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“No, Celeborn, of course I understand that you already paid for it, but it’s Valentine’s Day…”
Her boyfriend of three years had never been a bigger ass than he was being just this moment, and that was saying something. Galadriel groaned and pulled the phone away from her ear, tilting her head back to press it deeper into the cool couch cushions. One pitiful, stupid excuse after another streamed from the phone speaker.
“Just… get on your plane, Celeborn. We’ll talk about it when you get back.”
As she ended the call, a sneeze violently erupted from her nose, the force of it slamming her head into the back of the couch. She moaned pathetically, tossing her phone onto the carpet. It wasn’t her boyfriend’s fault she was sick. But it was his fault for continuing to go on their romantic Valentine’s Day weekend trip without her.
She sniffled.
It wasn’t the first time he’d left her behind when she couldn’t go — illness, work, other obligations… none of it seemed to phase him. There were times when she felt she could disappear from his life for years, and he would be none the wiser. She was getting tired of getting left behind. He assured her that she was important, that their relationship was going somewhere, but it definitely didn’t feel that way.
A small, trial size pack of tissue smacked her in the face, falling to the couch cushion beside her.
“Ow!” She cried, glaring first at the small plastic package with Elsa and Olaf staring up at her, and then at her roommate who had thrown it at her.
“Blow your nose,” Halbrand ordered, crossing his arms over his chest.
“Some bedside manner you have,” she grumbled, reluctantly taking a tissue from the pack and blowing her nose. “Who’d want you for a doctor anyway?”
“What are you even doing here? I thought you were going away for the weekend with WonderBread. Haven’t you been gushing all week about the romantic cabin and the skiing?” He asked, tone dripping with sarcasm.
Halbrand hadn’t been her first choice for a roommate, but when all was said and done, he wasn’t a bad one. When Galadriel had spontaneously moved across the pond to spite her family, knowing no one and having little funds to sustain herself, she had taken a chance on rooming with the then-medical student. His ad had been the only one with no punctuation errors and a reasonable rent for the area they lived in.
“I’m sick,” she complained, gesturing to her runny nose, coughing a little as she spoke. “I asked Celeborn to reschedule but… he’d already booked and paid for everything, so…”
“He went anyway?” Halbrand asked, eyebrows raising towards his hairline, and scoffed, turning his back to Galadriel to walk into their kitchenette and rifle through the fridge.
“He already paid,” she echoed her boyfriend’s excuse weakly, unhappy with having to defend him when she agreed with her roommate. Halbrand had never liked Celeborn. From the first day she had come home talking about him on the phone to her best friend, Halbrand had vehemently argued against any of his redeeming qualities. After so long of living together, he adjusted to Celeborn’s presence in their life, but he was never truly friendly with him.
Celeborn not living in New York didn’t help matters. He was nomadic by nature, often traveling to far off exotic places for his photography, and only seemed to remember he had a girlfriend about twenty percent of the time.
At least, according to Halbrand.
Even after Halbrand had graduated medical school and moved to a different part of the city, Galadriel had followed. Her own job allowed her to work from home which meant she could go wherever, but she and Halbrand already knew each other’s pet peeves and struggles, and she loathed the idea of finding another roommate. Besides, resident grump or not, he was a great roommate. His hospital hours meant he was seldom home, and when he was home, he was quiet.
Halbrand hummed disapprovingly, and Galadriel was surprised to find an empty glass and half-empty container of frozen strawberry Pedialyte set in front of her.
“You need the electrolytes if you’re sick. Just drink a little bit at a time,” he said, and checked his watch, muttering under his breath.
“Why do we even have this?” She asked, frowning, but obligingly dumped some of the slushy mixture into the glass. “You know, just ‘cause you work at the hospital doesn’t mean you need to bring home all the free samples. We don’t even have kids.”
“Why do you think I never have a hangover?” He countered, swiping his keys from the coffee table, and snagged his coat on the way out the door.
“Bastard,” she muttered, and took a sip. The instant relief on her aching throat made her moan. “Rat bastard.” He’d been holding out on her.
Their relationship was strange. It didn’t fit in the rules or expectations of most friendships, but they never crossed the line into… more, either. Finrod hadn’t been keen to share his secrets with her either. The age difference between she and her eldest brother had almost estranged them, and being the baby and only daughter had afforded her a lot of privilege — and Finrod, a lot of responsibility. She had traipsed after him from one place to another any time he allowed her. It was because of him that she’d even come to America.
He’d told her how much opportunity there was, spun stories of how personal history didn’t matter here — at least, not like it did back home. And then he’d died, and Galadriel had truly been alone. She hadn’t spoken to the rest of her family in years. Not even at her brother’s funeral. They hadn’t sent so much as a card. But Halbrand had been with her. He’d taken her for coffee and breakfast, and made her eat regular meals in the weeks after.
He’d also thrown her wet laundry in the snow after she left it there for too long.
Tough love, he’d called it.
She was fairly sure he just thought it was funny.
Her only remaining friend in the city was Nori, now that Elrond had moved to Pennsylvania for his fellowship with Celebrimbor. But Nori wasn’t her best friend, and she was very involved with her own girlfriend, Poppy.
Halbrand was her rock. Her grumpy, curmudgeon-y, generally disagreeable rock with OCD tendencies.
Galadriel sipped her Pedialyte slushy and settled into the couch, bunching the blankets around her shoulders, shivering. She’d taken some Tylenol earlier but hadn’t clocked the time. Flicking through her options on Netflix, she settled in to watch a new K-Drama — some high fantasy with bad special effects about a God falling in love with a human — and let herself doze.
***
Hours later, she heard the apartment door open, the rattling keys in the lock jarring her awake.
“Jesus, have you even moved?” Halbrand called from their kitchenette, turning on every obnoxious overhead light. She groaned, pressing her face further into the couch to escape the bright fluorescents. The loud clanking of pots and pans only increased her suffering, her head beginning to pound.
“Here,” he muttered, and set another half-frozen bottle of Pedialyte on the table, exchanging it for the empty glass. “Use a fucking coaster, would you? Dinner will be ready in twenty.”
Galadriel groaned, feeling far too weak to argue about his obsession with using coasters on their thrifted coffee table. She obligingly took a drink of the chilled Pedialyte, relishing the way it soothed her raw throat. Twenty minutes passed far too quickly.
“Come on, Noldor, up you get,” he ordered, and dragged the blankets off of her despite her protests. She snagged one back, wrapping it snuggly around her, and listlessly made her way to the table. Her roommate had a lot of odd quirks — likely what made him in need of a new roommate to begin with — that didn’t quite fit the stereotypical thirty-year old male. He was neat and fastidious to a fault and couldn’t leave any mess sit for more than five minutes, regardless of whether it was his mess to clean or not. He refused to bring food anywhere in the living room and had pointedly asked Galadriel if she’d been raised in a barn when she had suggested they eat in front of the TV one night.
Her own delicate, aristocratic sensibilities had been suitably offended, so she never suggested it again. Instead, they ate dinner together at the table and flung frozen peas at each other like civilized adults. They took turns cooking on nights they were both home, and the good doctor always insisted on having a vegetable. It was hardly her fault they hadn’t gone grocery shopping earlier in the week. How was she supposed to know the peas were only to be used as an ice-pack, and not meant to be used for cooking?
She giggled to herself at the memory, and gratefully helped herself to a large spoonful of mashed potatoes.
“So, what are we watching tonight?” He asked, cutting into his porkchop with gusto.
“Are you joining me?” Galadriel asked, surprised. It was rare that he spent time with her anymore. His schedule, and her own evenings spent out with Celeborn didn’t allow for it.
“Well, since you commandeered the couch as your resting place, I don’t have much of a choice if I want to watch anything. And because you’re sick, and I’m generous, I’ll let you pick. Anything except—”
“The Princess Bride,” Galadriel announced, grinning. The very thought of it was almost enough to make her feel better.
“No,” he denied her, shaking his head. “Absolutely not.”
“C’mon. There’s fencing, fighting, torture, revenge—”
“I know what you’re doing,” he glared at her over the salt and pepper shakers.
“You said you’d let me pick,” she reminded him, and coughed for good measure. Finrod had introduced her to the movie when she was sick as a child, and it had become a tradition to watch it whenever she got sick. Seeing him waver but not surrender, she pushed a little harder. “Fine. Celeborn wouldn’t watch it with me either. I’ll pick something else.”
He exhaled and stared at her for a long moment. Galadriel didn’t meet his gaze but allowed her nose to run and sniffled noisily as she breathed through her mouth. She took another bite of her potatoes.
“Fine. We can watch it. But for the love of God, please don’t quote the whole goddamn movie while we watch it.”
His cell phone rang from its place on the charger, but he ignored it and continued to gripe about Galadriel’s taste in movies.
It rang again a minute later, but again, he ignored it.
The third time, Galadriel asked him: “Are you going to answer that?”
“Nope,” Halbrand said, and took a drink of his wine.
“…Can I? Cause whoever’s calling seems pretty persistent, and I have a headache,” Galadriel said, and reached for the phone on the counter.
Halbrand snatched it from the charging pad and glared at her, reluctantly answering the phone. “Hello?”
“Hal!” The high-pitched screech of the drunk woman on the other end of the phone was loud enough for Galadriel to hear, making her wince. Maybe letting his ringtone blare would’ve been a better choice.
“Hal, baby, it’s V-Day weekend… are you going to come pick me up?”
Galadriel snorted, sputtering the Pedialyte back into her glass and ignoring the look of disgust that Halbrand directed her way.
Baby? She mouthed, grinning. Halbrand hated pet names.
“Don’t call me again,” he ordered the woman on the phone, and ended the call without any warning.
“Halbrand!” Galadriel chastised him, mouth popping open in outrage. “That’s so ru—”
“Are you done eating?” He asked, cutting her off and looking pointedly at her half-finished porkchop. “I bought banana popsicles for dessert.”
Galadriel was torn. His behavior to the girl on the phone was abominable, and as his friend she ought to take him to task for it. But banana popsicles were her favorite, and he despised artificial banana flavoring. He was being very sweet— to her at least. “I’m done, but I can help put things away since—”
“Keep your germs out of my kitchen. Just stay here,” he grumbled.
“Okay,” she said, letting him take her plate to put away her leftovers in their divided-glass containers. He didn’t even let his leftovers touch each other.
“Here,” he set a bottle of Nyquil on the table. “Take some of this before we start the movie. If I’m lucky, you’ll fall asleep quickly and I can watch something else.”
Galadriel rolled her eyes but gratefully took a swig right from the bottle, relishing in his undisguised disgust.
“Thanks,” she said sweetly, replacing the cap and passing it back to him to put in the fridge. She made her way back to the couch, re-organizing her nest of blankets until they were just right. Halbrand slid into his spot on the couch, stretching his out and groaning as his neck and spine cracked. Galadriel sat next to him in her pile of blankets and happily put the movie on, pleased that it was available again to stream after not being listed for months.
“Here,” Halbrand said, snapping the twin popsicle in half and handing her the larger part. “You can put the stick in the glass when you’re done.”
Galadriel considered setting it on the table just to spite him but decided to do as he asked, rewarding his kindness with her own. She greedily ate the popsicle before the prologue was even done and set the stick inside the glass. Halbrand was still working on his.
“I thought you didn’t even like these?” She asked, watching his lip curl every time he took a bite.
“They’re growing on me,” he said, shrugging, before finishing his own in one bite and tossing his stick into the glass as well.
“Where did you even find them? I haven’t seen them in stores in months. Usually they only get them during the summer, if they get them at all.” The flavor wasn’t a popular one.
“Watch the movie, or I’m changing it,” he threatened, pointing to the screen as Buttercup was kidnapped.
Galadriel dropped the subject, not wanting to jeopardize being able to watch the movie, but made a mental note to find out what store he’d found them at. She’d been looking for months with no luck. Eventually, she felt the Nyquil begin to kick in, the cold medicine making her drowsy. She fought against the feeling, struggling to keep her eyes open to watch Westley cry “As you wish!” as he rolled down the hill, and Buttercup throw herself after him.
Halbrand’s muttered complaint, “Ridiculous,” was the last thing she heard before sleep claimed her.
***
Hours later, she woke, warm and content, snuggled between the back of the couch and a strong chest. Blearily, she opened her eyes, blinking the sleep away, and found herself staring into Halbrand’s sleeping face. In the dim, glowing light of the TV’s standby screen, she could almost count his eyelashes. She squirmed for a moment, unsure of how she felt being so close to him, or in so intimate a position.
Running into him naked after exiting the bathroom hadn’t felt this intimate.
“Do you need to get up?” he asked, not even opening his eyes.
She could feel the reverberations in his chest as he spoke, pressed as close to him as she was. “No,” she whispered, unsure if her pounding heart had to do with him or the cold-medicine.
“Then go back to sleep,” he muttered, and snuggled closer to her, pulling her tighter in his arms.
Galadriel relaxed into the feeling, unable to recall the last time anyone — Celeborn included — had held her so securely.
She barely felt the brush of his lips against her forehead as she fell back to sleep.
***
He was gone when she woke in the morning, undoubtedly being the lucky one chosen to help out on a Saturday. She sat up, swathed in blankets, and took a moment to assess how she felt. Better, overall, though still not at hundred-percent. A bottle of water and some Dayquil sat beside each other on the coffee table. She smiled, taking a swig of the medicine and a longer drink from the water to wash it down, and put it away in the fridge next to the Nyquil. She forced herself to go the bathroom to brush her teeth and wash her face, relishing in the warmth of the water.
Her phone buzzed on the carpeted floor, catching her attention as she came back out to the living room. She hadn’t even realized that she’d left it there the night before.
Two dozen text messages from Nori alerted her to the fact that her absence in Celeborn’s photos posted to Instagram had been noted.
Two missed calls, and their accompanying voicemails, informred her that Nori, despite her small size, had no qualms about committing murder on her behalf, or helping her hide the body.
She decided to call before the girl decided to put a hit out on her boyfriend. “Hey,”
“Oh my gosh, Gal, I’m so sorry. Celeborn is such a dick! I can’t believe he broke up with you right before Valen—”
“Whoa, Nori,” Galadriel coughed a raspy laugh. “Slow down. He didn’t break up with me. I’m just sick and—”
“And he chose to go on your super romantic vacation by himself?” Nori asked, scandalized. Galadriel smiled, feeling the warmth of the constancy of the girl’s friendship, and the validation of her own anger.
“Yeah…”
“Well, maybe you should break up with him instead. Fuck him. How are you feeling? Do you want me to come over? I can bring some hazelnut soup, or some apple pie? I can be there in an hour, and I can take care—”
“Nori,” Galadriel cut her off, knowing the girl would have keys in her hand in the next five seconds if she didn’t intervene. “Nori, tomorrow is Valentine’s Day. You have a girlfriend who was looking forward to spend the weekend with you, I’m sure. I’m fine. Halbrand is taking care of me.”
Silence lingered long enough for Galadriel to double check her phone and make sure the call hadn’t disconnected.
“Halbrand is taking care of you?” Nori said at last, an unidentifiable tone in her voice.
“Well sure, he’s a doctor, y’know?” Galadriel laughed, and looked affectionate at the sliced bagel sitting in the toaster, waiting for her. She pressed the button down and waiting for it to pop, gathering her cream cheese and bagel seasoning.
“I mean, yeah, but it’s Halbrand. He’s only nice to kids and animals. Anyone over the age of twelve might as well be dead. Unless, they’re you, I guess.”
“What is that supposed to mean?” Galadriel asked, and licked the cream cheese from the knife before setting it in the sink.
Nori fell silent once more. “Nothing, I guess. How did Celeborn take it?”
“How did Celeborn take… what?” Galadriel bit into her bagel, relishing in the flavor. Halbrand didn’t skip on the good brand of cream cheese, even if he was abominably cheap in other ways.
“You being sick and Halbrand taking care of you,” Nori clarified, sounding annoyed she even had to do so.
“Oh, I guess he doesn’t know. He hasn’t called to check in since he left.” Galadriel was more than little peeved at the fact. The fact that they’d argued right before he left hardly mattered. The very least he could do was pretend he was missing her.
“Maybe you should call him,” Nori suggested, “and remind him that he’s a piece of shit since you won’t let me do it for you.”
Galadriel sighed. Her friends were biased. None of them had ever liked Celeborn’s wanderings, how he left her alone and expected her to be waiting for him. She didn’t mind waiting for him. Really. Most of the time.
But, Nori wasn’t entirely wrong, either. Celeborn had shown a distinct lack of care of her feelings or wants, especially recently.
“…besides, for someone who has such great eyesight, I don’t know why you can’t see what’s right in front of you.”
“What?” Galadriel asked, tuning back into the conversation.
Nori heaved a great sigh. “Never mind. Just tell Celeborn to fuck off for me when you do talk to him. And tell Halbrand I said hello,”
“Will do,” Galadriel promised, choosing to preserve the peace instead of arguing with her friend over a tired topic. She ended the call and finished her bagel, sipping on her water and taking two more Tylenol to help manage the fever.
Steeling herself, she dialed Celeborn’s number.
He picked up after the fourth ring, sounding out of breath. “Hey darling, what’s up?”
“Just checking in since I haven’t heard from you,” Galadriel tried to keep her tone neutral, holding her anger in check.
“Yeah, well, you know how it is. There’s so much to do here —”
“Celeborn,” Galadriel interrupted him, swallowing the lump in her throat. “I kind of just want to talk about our last conversation. I know that you already paid for this trip, but I also know that the card you used to book everything allows last minute cancellations. You could’ve cancelled.”
“Well, sure, but the weather—”
“The weather?” Galadriel echoed, scoffing. “So, how much of that trip was really about us spending time together, and not just a convenient excuse for you to do things you like to do?”
“Don’t be like that, Gal,” Celeborn argued, raising his voice. “I invite you to come along all the time. You never come.”
“And you never stay,” Galadriel said, hearing the death knoll of their relationship in all the things he didn’t say.
Silence hung between them for a moment.
“Look, Gal, we can talk about it when I get back,” he hedged, sighing.
“And when is that? Three months from now? Six?” Galadriel sniffled, muting the phone to blow her nose.
“…Four,” he admitted after a long pause. “But it’s this really great opportunity to visit the Antarct—”
“Don’t worry about it, Celeborn. We don’t need to discuss it. We’re done.”
“Gal—” His voice cut off as the call ended.
Galadriel immediately muted her ringer and sent a quick text to Nori, informing her friend of the news, before chucking her phone to the floor. A part of her was sad with the turn of events — she and Celeborn had been together too long not to feel something — but a larger part only felt relief.
No more performative Instagram shots in trendy restaurants.
No more long distance calls with bad reception, or unreturned texts.
No more lonely nights wondering if she was going to be alone forever.
She sneezed and scrambled for the pack of tissue, carefully blowing her nose and gathering her trash to throw it away. Halbrand would have a meltdown if he came home and found tissues littering the floor. Feeling well enough to stay awake, she decided to distract herself with work instead, catching up on the emails from Friday she had missed while being sick.
Sometime in the afternoon, reality caught up with her, and she couldn’t stop the tears once they started. Whatever else Celeborn was, he had been a friend of her brother’s. One of few, and fewer still, still alive to remember him. She and Celeborn would never reminisce about Finrod again.
“Noldor?” Halbrand’s voice took her by surprise, jarring her from sad recollections for a moment.
She hastily wiped the tears from her eyes. He stood in the entryway, still in his scrubs, coat slung over his arm. “Hey, how was work?”
He hesitated just a moment, appraising her, before answering her. “Same shit different day. You good?”
“I broke up with Celeborn,” she admitted, and pulled another tissue from the pack to pat the tears from her face. “We haven’t been working for a long time… but this was just… the icing on the cake.”
“You broke up with him, but you’re sad?” He asked, sounding confused.
“Yeah… he knew Finrod, and in a lot of ways he was my last link to my brother but… that’s not a good reason to stay in a relationship with a person. Especially someone who can’t be bothered to stay — ever.”
Halbrand nodded, considering her. “So… pizza?”
Galadriel laughed and settled back on to the couch. “Pizza sounds great.”
“I’ll go pick one up — delivery will take forever on a night like tonight,” he offered, slipping his coat back on. “Pick out a movie — not another chick flick you’re going to fall asleep in the middle of,” he ordered sternly.
Galadriel mock saluted and began browsing through the movies before settling on The Mummy. Surely, Halbrand wouldn’t complain about that. It was a solid forty minutes before he returned, during which Galadriel took another dose of Dayquil to ensure she stayed awake for the movie, and failed at doing the crossword puzzle from the newspaper. Anything was better than looking at her phone, which was sure to be blowing up.
Halbrand kicked the door closed and toed off his shoes, padding across the carpet with the pizza in his arms and slid the box on the coffee table.
Galadriel, half standing and prepared to go to the table, looked at him in surprise. “…You want to eat in the living room?”
“Just this once,” he said, and flipped open the box of the pizza lid.
Galadriel couldn’t stop the smile from creeping across her face, and barely contained the laugh. A lop-sided, uneven pepperoni heart had been baked into the pizza. She turned to beam at him and gasped, finding him closer than she expected and holding a single stem red rose up to her lips.
She cleared her throat. “That better not be a pity rose. Pity pizza I’ll take, but that’s it.”
He shook his head, smiling. “It’s not.” She licked her lips, unable to hold his gaze.
"Halbrand, I—"
"Don't overthink it, Noldor. Not tonight. Happy Valentine's Day."
Tentatively, she accepted the rose from him, fingers barely brushing against his own in the exchange. “Well, thank you,” she said, and stood to get a glass and water to put it in before returning it to the coffee table.
Halbrand obligingly pulled out a coaster for her to place it on, the familiar gesture bringing a wide smile to her face.
“So, what are we watching?” He asked, taking a slice of pizza and reclining on the couch.
“The Mummy,” she said, sitting beside him, and started the movie before taking her own slice.
“Which one? Not the Tom—”
“No!” She glared at him, wrinkling her nose. “The good one. I’m not a monster, Halbrand,” and bit into her pizza with a happy groan.
Galadriel made it halfway through the movie before she felt herself begin to doze, and without thinking cuddled under Halbrand’s arm, snuggling into his side. His fingers carded through her hair, gently pulling the tangles free. She protested when she felt him move, not wanting him to leave. He only reclined further back into the cushions, pulling her to lay across his chest.
“Don’t leave,” she grumbled, dozing against his chest.
“I’m not going anywhere,” he replied, pressing a kiss to the crown of her head. The moment passed, Galadriel almost falling asleep, when she felt the rumble in his chest as a warning before a violent sneeze escaped him, followed by a racking cough.
“No,” he groaned, sniffling. “You got me sick!”
Galadriel stifled a laugh and offered him the last tissue from the pack. “Don’t worry. I’ll take care of you.”