it goes without saying [elaine]

Normally, Emily supposed that she wouldn’t have had a problem just meeting her best friend, Elaine, in her apartment, but there was the little chance of seeing Eva there and Em didn’t want to risk having to talk to her at all. She was civil when it was necessary, but Emily wasn’t a very confrontational person and liked to avoid those happenstances as she could rather than getting involved in things that made her uncomfortable. She supposed this made her sound like a bit of a hypocrite, considering what had been happening with a certain man as of late (what exactly was that? what had been happening?), but there wasn’t any reason for Elaine to necessarily ask about it. Emily liked keeping her private affairs private and that was that, but Elaine did know about John and after she’d found out about that, anything she’d done to try and keep things from her had, without fail, crashed and burned.

It didn’t make much of a difference to her where they went to sit and chat, but it was evening, so going to someplace with less windows and more secluded corners made sense, especially if she and Elaine were going to be talking about things she didn’t want other people to overhear, no matter whether it was just harmless eavesdropping on their part anyway. As she was preparing to leave the apartment, Emily was clothed in normal attire -- jeans, a pullover, and some sneakers. She wondered how anyone would feel attracted to her at all when she made practically no effort to look pretty, but she hadn’t thought that in the first place, anyway. Not being raised in a house with her beautiful mother, and not afterwards when her father had married the plastic woman with a poster child for back-to-school magazine advertisements.

Sighing heavily, Em ran a hand through her hair one last time before heading out into the living room to grab her handbag. Here she went again. Why was she doing this? Surely it wasn’t for her own personal enjoyment, but at least she would get to see Elaine without any of her other annoying friends hanging about. Disapparating onto the London street they’d coordinated with a quiet pop, Emily surveyed her surroundings. Not a bad district. Not as sketchy as the one she’d met him in, for sure... it was difficult to even think his name without images of his face painting themselves all over her head. Sure, she’d been his date to a wedding. She’d barely known the people, it had been a spur of the moment thing, she was positive of that fact.

It didn’t mean that she meant anything to him, not significantly, anyhow. Em sauntered slowly down the sidewalk, submerged in her own head, robotically dodging all of the pedestrians walking past. Elaine was much more social than she was, and Emily was sure that she would at least have some things to talk to her about other than this, but ever since Emily’s vague hints, her best friend had been anxious to know more about it, and Em couldn’t exactly blame the other girl for that, either.

Yanking the handle on the door gently, Emily swept the room with her eyes and spotted Elaine sitting at a table in the corner, just as she had requested. It only made sense that she’d gotten here first because she lived in London now and Emily didn’t, but it was a relief to see her there, anyway. The tall brunette hurried over to the table her friend was sitting at and greeted her with the warmest smile she could conjure. “Hey, you.” She muttered, sliding effortlessly into the chair across from the other dark-haired girl. “I hope you’re well. It feels like it’s been ages since I saw you last.”

Shit.

Whenever she was painting, Elaine forgot everything around her. Time flew by and if she didn't take a look at her watch every now and then, she'd sit all day in her little workroom. Now it was almost time to leave her apartment and to meet Emily and while they hadn't planned to go to a fancy place, she still couldn't meet her like this. There was paint all over her jeans and shirt and she was pretty sure that there was also paint in her hair. With a spell she cleaned the paintbrushes quickly and put them neatly next to the ones she hadn't used.

Now she only had to take a quick shower, get dressed and she'd be ready. Perfect. When they had arranged their meeting, Elaine had wondered why Emily didn't want to visit her in her apartment but then it had hit her. Eva.

While Eva was one of the biggest extroverts she knew, Emily was probably the biggest introvert. The two girls couldn't be any different but Elaine loved them both. They were her best friends and she couldn't imagine life without them. Her biggest fear was that one of them would give her an ultimatum at some point but to be fair, she doubted that it would happen. She couldn't imagine Emily doing it and she also couldn't imagine Eva asking her to stop being friends with Emily. The muggleborn knew that the two girls couldn't stand each other but she also knew that they both loved her.

Eva had been here a few days ago and Elaine knew that she had neglected her other best friend during that time. Everything was always so surreal when the Bulgarian visited. They went out a lot, partied hard and slept almost all day. It was never boring with Eva and it was also never quiet. She needed it from time to time, though. Since their trip to Asia, normal life sometimes seemed so dull and Elaine felt as if something was missing. Her family was close and so were most of her friends from school, she liked teaching and also meeting with her little group of ministry opponents but still... That couldn't be everything, could it?

Anyway. She had agreed to meet Emily today and she wouldn't be all melancholic and restless. In fact, thinking about the meeting made her all curious again. Emily had dropped a few hints about that barkeeper a few weeks ago and the former Ravenclaw wanted to know more. Emily wasn't the biggest talker but over the years Elaine had learned to ask the right questions. After getting dressed in a pair of dark jeans and a white blouse, the brunette slipped into her black boots, grabbed her bag and apparated to the bar where they had agreed to meet.

Emily wasn't there yet and so the girl just went to a table in one of the corners, hung her bag over the chair and opened the menu. She hadn't even made it to the second page when she suddenly heard someone coming closer. Acting on impulse, she almost stood up to hug her friend but then she remembered that she wasn't meeting Eva, who was definitely more of a physical person. Elaine brushed a strand of brown hair out of her face and smiled back at her friend. "It's so good to see you, Em. And I'm sorry. I should have written you earlier. It won't happen again. Promise." With a swift movement, the muggleborn turned the menu around so that her friend could take a look.

"I thought about ordering some white wine? If that's okay for you, of course. And while we're waiting... Has anything interesting happened recently?" Now that wasn't very subtle but well, who cared? She definitely didn't and Emily knew her. She shouldn't be surprised.

Emily smiled warmly at her friend, and it felt natural, something that was rare in her life. Natural happiness didn’t come easily to Em anymore, not that it ever really had, but especially not now. Not while she was trying so hard to figure everything out and failing practically every time. With Elaine, though, it was effortless to sit back and chit chat about useless things, to have a laugh, and the twenty-one year old witch was immensely thankful for the small luxury she was afforded in that way whenever she visited with her best friend.

“Oh, never mind it.” Emily said, flicking her hand at Elaine as if to brush the issue away with it. It was nice to receive letters, that much was true, but Emily didn’t mind her alone time and was, in fact, partial to spending it with books rather than people a whole lot of the time. “It’s all fine, really. I’ve had so much going on lately that I’ve forgotten to keep track of my affairs as well..” Nevertheless, the apology from Elaine had been a nice gesture and noted. Emily was good at remembering things that other people didn’t, things that they counted on her forgetting sometimes. Like the fact that her father had left unintentional hints that he’d been seeing Penelope before her mother had died, or a mistake that a teacher made in a History of Magic class that Emily had not hesitated to point out.

Shrugging indifferently, Em raised an eyebrow at the other brunette. “Yeah, sure, wine is great.” It seemed that anyone that knew Emily remotely well knew that the way to get her to crack open a little bit was to get her to drink, and that had been happening a lot lately. With.. well, with him, with Elaine, with Julian... she wondered who was next on the list to pry into her private life. A client? A twelve year old at the amusement park who’d just stuck some of his Droobles on the underside of Emily’s game booth? She didn’t know. Something probably as equally ridiculous.

And there it was. Emily wasn’t stupid by any stretch of the imagination and she’d seen it coming. She wasn’t sure that any amount of mental preparation could have readied her to talk about the guy that had taken her to a wedding, which she’d failed to mention as well, and just opening her mouth was excruciatingly difficult to begin with. Where on earth would she start? The butterflies, or the wanting to kill him just under half the time, or the other half in which she felt like she was going weak in the knees and was prone to keeling over any moment? She supposed all of these things were relevant to bring up in the discussion, but the question was whether she actually would or not. Elaine’s big doe eyes were already making her nervous and she hadn’t even begun.

Sighing, Emily licked her lips and picked at the zipper on her currently open sweatshirt. “Mm, I guess it depends on what you call interesting...” Smirking slightly, she continued, knowing that Elaine would certainly not settle for such a coy, teasing response. “Actually, kind of, yes. If by interesting you mean things like him taking me to a wedding, of course.” Shrugging again, this time with a different connotation, she waited for the bombardment of questions she would undoubtedly be assaulted with.

So much going on… Merlin, she was curious. Elaine mentally chided herself for not having thought of this meeting earlier. Even though they were so different, Emily was her best friend as much as Eva was and she should spend more time with her former dorm mate. She knew that Em's life wasn't easy but that was exactly why she had to be there for her. The pale brunette didn't make it easy for her, though. The muggleborn still had no idea what her friend saw in John Lennox but she had stopped trying to understand it a long time ago. Yes, he was extremely attractive, she couldn't deny that, but other than that… She just couldn't see what Emily saw in him.

The waiter walked by and Elaine ordered two glasses of Chardonnay. He promised to bring them their drinks soon and to come back to take their next order and the former Ravenclaw dismissed him with a smile. Elaine looked back at her friend and the look on Em's face worried her. She didn't really know what she was seeing there but Emily seemed… uncomfortable? Nervous? "Look, Em. I'm your best friend. You know you can tell me everything and I won't judge you." She didn't know if her words would reassure her friend that she could indeed tell her everything but it was worth a try.

"Oh come on, Em…" The brunette sighed theatrically while she glanced at Emily. It was pretty easy to define what she called interesting. Did anything happen with that Trickett guy, yes or no? While Elaine was usually all for being faithful, she wouldn't mind at all if Emily finally found someone else. She needed to break up with Lennox and if another guy was the only reason why she'd do it… Then it was absolutely evident on which side she was even though she hadn't met Leifr Trickett yet. As far as she knew all the Tricketts were decent and that was worth something, wasn't it?

While Emily was talking, the waiter put the two glasses of Chardonnay on the table and Elaine took a quick sip to taste it. She almost spilled the wine all over the table. With a quick gesture the young woman dismissed the waiter again before her big doe eyes focused on Emily. "He did what? Dear Merlin and you're just telling me now? After it's all over? Em!" Elaine threw her hands in the air exasperatedly and shook her head. "What wedding? How was it? You just can't drop a bomb like that and then stop talking. I want to know everything. Now." She knew that she was quite demanding but what else should she do? Be quiet and ignore what Emily had just told her. As if.

Chardonnay was light enough, and it tasted pretty good. She commended Elaine silently on her choices, but then, there had always been some things that the Ravenclaws had just agreed and… clicked on. That was how they’d become best friends so many years ago, after all, and Emily knew that half of that was probably thanks to the kindness of Elaine’s heart. Em hadn’t exactly been of the cheerful or social sort during school, so their smarts and brain power coupled with Elaine’s slightly more people-oriented tendencies had made them basically the perfect match for the seven years they’d been at Hogwarts together. Even though Emily knew that Eva knew Elaine in ways she didn’t, it was the same in the opposite fashion. Emily knew things about Elaine and aspects of her personality that Eva would never know -- she’d met Elaine well into adulthood, after all, and hadn’t been there to see her grow into the person she was today. The young girl that had overcome oppression gracefully and done something about it… the charismatic girl that had helped Emily to come out of her shell, even if only a little.

The usual melodramatic sigh accompanied Elaine’s prompt, usually the sign that she was getting impatient or antsy and that Em needed to hurry the hell up, which she did immediately. It wasn’t fair to keep her waiting, especially since that was really what they’d come here to do -- talk. Talk about whatever it was that came up, and she knew it had been inevitable that men would be a major topic of discussion. As she reached the end of the icebreaker, Emily watched her best friend’s expectant look turn into that of innate shock. Good shock, she assumed. A small smile flicked across her lips and she swallowed a laugh, not surprisingly amused at her friend’s comedic reaction.

“I knew you were busy on the London scene with Eva.” Emily said, softly, and then went on in a firmer timbre. “I was going to write you about it, actually, but I figured that telling you about it in person would be easier. More immediate insight, you know.” The flow of the conversation was clipping along nicely now, and she felt a lot more comfortable divulging all of this information. Who was Elaine going to tell, anyway? Em knew she didn’t like John very much, so that was out of the question, and even if she did mention anything of it to Eva, Emily didn’t see how that would affect her. Eva’s credibility compared to hers was basically nil -- she wasn’t a scholar, after all.

“He was erm, best man at his friend’s wedding. They fought in the war together and things, and they were all in Gryffindor together at school…” Pausing for a moment to let her soak that in, Emily’s eyes flicked to her glass of wine. “And before you ask… no. He didn’t kiss me. Didn’t even make a move that suggested he wanted to.” Shrugging monotonously, her dainty hand gripped the neck of the wine glass and she lifted it to her lips, sipping slowly. Tasty.