Glinda's alarm rang seven thirty in the morning. Still drowsy, she swiped the screen to silence the unwelcome noise before rolling over on her search for the bed's edge. Instead of the way out, she found a warm body next to her. She stiffened. She tried to recall what had happened the previous night, but her brain was a mess. Ever so slowly, she moved her head to catch a glimpse of the person next to her. After a few sleepy blinks, her eyes eventually focused on Fiyero and pure relief washed over her. Giggling hysterically, she let herself fall back into her pillows and blankets.

Fiyero propped himself up, quirking his thick, bold eyebrow.

"Funny dream?"

"No," she replied, still laughing to herself. "Rather, a funny awakening."

Smiling, Fiyero got out of bed to pull on an old t-shirt and some training pants.

"Waking up beside each other is an odd feeling, isn't it? So familiar and still so bizarre."

The giggles finally died down.

"Yes, but that's not even what I meant," she said through a mighty yawn. "When I first woke up, I had a total blank out. For a moment, I had no idea in whose bed I had ended up."

Suddenly, she found herself at the receiving end of a long, silent stare from Fiyero.

"Should I be worried?" he asked at last, already sounding concerned enough. "Is that something that happens quite frequently these days? Waking up in random people's beds and not knowing what happened?"

Glinda groaned in mild frustration.

"Not at all. That's why it was funny that I even thought that that was what might have happened" she intoned, rolling her eyes.

"Sure. I just hope that you're being careful. I know about your plan."

She assumed, he was referring to the 'plan' that entailed a husband and children – a perfect family to help her present as the straight, 'normal' girl her parents still thought she was.

"I haven't really even started on that yet," she told him, hoping to calm him down. "And besides," she added with a sassy grin, "you are the one who tries to hook me up with a green sexual omnivore."

"Hey!" He raised both of his hands. "In my defence, I never advised you to get drunk with her. That's just not playing it safe."

"I wasn't drunk!" Glinda shot back.

"You passed out on my couch just two minutes after you arrived, and I Oz damn know the scent of alcohol when I smell it."

Their argument was interrupted by Glinda's alarm that went off for a second time. This time, she cancelled it properly.

"I've had one glass of wine, no more. I was simply pooped."

"From what?" Fiyero demanded incredulously. "From not going to work?"

"Thanks to you, mister, I hardly slept a wink the night before. Do you even have the slightest idea what anxieties you put me through?"

For a moment, it almost seemed like he felt at least a little bad.

"Well, did my hard labour pay off?" he asked with a casual shrug.

Glinda sent him a brief glare that quickly softened again.

"Although I'm not the world's foremost authority on this sort of stuff, I don't even think Elphaba is interested in me that way. She might work out to be a very interesting friend, though."

"Interesting, huh? You will have to tell me everything about it."

"Yes, I know. I won't be able to avoid that conversation for long, but for now, please excuse me. I need a shower and I have to give work a ring because I'm still feeling 'quite ill.'"

She winked at him and left to find the bathroom.

Breakfast was store-brand shitty cornflakes with barely any milk. There was no reason to complain; seeing as she had dropped by completely unannounced, Glinda considered herself lucky that Fiyero had any food to share at all.

"What did you plan for lunch?" she asked on her way to the kitchen to do the dishes.

"Cornflakes," Fiyero replied offhandedly. "Without milk, I guess."

She checked his fridge and cupboards to see what else she might be able to find. Perhaps, with a pinch of creativity, she could throw together something more palatable. The outlook was bleaker than she had imagined, however.

"Wow, you weren't kidding! There is literally nothing else." She sighed, ran her fingers through her hair and placed her other hand on her hip. "Looks like I'll go on a small shopping trip for you. After all, I did promise to keep you alive."

"I love you, Darling" Fiyero grinned and opened his laptop.

Glinda walked over to him to have a look over his shoulder. Most of the time, Fiyero was working on his ace blog, but he also worked as a freelance journalist, dedicated to LGBTQA+ matters. As far as she could see, he was busy answering his overflowing ask inbox.

"Have you recently done anything that brought in some money? You know how much I admire your work, and starving artists are usually the most inspired kind, but you do have to take care of yourself first and foremost."

He looked up to her and crunched his nose.

"I have a paid job coming up this weekend, but please don't ask what it is."

She immediately plopped down next to him on the couch, wrapping her arms around his shoulders in a way so there was no chance for escape.

"Now you simply have to tell. It already sounds like something very undignified."

"And I'm still waiting for your story," he evaded, typing a little faster while pretending to focus on the task before him.

Giggling and giving him one more squeeze, Glinda got up. She grabbed her handbag and retrieved her phone from his bedroom.

"Fine, fine. You shall hear all about it over lunch. As I shall hear about your mysterious weekend assignment."

She left for the supermarket, ignoring his protests.

Fiyero dropped her home after lunch to make sure that Crope and Tibbett would believe her story when she told them that she had been at his place the entire time. As Glinda had almost expected, they were terribly disappointed. Imagining her (and many of their other friends) in scandalous scenarios and dramatic love affairs easily counted as one of their favourite pastimes.

On Wednesday, after recklessly using up almost half of her five measly sick days for the year, Glinda finally decided that it was time to return to work. She was beyond nervous. Would she be believable enough if anyone asked for details regarding her brief indisposition? Did she look nearly pale enough to pass as only recently recovered? What if someone had seen her and tried to ask her trick questions, just to see her entangle herself in lies?

She pressed the buzzer next to the big glass door and, welcoming her with a tired smile, the receptionist let her in. So far, so good. Glinda smiled back as genuinely as she could manage and headed for her room.

"Good morning," she greeted her colleagues, her demeanour enthusiastic but seasoned with a hint of exhaustion.

Only two of them looked up, one waved her left hand while continuing to type with the other. Silently congratulating herself to have made it this far without getting in trouble, she sat down in her own little cubicle and pulled her laptop out of her bag.

Her boss didn't make an appearance until after his morning meetings. He knocked on his table as a matter of greeting and dropped into his big leather swivel chair. The staff in the room mumbled a distracted acknowledgment. Glinda watched him from the corners of her eyes as she continued her work. The longer it took him to mention her recent absenteeism, the more uneasy she grew.

Lunch break came and went, and he still didn't look like he was going to make a move, so Glinda took it upon herself to approach him.

"Mister Nikidik?"

He barely looked up from his computer screen, eying her over the brim of his glasses.

"Ah yes, Miss Upland. I do hope you have recovered from whatever it was that ailed you?"

"Y-yes, thank you, Sir."

It took all of Glinda's willpower not to flush bright red.

Nikidik took off his glasses and waved them about as he spoke.

"Well, just between the two of us, if you ever intend to call in sick to nurse a hangover, that's fine. But please, for Oz's sake, choose your timing more wisely."

Quite taken aback, Glinda only frowned and nodded. Had he just used this piece of advice to call her out for lying (even if his conclusion was wildly removed from the truth)?

He put the spectacles back on his nose and turned his attention back to the computer, opening a new window to show her the re-arranged schedule he had prepared.

"So, you missed two consultation appointments. Fortunately, as they were only introductory meetings, the clients were none the wiser when Dayae and Yolona filled in for you. Of course, you will have to take over their clients and the appointments are tomorrow morning and afternoon."

She took a deep breath and nodded. Two appointments in one day was a lot to prepare for.

"And of course, you will have to catch up on your reports. This is our busiest month this year so far and none of your colleagues have enough time to spare to take on any additional work."

"Of course," Glinda sighed. "I saw the memo when I checked my drawer."

"Good. I think, you have your work cut out for you. I hope you brought coffee."

He sent her off with a lopsided grin and a wink, probably thinking he was funny. Given her situation, however, Glinda found it difficult to see the humour.

At the very least, she felt more or less rested and ready to get some serious work done. The day at Fiyero's had been quite relaxing and had, to a certain degree, made up for the anxiety and queasiness she had suffered through from Saturday night till sometime Monday. Coming to think of it, she couldn't exactly remember when she had started to feel more at ease in Elphaba's presence. Even though she had still felt the tension within her, spending the evening with her new unlikely acquaintance had proved far less taxing than she would have guessed.

Glinda caught herself daydreaming, her mind wandering back and forth from one conversation with Elphaba to another. She shook herself back to the present and pinched her arm for good measure. With one swift, fluent motion, she pulled out the file with her preliminary reports and opened it. She had to buckle down now if she ever wanted to go home tonight.

By three o'clock, Glinda's enthusiasm had diminished to a pitiful trickle of feeble determination that, combined with her sense of duty, barely kept her in her seat. Granted, she had made good progress, but the 'to do' pile had hardly shrunk at all. It almost seemed like the stack of files and notes and emails was raging a war against her. By the looks of it, she was bound to lose.

Before she lost her mind, she decided to take a short trip to the lunch room, to stretch her legs and to grab a coffee. Dayae, a petite brunette, petite but still tall for her Munchkin heritage, smiled at her sympathetically and handed her a treat from a bag of mini chocolate confectionary. Glinda thanked the mighty Oz for Dayae, the only truly and unwaveringly friendly face this place had to offer.

As she returned to her cubicle, she noticed the green light of her phone flashing. Most likely, it was a shopping list from Tibbett, who once again needed some exotic ingredients from the Quadling store around the corner. Alternatively, it could be a message from Fiyero. Or her mother – it had been almost a week since they had last talked and that was already highly unusual. She briefly debated whether she had enough energy left to deal with either of these, but finally decided to check her phone anyway, if only to procrastinate going back to work.

'Hey, how's work? Thought I should share this with you. You might appreciate it.'

The picture beneath the text was a covertly shot photo of Avaric staring at the back of a dark-skinned girl's head and looking extremely irritated, while said girl seemed thoroughly absorbed in a conversation with another woman. Only now, she realised the message was from Elphaba.

'Monthly morning tea today. Avaric sat next to Sarima, but every time he tried to talk to her, all charming, bleach white grin, she staved him off and turned around to talk to someone else. He stormed off half way through and just went home after an entire day of sulking in his office.'

Glinda couldn't help but laugh out loud. She couldn't believe Avaric was capable of such immaturity; neither could she believe Elphaba was the type to record the evidence of his childish behaviour in order to gossip with her. Elphaba had been right though: she did appreciate it. She had not thought that anything could possibly make her laugh today. Still chuckling, she replied with an emoticon that was laughing tears.

Confident that the newly acquired positivity would help her through the rest of her work, she snatched up her red pen to once again read through the report she had been working on for the past four hours. Only half a paragraph later, she once again found her thoughts drifting. She wondered what it would have been like if she had been accepted at TMB. Naturally, working with Avaric was not a tempting prospect at all, but how would it have been to be around Elphaba all day? Would it have been fun? Stressful? Unnerving? Impossible?

Well, with Elphaba constantly on her mind, even working on the other end of the city seemed quite impossible. She berated herself for being so easily distracted. Who could blame her though? With no finish line in sight, she was downing in a sea of work. What she needed was an anchor, something to hold out for. She glanced at her phone again. There had been no further communications from Elphaba in the last half hour since her initial messages. This was probably all she should expect from the green woman for the rest of the day. Unless, she made the next step.

'You think you're free this Sat?'

The moment she hit /sent/, she chucked the phone away and forced herself to look at the document before her. Who knew how long it would take Elphaba to reply. She couldn't sit there, idle and unproductive, waiting for a text that might never arrive.

It didn't work. She read the same sentence ten times over and still couldn't process the words she herself had written just hours earlier. Frustrated, she cocked her head to look at her phone. Nothing yet. Still nothing. Nope. Not happe-

Her phone vibrated and beeped quietly, the green light started blinking again. Ignoring the way her heart had somehow skipped a beat, she reached for it.

'Maybe? For what?'

Well, it was a start, although it was not something Glinda dared to put too much hope into.

'Whatever. What do you usually do for fun?'

'Books are terrific fun.'

At least, the reply had come promptly. On the downside, Glinda found it hard to figure out whether Elphaba was being serious, just joking or trying to put her off. Staring at the message displayed before her, she tapped her fingers on the desk. Maybe it was actually some sort of test? How in Oz was she supposed to respond?

'Agreed,' she typed at last, if only to placate Elphaba. 'But how about something more social?'

This time, she didn't take her eyes off the screen at all. With almost bated breath, she waited to see how the other woman would react, but Elphaba apparently took her sweet time. Or perhaps she was simply busy. She was still at work, right? The thought occurred to Glinda, that she also should rather return to work. She must have wasted more than twenty precious minutes on this by now. But her conscience did not win out this time. She stayed put, eyes fixed on her phone as the minutes ticked by.

There. Tiny dots appeared at the bottom of the messenger window. Elphaba was typing her reply.

'I may have an idea.'

A wide grin appeared on Glinda's face.

'Meet me at my place. 6 p.m.'

Without even giving it a second thought, she picked up her phone and confirmed. Now the anchor was cast and it was up to her alone to fight herself through the flood of assignments before Saturday evening. Challenge accepted.

By Friday afternoon, she was right on schedule and confident that she would be able to finish all of her work before meeting Elphaba Saturday evening. All she needed to do, was to stay up a bit longer tonight and get up the next morning around the usual time she would on a normal working day. Tired, but tremendously pleased with herself, she began to tidy up her cubicle for the weekend.

She had just packed away her laptop, when her phone went off. It was the ring tone she had set up for her friends, and she quickly declined the incoming call. Grabbing her bag, she waved her colleagues goodbye and hurried out of the office.

Once outside, she checked her missed calls. Milla's name was the first on the list, which came as a little surprise. They hadn't talked much recently. Curious, she taped the contact to call her back.

"Glinda?"

"Hey Milla."

"Hi. Why did you reject the call? Was I interrupting something?"

Her voice sounded like she was suggesting something cheeky. Glinda sighed.

"There are some people on this planet who still work after five. Even on Fridays."

"Oh. Sorry."

"Well, what's up? You don't usually call just to catch up."

"Are you still at the office or are you going home now? Because I wanted to ask whether you want to come clubbing tonight."

Glinda had been going out with the party hungry group of her friends a lot less recently. Funnily enough, she had hardly realised it until this very moment. Somehow, she didn't seem to miss that side of social life much. Perhaps, this was her growing into a boring, old woman just a little earlier than the average society girl.

"Sorry, Milla, but I'm afraid I can't. I had a terribly stressful week and there is still more work for me to finish off tomorrow. But you go and have fun. I'll make it up to you next week or the one after."

There was a brief pause, followed by a disappointed wail from the other end of the line.

"But Glin, you gotta help me out."

"With what?" Glinda asked in confusion.

"You see, there's that guy I still know from uni. He's really hot and really rich. We chatted online the other day, just by chance, and he asked if I wanted to hang out with him and his friends. I said I did, but now I'm getting all worked up about it. Think about it, Glinda, I don't know any of the other people and if they are only half as swell as he is, I'll feel totally out of place."

Glinda rolled her eyes. She wanted to tell her friend that they were in their mid-twenties now, far removed from the university freshmen they had been when they had first met. Shouldn't their approach to partner search and dating have matured as well? But what did she know. Single and not even close to securing a man she could introduce to her parents as potential future husband, she might not be the best person to give advice.

"Glinda?" Milla asked, sounding borderline desperate.

Glinda exhaled audibly. Leaving her friends in the lurch simply wasn't her style. She did the math in her head: if she didn't work tonight, she would have to sacrifice her Sunday but should still be able to finish on time, which ultimately was all that mattered. She knew she would regret this, but in the end, she had no excuse that was entirely