Thanks everyone for the reviews! Here's a fairly long chapter to make up for the shortness of the last one, in which I get sick of Meleth being single and introduce a love interest for her.
Chapter 28: Matchmaker
"We all want something else"
-Good Charlotte
So I was engaged, and Dinniel was married. That left Meleth the only single girl in our group. And don't think we didn't hear about it, either.
"You guys are both so lucky," she whined. "No guys ever notice me. I wish I had a guy as nice as Enerdhil or as cool as Tuor."
"Hey, being in a relationship has its low points," I said. "Try having your dad find you and your boyfriend making out in the sitting room."
"Or try not being able to flirt with anyone, no matter how badly you want to," Dinniel put in.
"Dinniel!" I reprimanded.
"Hey, I'm just kidding," said Dinniel. She frowned. "Mostly…"
"But seriously, Meleth, I'm sure that you could find a great guy if you put your mind to it," I said. "Is there any particular guy that you think is cute? Because we could try to set you up with him if there is."
"Um…" Meleth looked like she was about to say something, but stopped and shook her head. "No, there isn't anyone."
"Reeallly," said Dinniel skeptically. "I find that rather hard to believe."
"Look, I just don't want to talk about this right now, okay?" said Meleth fiercely. "It's really my business anyway."
"Of course it is," I said, trying to keep the peace. "We won't bug you about it anymore, Meleth. It's just that, you seem to really want a boyfriend…"
"Whatever," said Meleth. "It's not a big deal." She stood up. "I have to go now. Mom wanted me to have dinner at home tonight, and I promised her I would."
Meleth left the room. Dinniel turned to me.
"Well, Idril," she said, "looks like we've got our work cut out for us."
"What do you mean?" I asked.
"Duh!" said Dinniel. "We have to find out who Meleth likes! Sheesh, Idril, I thought you were supposed to be brilliant."
"I'm brilliant in that I can multiply three-digit numbers in my head. I'm not brilliant in that I can automatically know whenever you get another random idea. Why do we have to figure out who she likes, anyway?"
Dinniel slapped herself on the forehead. "Idril! Have you seen how she's been acting lately? That girl is depressed. And I know from studying various people—including you—that depression is one of the sure signs of lovesickness."
"Hmm," I said. "Interesting. So how do we figure out who she likes?"
"Well, first of all, we need to make a list of potential guys," said Dinniel. "Then we narrow down the possibilities."
"How often have you done this, exactly?" I asked her.
"Lots of times," said Dinniel nonchalantly. "I've got to do something to fill up the days, after all. Okay, so we need to think of every guy Meleth's ever danced with, called cute, or otherwise could possibly be interested in."
"Well, didn't she once say Ecthelion was funny?" I said. "And he's kind of cute, too."
"Yeah, but he seems too artsy for Meleth," said Dinniel. "Plus, she doesn't really like guys with brown hair."
"Right," I said. I hadn't been aware of this previously. "So what kind of guys doesshe like?"
Dinniel looked up at the ceiling, like she was asking why on earth she'd been cursed with a friend as clueless as I was. "Gods, Idril, she's one of your best friends! Shouldn't you know this by now?"
"Dinniel, I've spend a good portion of my life claiming that guys were stupid and that I hated all of them. How on earth would I know all of Meleth's romantic preferences?"
"Never mind," said Dinniel, shaking her head. "Here, we'd better write this down."
So, according to Dinniel's list, Meleth liked guys who had:
A good sense of humor
Blonde or black hair
Plenty of money
Good fashion sense
At least slightly above-average intelligence
A lot of friends
Well, that narrowed things down a bit. Now we just had to figure out potential crushes that fit that description.
"She could like Maeglin," said Dinniel.
"Oh, Gods, I hope you're joking," I said. "I would absolutely die if she had a crush on my cousin."
"Well, it's not likely, but we can't completely rule him out. He has black hair, nice clothes, and a lot of money, and you can't deny that he's smart."
"But he doesn't have a good sense of humor or a lot of friends. He's not an option."
"Okay, then, no Maeglin," said Dinniel. "Hey, didn't she once dance say that Duilin guy was pretty cool?"
"He has a girlfriend," I reminded her. "Plus, he's not exactly that smart."
"Okay, we'll put him on the maybe list," said Dinniel. "Who else is a possibility?"
We spent most of that afternoon making a list of guys who fit most of Meleth's criteria and who she could possibly have a crush on. It wasn't easy work. After all, there were a lot of guys in Gondolin, and she hadn't given us a lot of clues. And it wasn't like we could ask her for any. This finding-out-who-Meleth-liked-behind-her-back business was a lot harder than I'd thought it would be.
"Okay, so we've got, like, twenty guys here, and none of them seems to be exactly the sort Meleth would like," said an exhausted Dinniel about two and a half hours later. "Is there anyone we've missed?"
I thought for a moment, trying to think if there was anyone else in Gondolin Meleth could potentially like, and then snapped my fingers. "Hold on, that's it! Why didn't we think of that before?"
"What? What?" asked Dinniel excitedly.
"Glorfindel. She likes Glorfindel."
"Really," said Dinniel, raising one eyebrow. "What makes you think that?"
"Come on, Dinniel, look at what we've got here. Glorfindel's rich, he's got nice clothes, he's funny, he's popular, and he's smart, not to mention that he has blonde hair. He fits the description of Meleth's ideal guy exactly. Plus, she danced with him at that New Year's Eve party and was really excited about it. What more proof do you need?"
"You," said Dinniel slowly, "may be on to something there. So now I guess we have to figure out how to get them together."
"You figure that out," I said. "I've been smart enough for one day."
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Our plan was simple, and a bit exploitative: I'd go sit down with Meleth in the courtyard and have a heart-to-heart girl talk with her, hoping that she'd spill about her crush on Glorfindel. Dinniel would, meanwhile, get Glorfindel to come to said courtyard by saying that I had to talk to him about something. If our timing was right and if all went well, then Glorfindel would arrive just in time to hear Meleth confess to me that she loved him. He'd say if he felt the same way or not, and everything would be neatly sorted out.
Hopefully.
Because there was no point in postponement, we decided to set our plan in motion the next day. At around 7:00 in the evening I found Meleth and told her that I needed to talk to her in the courtyard right now.
"Why?" she asked.
"I'll explain when we get there. Come on, this is important."
So outside we went, and I sat Meleth down on a bench and asked her straight out what was up with her.
"You're always so depressed these days," I said. "And Dinniel and I are getting kind of worried about you."
"I told you, everything's fine!" said Meleth. "Why do you keep asking me what's wrong with me?"
"Meleth," I said, "you know perfectly well that you don't have to tell me anything. I respect your privacy. But we've been friends for centuries; you can tell me if there's anything going on."
"Promise you won't tell anyone?"
"I promise," I said, feeling a bit guilty but rationalizing that I wasn't technically going to tell anyone. I'd just arranged it so that someone would overhear her.
"Well, okay," Meleth said finally, after a long pause. "There's this guy that…I kind of like."
"Huh," I said, incredibly relieved that Dinniel and I hadn't been barking up the wrong tree all along. "I thought that might be it. Who?"
"Um…" Meleth looked down at her feet. "Glorfindel."
Yes! We'd been right in that too! I was a genius!
"I've liked him after since that New Year's Eve party—you know, the one you made out with Tuor at?" Meleth continued. "Seriously, he's just so cool and funny and sweet, not to mention seriously hot. And I know he's way too good for me and I know that half the other girls in Gondolin like him, but, well, love is stupid, you know?"
"That," said a guy's voice, "was quite a speech."
Meleth and I looked up to see Glorfindel and a very excited-looking Dinniel standing by us. I was excited as well; Meleth appeared to be horrified (not that I could blame her).
"What's going on?" she asked.
"I don't really know," said Glorfindel. "All I know is that Dinniel told me that Idril needed to talk to me, so I came over here and then we overheard you guys talking, and…well. Yeah."
"Idril! Dinniel!" cried Meleth. "Did you guys plan this whole thing?"
"Uh…kind of," said Dinniel, smiling guiltily. "Did it work?"
"I suppose that depends on what you were trying to accomplish," said Glorfindel.
"We were trying to get her to admit that she liked you in your hearing," I said. "And also, to get you to tell her what you thought of her."
"So if you take care of the second bit, then yes, this will have worked," finished Dinniel.
"Well, in that case," said Glorfindel, "Meleth, I think you're an incredibly cool girl and I like you a ton. How's that?"
"Depends," said Meleth. "Do you like me as a friend, or a girlfriend?"
Glorfindel grinned. "How do you think?"
Meleth screamed, jumped up, and threw her arms around his neck. Before anything interesting could happen, though, she looked over at Dinniel and me and told us we could go now.
"Okay," I said, "but remember, you owe us."
"You owe us big," said Dinniel.
"They're right, you know. You owe them," said Glorfindel.
"Yes, yes, I get it, I owe them," said Meleth. "But that doesn't mean that they get to hang around here keeping an eye on me! I'm perfectly capable of taking care of myself, thanks!"
Dinniel and I quickly left, heartily congratulating ourselves on our ability to get people to tell their most intimate secrets. Now that was a useful talent.
