thought. She needed to go home and rest and fight away this cursed hangover. Aside from that, why was she considering wasting hours of her time just for the chance of seeing someone on the train for barely any time at all? Someone who was, for all intents and purposes, still a stranger.
Aside from that…did she really want Elphaba to see her looking like this?
With a defeated sigh, she packed her pink bag and walked to the station. She had to close her eyes as the train shook from side to side during the ride home, fighting off the growing nausea that was brewing in her stomach. She napped fitfully when she got home, moving from her couch, to the bed, then back to the couch again, unable to actually get comfortable or fall into a deep sleep. At least by the time evening rolled around, her headache had mostly subsided.
She rubbed her eyes as she pushed herself up from the couch, and grabbed the empty glass sitting on the coffee table. She dragged herself to the kitchen sink, filling the glass with water and gulping down the entire thing before filling it again.
Glinda usually relished the weekends, as they were always filled with hair or nail appointments, social gatherings, and shopping trips. She did have plans to see a movie with Pfannee and Shenshen this weekend, but that wasn’t until tomorrow afternoon, which meant her Friday evening was wide open with no plans, and no distractions.
Glinda desperately wanted a distraction tonight, because now that she sat at home all alone, she could no longer avoid the thoughts that she’d been pushing away all day long.
Elphaba and Fiyero, and their Oz-forsaken not-date.
Fiyero had not called yet, much to Glinda’s chagrin. Under normal circumstances, she would have called him instead, if only to gloat for a little and to hear about how he made an absolute fool of himself. But for some reason she couldn’t find the will to pick up the phone. What if they’d had a lovely time and they were getting together again tonight, and that’s why he hadn’t called?
And why did Glinda care so much?
She pushed the thoughts away and called her mother instead, who was an even bigger chatterbox than Glinda was. Still, even with her Momsie prattling on about something scandalocious one of the women in her social clubs had said, Glinda’s mind wandered, and she wondered if Elphaba had been curious about her whereabouts tonight when she got on the train.
Saturday was uneventful. Not even the movies provided that much of a distraction, and with every passing hour, Glinda felt like she was going a little insane. Her thoughts had shifted from wondering about what happened between Fiyero and Elphaba to just thoughts of Elphaba alone. She’d never been so hooked on the idea of another person, not once in her entire life, and here she was, daydreaming about a stranger. It was embarrassing, but she supposed she couldn’t help it: Elphaba was intriguing and beautiful. She supposed that many people had lingering thoughts about Elphaba after they’d seen her.
But for Glinda, it wasn’t because of her green skin. Frankly, Glinda hadn’t really thought much about it after they’d actually interacted for the first time. Elphaba was just entrancing, and even though they were practically strangers, she listened keenly whenever Glinda spoke, as if she had genuine interest in what she was saying, even if it was mundane.
Glinda thought about their last conversation on Wednesday–how she’d cracked a joke about one of the other passengers in their car who was eating hard-boiled eggs and Elphaba had to cover her mouth to stifle a laugh.
It made Glinda’s stomach do a somersault then, and it had the same effect now as she revisited the memory. She shook her head.
Finally, after Sunday slogged along at a glacial pace, Glinda was throwing together a salad for her dinner when her phone rang.
She dropped the knife she had been using onto the counter and nearly tripped over herself running to answer it.
“Hello?” she said, grabbing the phone off the hook and trying to sound much more casual than she felt.
“Hey, Glin,” Fiyero said, and Glinda could tell immediately by the tone of his voice that he wasn’t calling to gloat.
“Hey, Fi,” she tried to sound as casual as she could, “how’s it going?”
She didn’t really want to know “how it was going,” she nearly demanded to know how one very specific it had gone, but she had a bit more tact than that.
Fiyero let out a loud sigh, and Glinda smirked. Oz, she was truly rotten for finding any sort of joy in her friend’s misery.
“It’s fine, I suppose,” he said, sounding rather pathetic.
She couldn’t wait any longer. Screw having tact.
“Well? How did your not-date go?”
“It went…fine. Loathe as I am to admit it, you were right. She most certainly does not have any interest in me, not romantically at least.”
Glinda felt like she’d finally let go of a breath she’d been holding since Thursday evening.
“It was a nice enough night, though. She’s from Munchkinland, and she’s working under my father, that’s how I met her, actually–”
Glinda took in a sharp breath at this revelation.
She’s a writer, too!
“Have any of her stories been published yet?” Glinda interrupted him to ask.
Fiyero paused for a moment. “No, not as far as I know, she just started…why?”
“I was just curious,” Glinda realized how odd that question must have seemed, so she forced herself to stay quiet as Fiyero went on about their night.
Elphaba had apparently told him in no uncertain terms that while she appreciated his dinner invitation, she had no interest in “dating anyone” and she hoped they could be friends.
“I can’t lie, Glin, I was a little crushed.”
“You barely know her,” Glinda answered dryly.
“I know! There’s just something about her…you’d understand if you knew her.”
“Well,” Glinda started, and she turned herself around so she could lean her back against the wall. She debated whether or not she should tell Fiyero that she had met Elphaba. She would omit the quite frankly ridiculous turmoil she’d gone through over the weekend to save herself the embarrassment.
“I do. Know her, that is.”
She could feel Fiyero scoff on the other end of the line.
“What are you talking about?”
“I guess I should say I sort of know her. I’ve seen her on the subway. She takes the same route as me. We’ve talked a couple of times.” Glinda hoped she sounded calmer than she felt.
“Why didn’t you say anything?!”
“I was going to, but you didn’t really give me the chance–”
“This is insane,” he started, laughing a bit, “you’re the one she mentioned.”
Glinda’s heart began to race. The finger she’d been twirling the phone cord in came to a halt. She mentioned me?
“What do you mean? She talked about me?” Glinda’s cheeks heated in embarrassment at her obvious excitement.
“Well, she didn’t say it was you specifically. I asked her how she was getting along, you know, asked her if she’d made any friends…maybe I was digging for information to see if she’d met any lovers,” Glinda rolled her eyes and used every ounce of restraint she had not to call him something unpleasant, but she bit her tongue. “But she told me she’d met a woman on the train who had been reading the same book as her.”
Glinda felt a smile slowly spread across her face as Fiyero spoke.
“I wasn’t in a million years expecting it to be you. I’ll be damned,” he said with a chuckle.
Glinda suddenly did not care to hear about the rest of their evening. It felt insignificant–all that mattered was Elphaba had brought her up!
“She’s rather lovely, isn’t she?” Glinda murmured, and then she realized what she had just said. She felt her face scorching even hotter and she immediately closed her eyes and slapped her hand over her face. “To talk with, I mean,” she attempted to recover.
Fiyero was fully laughing now.
“She is, but I’ve got to say, I’m a bit surprised. The two of you are quite different.”
This brought about the realization that Glinda, as much as she’d been obsessing over Elphaba for the past 72 hours, didn’t really know anything about her. But it didn’t matter to Glinda that they barely knew each other.
“I don’t see how that matters. You know what they say, opposites attract.”
Glinda rolled her eyes at herself and threw her head back against the wall. Why was her mind choosing the most peculiar phrases right now?
Fiyero was silent for a moment. “Right. Well, I can’t wait to tell her that I actually know the woman she met on the train on Monday!”
“What are you going to say? Oz, do not say anything embarrassing! Or–or incriminating!”
“What would I possibly say that could incriminate you, Glinda?”
“I don’t know! Just don’t make me look bad!”
“Relax, Glin, I won’t say anything. I’ll just tell her I brought her up on the phone with you. You’re acting rather odd about this.”
Glinda knew she was acting odd, but she was too embarrassed to admit any of the thoughts she’d had about Elphaba since she’d first seen her. Not only would it make everything feel much more…real, she knew Fiyero would tease her relentlessly.
He’d made several comments to her since they’d broken up–once when they were out to dinner and he’d caught her staring at a woman across the restaurant, another time when they were getting coffee and the barista had scribbled her phone number on the paper cup causing Glinda to blush furiously.
“I don’t think I saw your cheeks get red like that once the entire time we dated. You should call her,” he teased.
He never said anything outright, but it was obvious what he’d been hinting at. Truthfully, Glinda did find women attractive–and the longer she spent avoiding dating men, the more apparent it became that her desire to get back to dating them was non-existent.
But she’d never considered dating a woman. She didn’t end up calling that barista, she didn’t stick around after a woman had bought her a drink at a bar one time a few months back. They were both pretty, and she did feel much different being approached by them versus being approached by men…but still, the desire to actually pursue them wasn’t there.
It suddenly became extremely apparent to her that she held great desire to see Elphaba, to talk to her, to spend more than ten minutes with her on the train. However, there was absolutely no way she was telling Fiyero such a thing.
“I’m fine, Fi. She just seems…very nice, and I don’t need you painting me in any sort of bad light.”
“Come on, Glin. You’re my best friend, I wouldn’t do you like that.”
As annoying as he could be, she felt a sudden burst of affection for him, and she felt a tad guilty for not trusting him.
The conversation shifted to the polo match Fiyero had watched yesterday, but the words floated in and out of Glinda’s ears without much recognition. All the could think about was Elphaba.
“Well, Fi, I’ve got to finish dinner,” Glinda cut off Fiyero’s ramble about horses, “your call quite rudely interrupted me.”
“You didn’t have to answer,” Fiyero said plainly, and before he could say anything else, she wished him well and hooked the phone back on the receiver.
Glinda did not get back to dinner. The hunger that had settled into her stomach had all but disappeared, replaced with nervous butterflies. She stumbled over to her kitchen table and slid into one of the chairs, sighing contentedly, and immediately counted down how many hours remained until her train ride home the next day.
—
The next workday went by so slowly that Glinda nearly tore the clock off of her office wall. The only thing that made her think twice about it was the fact that she shared an office with a quiet, polite woman named Milla and it would be rude (and insane) to do so.
Every time she looked up, it taunted her—the minutes ticking by slower and slower as the day went along.
She had plenty to do to pass the time, but her brain wasn’t cooperating. All she could focus on was the fact that she was going to see Elphaba again today.
It wasn’t until she was walking to the station that she realized she’d spent the entire day anxiously awaiting their little reunion that she didn’t plan out what she should even say. She had no idea if Fiyero was even seeing Elphaba today, nor if he would tell her that he knew the one person she’d brought up during their dinner—she’d ended their call before she could ask—and wouldn’t it be a little odd of her to say “my best friend told me that he took you on a not-date on Friday and I realized he was talking about you when he brought it up” out of the blue?
The station was buzzing with its normal Monday chaos, but it wasn’t enough to distract her. Glinda picked a bit at her cuticles as she waited for the train, feeling her palms begin to clam up as time suddenly began to pass by much quicker than it had all day long.
She still didn’t have any semblance of a plan when the voice signifying the train’s arrival echoed through the tunnel. She sighed and gripped the strap of her bag as the doors to her usual car slid open.
Glinda scanned her eyes across the passengers as soon as she entered, and she found Elphaba sitting in a window seat. She didn’t have a book out this time, her hands were clasped tightly in her lap, and Glinda swore (though maybe her mind was playing tricks on her) that Elphaba was looking at all of the new arrivals as they boarded.
Seats were filling quickly, and a young man eyed the empty seat next to Elphaba as if he was about to take it. Without thinking, Glinda slid in front of him and plopped herself into the seat before he could take another step.
Elphaba stared at her for a moment, then she grinned, and Glinda couldn’t help but flash a bright smile right back at her.
“Hi,” Elphaba said, still grinning, the little gap between her front teeth showing.
“Hi,” Glinda quietly greeted in return. She almost sounded breathless, and she nearly scoffed at herself internally. She was rarely rendered breathless by anything, anyone—but it shouldn’t really surprise her, not after how insane she’d been acting about this entire situation over the past several days.
Neither of them said anything as the train began to push forward. Elphaba wrung her hands together in her lap.
“So—”
“How—“
They both spoke at the same time, and then Glinda shook her head and smiled.
“You first,” Glinda encouraged, nodding to Elphaba.
“How was your weekend?” Elphaba shyly asked. The lack of a book in her lap made Glinda wonder if she had purposely not brought it out because she planned on talking to Glinda instead. The thought made her giddy.
“It was…fine. Uneventful. How was yours?” Glinda asked, hoping Elphaba would say something about Fiyero.
“About the same, mostly uneventful.”
Glinda deflated. She couldn’t even feel satisfied by the fact that a woman said a date with Fiyero was uneventful.
“Mostly?” Glinda pried. She knew it was rude, but she felt like she might explode if she didn’t make some sort of headway on the inevitable conversation that needed to happen. Well, Glinda needed it to happen.
Elphaba shifted in her seat. Glinda worried that she’d pushed too far. After all, they were still essentially strangers–but Elphaba sucked in a breath and shook her head a little.
“Yes. I didn’t do much. Cleaned, took care of some laundry, talked to my sister, went to dinner on Friday.”
There it was, the in she had been waiting for.
“Oh! Where did you go? There are so many lovely restaurants in the city,” Glinda responded, chipper as ever, hoping she could coax more out of Elphaba.
“It was called the Peach and Kidneys. Have you heard of it?” Elphaba asked.
“Yes, I’ve been before!” Glinda chirped. “What did you order?”
Elphaba described one of the few vegetarian dishes on the menu, and Glinda eagerly waited for her to give some sort of hint that she hadn’t been at dinner alone. It never came. She gulped as it became apparent that Elphaba was not going to mention that she hadn’t gone out alone. She could only ask Elphaba so many questions about the damn Peach and Kidneys before she started to sound like a loon.
Glinda had always thought of herself as outgoing, but not really brave. Most of the choices she’d made in her life didn’t involve much risk–and she couldn’t deny that the privilege of her upbringing had afforded her many perks and opportunities a lot of people didn’t get. People naturally flocked to her, and she never had to try hard to make friends; it just happened. She’d always been described as warm and charming, friends shared their deepest secrets with her without a second thought.
It felt particularly odd to be faced with a situation where someone wasn’t forthcoming with her. But she knew she had to say something to Elphaba about the Fiyero of it all before she found out on her own and things became incredibly awkward.
“Did you go alone?” Glinda asked abruptly, wincing as the words came out.
“I,” Elphaba hesitated, glancing over at Glinda before looking away, then back again, “I didn’t…why?”
Glinda sighed and covered her face with her hands to hide her embarrassment.
“I know Fiyero,” Glinda grumbled, looking through the cracks of her fingers to see Elphaba’s reaction.
“You–what?”
“I know Fiyero, and I know about the dinner,” Glinda admitted sheepishly, “he’s my…best friend, and he told me about it, and when he described you–well, I knew it was you.”
Elphaba sat quietly, surprise written all over her face.
“Oh,” she murmured, and Glinda was mortified.
“I’m sorry!” Glinda said frantically, “I know I should have said something sooner, but I didn’t want to sound weird or invasive, though I guess I already did that, and–”
“Glinda,” Elphaba interrupted, turning to her, the corner of her mouth turning up into a smile, “it’s okay. But I’m curious…”
“Yes?” Glinda asked much too quickly.
“Did he…did he mention–” Elphaba started, but the voice over the intercom interrupted her.
“Now arriving at Veridian and Market Street”
Glinda wanted to groan, but she held it in. The train slowed to a stop as the two of them sat, staring at each other.
“Yes?” Glinda asked again, hoping Elphaba would finish her question, but Elphaba just shook her head.
“It’s nothing,” Elphaba said shyly.
Glinda did not want to get off the train. She wanted to stay and continue along until Elphaba’s stop came along, wherever that was, then ascend the stairs back up to the city with her as they talked about the not-date. But she couldn’t do that, because Elphaba was still practically a stranger, and as decidedly insane as Glinda had been acting about Elphaba lately, she was not insane enough to do that.
So she nodded, stood, and grabbed her bag, glancing back down at Elphaba.
“I’ll see you tomorrow?” Glinda asked, and Oz, she sounded almost sad.
“Tomorrow,” Elphaba said with a nod, and when Glinda walked off the train onto the platform, she let her shoulders slump in a very un-Glinda fashion.
Tomorrow can’t come soon enough.