Chapter 37
Elsa didn't know whether or not she should be grateful that she didn't have any bruises or scrapes on her body- not even on her face, which in the dark felt like it was mercilessly being pushed into the brick wall. It meant that she didn't have any physical evidence of Hans' assault, but it also meant that she could still look presentable for her meeting with Mrs. Badroul.
As small as that detail was, it was the only bright side she could see.
After another silent taxi drive with a talkative driver, Elsa found herself at the front doors of Abu's: a high-class restaurant in the center of Agrabah shaped like some sort of fancy, gold lamp. A waitress wearing a traditional-looking dress lead her inside when she said she was here to meet Mrs. Badroul.
The inside looked somehow larger than the outside, the dome-like structure was decorated in a gorgeous flower pattern, and there were enough all-white tables and chairs to house a packed gymnasium. In an interesting design choice, a handful of tables were elevated in the center of the restaurant on a platform slightly off the floor, and the woman she was meeting was seated at one of these tables.
The gorgeous CEO was dressed in a stunning teal dress with a modest neckline and sporting her hair in a ponytail draped around her shoulder, she stood up when she saw Elsa approaching. She didn't look excited, but she didn't look annoyed this time either.
"1:30 precisely. Impressive to say the least, Ms. Andersen." She stuck her hand out, which Elsa shook with her aching hand.
Wincing from both the exertion and the unfaithful comment, Elsa asked, "I'm sorry? Did you not expect me to be here on time?"
"Not entirely. I called you last night to ensure that we were still meeting, but you neglected to answer your phone." Mrs. Badroul sat back down opposite of the blonde and folded her hands on the table, "Did something happen?"
Yet another disadvantage of not having a phone. Who knows how many calls or text messages she'd missed so far.
How much did Elsa want to tell her? If she told the whole truth, then maybe Mrs. Badroul would show some compassion and help take Hans down. But what if they were already partners and she'd get offended at Elsa for accusing him of something she had no proof of? That didn't seem to be the case in the way their meeting seemed to be transpiring, but it wouldn't be the first time Elsa misread a situation.
"It's uh, I just had a little...incident last night and lost my phone." Elsa said, deciding on a more neutral response.
The dark-haired woman looked at her puzzled, and Elsa expected, even hoped, that she would press further, unfortunately she just shrugged and turned her attention back to the menu. "Right...well just as we agreed you will pay for the meal, and you have until the food gets here-and a little time afterward- to convince me that ArenCorp deserves a second chance."
Great, she was off to an amazing start already. Elsa picked up her own menu and picked something cheap and familiar. As the same waitress from before came to take their order, Elsa shamelessly watched as Mrs. Badroul spoke in a silky, authoritative voice. No wonder she'd amassed as much power as she has, who wouldn't want to follow that voice and face into the proverbial battleground?
When the waitress left, and the older woman sat staring at her expectantly, Elsa cleared her throat and spoke. She was on the clock here and needed to make every word count.
"I want to start by apologizing again for my behavior yesterday. I'm...I was preoccupied with something else and unfortunately I let it affect my conduct."
No response. Holy hell she was intimidating.
Elsa nervously rubbed the napkin underneath her hand with her thumb. "Though there was some truth to my...mad ramblings. I am fully prepared to help you in any way for your expansion into Arendelle, if that's something you want. In my opinion, it's something you should at least consider. Your importance, your influence, should be shown not just in your own city, but in every city- and that can start with Arendelle."
"And what makes you think that I have a need for an international presence?" Mrs. Badroul replied with great scrutiny. "I am doing perfectly fine here in Agrabah."
"I'm not saying that you need one, but haven't you ever asked yourself if you could do better?" Elsa took a hurried sip from her glass of water. "I don't wanna compare myself to you, but the drive for me to always be better than I was the day before is the reason I'm sitting here with you today."
That and a harebrained scheme she stole from her ex-girlfriend that she missed desperately.
"The reason you are here today is because I allow it." Mrs. Badroul stated, her stare making it sound much more imposing.
"Well yeah, that too...but you didn't have to allow me to be here, and yet you did." Elsa mimicked her pose, placing her own hands tentatively on the table, "If you don't mind me asking, why did you change your mind?"
"I hardly think that is a smart question to ask considering the time you have left." She turned her head slightly towards the kitchen and looked back at the attentive blonde. "But if you must know…I admired your initiative. I am sure you know what kind of woman I am- I could have easily, as you said, 'sicced' Rajah on you- but I was impressed that even though you knew that, you still demanded a second chance."
Elsa actually forgot about Rajah momentarily when barging into her office, but she wouldn't say that.
"Not to mention that because my meeting with Mr. Westerguard was abysmal to say the least, I needed someone to prove to me that you Westerners are not all the same." It was good to see that she had made the right assumption about their meeting.
"But I also fumbled our first meeting, I said a lot of really dumb things." Elsa said before she could bite her tongue and let her continue.
Mrs. Badroul nodded, "You did, but you also said that you were not yourself, and I could visibly see that. This is the closest I've been to encountering the real Ms. Andersen that i wanted so much to meet. I sense something different about you, something has changed."
Well yeah, she decided not to repress her feelings and use them to her advantage. Thankfully this time Elsa was able to hold back that remark. Instead, she went with a more appropriate answer, "I think it's best that we chalk that first meeting up to being starstruck and leave it at that."
"Starstruck?" Mrs. Badroul rose her glass to take a drink. "Is that why you asked me if I had ever been in love?"
Elsa was sure she was imagining things, but it looked as if there was a small smirk on Mrs. Badroul's lips, quickly hidden by her cup.
She let out a flustered laugh, "Yeah, that...that was a mistake. I'm sorry, I had something on my mind- not you! I didn't...I mean I don't have you on my mind in that way." Why...why does she insist on talking?
The sun-kissed woman pulled her cup away from her lips, there was definitely a smirk. "Well I am flattered, but my feelings towards you are strictly professional. I am sorry if that disappoints you."
"No it's fine! I don't-I didn't think of you that way either, I actually have someone back home so-" Holy crap what was saying?! Elsa stopped herself, her cheeks already as red as the hair of the girl she was thinking about. It was bad enough that Mrs. Badroul thought she had feelings for her, but then she had to go and lie about her relationship. As wonderful as it would be to actually mean what she said, Anna wasn't hers.
Not anymore…
She shook her head before she could sink further into that rabbit hole and focused back on the task at hand. "A-anyway, like I was saying before, I...my feelings towards you are strictly professional as well. Although I will admit that I admire your story so much: how you inherited your father's company and made it your own, it's so fascinating. And just the way that you lead your company, it really looks like everyone respects you and also kind of fears you. No offense."
"No offense taken, that is my goal after all." The smirk was still there, which meant that Elsa finally got her to crack- by making herself look like a fool, but that's beside the point- and she took that as a personal victory.
"Right, well in any case if I was infatuated in any way here, it'd be at the idea of us being partners." Awful word choice, and yet Mrs. Badroul still looked amused and even raised her eyebrow. Another victory! "You remind me a lot of myself in the way you lead and the way that you've built yourself up, and just imagining what we could do together is just...I mean can't you see it? Haven't you thought about what this partnership would do for us? What we could accomplish?"
"I have thought about it, yes. In all honesty, you could give me access to an untapped market for New World Oil, and I know how much you Westerners love oil. And given your, well, less extreme methods of negotiating and how universally loved you are by your city…" Not recently, but that wasn't important. "...partnering with you would help to soften my public image a good amount."
"Aha!" Elsa exclaimed while clapping her hands together, alerting everyone within a twenty-mile radius. "You said you've thought about partnering with me, not like any person from the West, but me specifically."
Elsa was in no position to be bragging right now, especially about something that silly. Any second now the waitress would be back with their food and this negotiation would be over.
"Do you think that you're the only Westerner that I've negotiated with, Ms. Andersen?"
"Well of course not, I saw you talk with Hans yesterday. I'm just saying that...well I mean, if you've been thinking about this partnership already- enough that you gave me a second chance- then what's stopping us from just making it happen?"
Mrs. Badroul looked to the side, clearly thinking this through, "Hmm, you do seem to have a point."
"I do, don't I?" Elsa had to force herself to stop from smiling proudly, "So...let's do this thing. What do you say?"
"What do I say?" Mrs. Badroul seemed poised to answer, she had taken a breath while Elsa subsequently held hers, but before she could continue, the waitress had unfortunately returned with their food.
Elsa did her best not to look annoyed and thanked her for her diligence, but before she could dig in to her admittedly delicious looking salad, Mrs. Badroul finished her thought.
"I say we eat first." She said as she gracefully lay her napkin on her lap. "And discuss the terms of our partnership afterwards."
"Can't I just eat this later, Rapunzel?" Anna groaned, "One bite is enough, I've lived off worse."
"Are you serious? You used to be a star athlete, you know one bite isn't enough."
"I'm not an athlete anymore, now I'm just…" Anna stopped herself before her shame could slither out of her mouth even more, much as it had threatened to do many times these past couple days.
Rapunzel leaned forward, her eyes searching for any give in Anna's self-loathing ones. "...now you're just what?"
Anna blinked, "Look, I'll just eat the rest later, okay?" She placed the cover on top of her container and went to stand, "Thanks for dinner."
But she was stopped when Rapunzel grabbed her wrist, not tightly so as to force her back down, but enough to get her attention. Anna looked at her annoyed, Rapunzel looked at her undeterred.
She didn't want to be mad at her best friend, she didn't want to be mad at anyone but herself, but finally telling her what happened with Elsa should have been the end of this. Why did Rapunzel insist on taking care of someone who had given up on taking care of herself?
Maybe it was time for Rapunzel to know this, so Anna sunk back into her chair ready to unload, but the blonde beat her to the punch.
"I saw Elsa a couple days ago."
Anna'sheart stopped for a terrifying second, the idea of Rapunzel ever meeting Elsa face-to-face was so foreign to her that it didn't sound true. "What?" she said hoarsely. "We had work. When did you…"
Rapunzel pointedly didn't let go of Anna's hand when she sat back down. "It was after you and Hannah left to get dinner, she gave me Elsa's address and I went there as soon as I could. I wanted to know what happened, and when I asked if it had anything to do with Elsa you didn't deny it, so...I went to her place and confronted her."
"ButI did end up telling you. I mean I didn't tell you till yesterday, but still you didn't...didn't have to do that."
"I didn't want to take the chance that you might just pretend everything's fine and shut me out again, just like you're doing now." Rapunzel reasoned. "Besides, I'm not gonna pretend I didn't have a few words to say to her."
"I'm not…" Anna couldn't lie anymore, neither could she be furious at Rapunzel for just trying to help her and get an answer. Both feelings were overtaken by a different one: a pathetic feeling of neediness. "Well, wh-what did she say to you?"
Rapunzel ran a hand through her hair, "She...took the blame for everything that happened, told me about what you said to her, and how she hung up on you."
The pain in her chest made Anna immediately regret asking, and she wanted her to stop, but she also wanted to know more. "Did she…" Anna swallowed, "Did she say anything about why…"
Rapunzel tightened her hand over Anna's reassuringly, making it twitch in response, "Anna, I didn't want to bring this up to make you feel worse, I just wanted to tell you about this because you deserve to know, because you deserve finally move on."
Deserve. There was that awful word again. "Move on? So does that mean she doesn't want anything to do with me?"
Her best friend looked away, looking as if she didn't know how to word this. Each second of silence that passed only furthered the fear creeping up Anna's spine. "Rapunzel please…" she tried again, "I need to know what she said."
Rapunzel let out a heavy breath and looked back at her seriously, "She apologized for everything that she did, and said that she never meant to hurt you like this."
Ironically, that made the pain Anna felt even worse. Her chest tightened and her body went into overdrive trying to form another vat of tears for her to pour. "If-if that's true then why-" Her breath hitched and she continued meekly, "Why can't she just tell me that?"
"I don't know, Anna." Rapunzel placed another hand on hers, for some reason she looked uneasy. "She didn't say why, maybe she's just too scared to face you anymore. Maybe she just feels too guilty about what she did."
"But I'm right here! I've been here all this time just waiting and waiting for some kind of response, and I've gotten nothing, but she talks to you?!" Anna ripped her hand away and tangled the both of them in her hair, her eyes were looking at nothing in particular, and yet frantically scanning for any way to make sense of this. "Was that...is that what I should have done? Should I have just not pretended everything was fine and just went to her? Should I have done what you did?"
"I don't think that would have helped."
Anna scoffed, "How do you know that?! What if I had done something instead of being a coward and doing nothing but wait, and wait, and wait?!"
"What? Anna, you're not a coward. Why do you keep bringing yourself down like this? This isn't your fault!"
"Of course this is my fault!" Her breathing grew more erratic. "I jumped the gun and ruined something that could have been good by confessing my feelings like an idiot and now I'm paying the price. If I had just been okay with where we were, if I didn't always want more with Elsa, if I didn't care about her so much, I…"
Rapunzel raced to her side, sitting next to Anna and tearing her hands away from her hair, semi-cradling her as the redhead tried to catch her breath. "Shh, just breathe. Take a second and breathe, it's gonna be okay."
Anna wanted to protest and say that it was never gonna be okay, but damn if Rapunzel's base motherly instincts hadn't gotten so much better since the pregnancy. Instead she just sunk into her best friend's embrace, letting her arms flop down, and waited until she could breathe again.
"Gosh Anna…" Rapunzel said softly after a minute of shushing and cooing, "Why do you do this to yourself? Why do you cause yourself this much pain over someone that's not worth it?"
"Wh-what? What do you mean?"
Rapunzel rubbed her left shoulder with her arm, "I mean that you're too good for Elsa. You're too good for someone who won't talk to you, who makes you feel like this so many times. You deserve someone who will make you happy all the time, not...like this."
While she understood where her best friend was coming from, it still didn't change the fact that those words weren't entirely true. "That's not- I mean she isn't the reason I'm like this. I'm just...this is who I am, 'Zel."
"What are you talking about?"
Anna sighed dejectedly and spoke even though she knew every word she uttered would worsen the pain, "I'm someone who does things and says things without thinking them through first. And then when it inevitably blows up in my face, I don't know to deal with it so I just, I dunno, pretend everything's fine and forget to learn from my mistakes."
She paused for a second to keep her breath from hitching before continuing with her depressive monologue, "I'm someone who only ever fell in love with one person, and never stopped loving her, so I can't move on… I'm messed up, I've been messed up, it's always been like this."
When she ended, Rapunzel pulled her in even tighter, Anna didn't protest. "Well…" she started. "Let me tell you how I see you. Let me tell you the truth."
As she spoke, Rapunzel gently stroked her hair, further proving the motherly parallels. "I see a girl who never has to second guess anything, someone that's confident and bold and will always be the first one to try something new." Immediately, Anna wanted her to stop talking, but couldn't find it in herself to say those words.
"I see someone who knows what she wants, and will stop at nothing to get it." Anna wanted desperately to tell her that wasn't true, but there was such a sincerity in the blonde's voice that she still found herself speechless.
"I see someone who, yeah, may be unlucky at love but somehow finds a way to keep going every day, no matter how bad things get." Again Anna wanted to protest, not wanting Rapunzel to go where she was going, but all she could produce was a choked sob. "I see the greatest ball of sunshine that's ever come in to my life, I see my best friend in the whole freaking world who deserves happiness no matter what she says."
If Anna didn't say anything now, she would definitely be a mess again. ''Zel please…stop..." She said meekly, finally findinfthe words she couldn't earlier.
"Too much?" Rapunzel asked weary. "Anna, I'm just saying things that I've neglected to tell you for a while, things that I think you need to hear."
"I-It's just that...I know I should believe you, and be grateful for everything you've said cause you're my best friend and wouldn't lie to me. It's just hard because…" She wiped the tears from her eyes, "Because you're not the one I want to hear them from."
"Hmm.." Rapunzel muttered sympathetically.
"I know it's stupid that I'm feeling like this, and I know that I should start healing or whatever, but I don't know if I can do that without...closure." The word had escaped her for so long, and it had finally come to her in this moment of vulnerability. "If Elsa could just talk to me, tell me how she really felt, then this whole thing could finally be over. You know what I mean?"
Anna finally looked up from her spot nestled into Rapunzel's shoulder, and noticed that she was biting her lip and looking very guilty. "Rapunzel?" She asked worried.
"I...may have lied a little earlier." Rapunzel said."Elsa may have said something else."
Elsa was now eternally grateful of Mrs. Badroul for two reasons: for agreeing to the partnership, and for giving her a ride back to the resort which could replace the horrible memory of their first car ride together.
They were both a lot more relaxed and without the looming need of a negotiation hanging over their heads, they could simply talk candidly about their professional lives and even delve a little into their personal ones.
Mrs. Badroul told her where she got Rajah: "It was a gift from my father for my seventh birthday. He claimed to have imported him straight from Africa, but I am pretty sure I saw Rajah at the circus that came by a month before. My father even put a bow on him, which he did not like."
She told her the hardest part about working in Agrabah: "Definitely the heat. You would think that after living here my whole life I would have gotten used to it, but you never really do."
Elsa even got her to laugh after recalling an embarrassing anecdote of her early years at ArenCorp, and yes it was just as pretty as the rest of her.
After a lull in the conversation, Mrs. Badroul smiled, "If I can be honest, I am glad that my first impression of you was wrong, Ms. Andersen."
Elsa lazily put her arm over the empty headrest next to her, "Well if I can be honest, I'm glad my first impression of you wasn't. I read all about how you were this no-nonsense, take no prisoners kind of woman and it's good to see that you're exactly who I expected you to be, Mrs. Badroul."
The tan woman mirrored her position, albeit much more elegant with her arm placement, "Please, call me Jasmine."
Well that was new. "You serious?" Elsa asked with a raised eyebrow.
"I'm only on a first-name basis with my business partners, and only the ones that I respect the most."
For some reason, Elsa thought this was going to turn out to be some strange practical joke, she said her name cautiously. "Well, okay then...Jasmine. Gosh, that feels so weird to say."
Jasmine simply smirked, "I hope it is not too weird. That is my name after all."
"No it's not that kind of weird I'm just...anyway, you can call me Elsa if you want." She suggested.
"I was already planning on it. Now Elsa…" Gosh, that felt weird to hear. "Can I ask you a rather personal question?"
"Anything, shoot!" Elsa said a bit too eagerly.
Jasmine chuckled, "Well I hope I am not bringing up something you would much rather forget, but I did also read that rather controversial article about you in my research."
As soon as she mentioned the article, Elsa held back a groan. She knew it was one of the top hits when you searched for her name, but she still hoped that Jasmine wouldn't want to talk about it. Regardless she wanted to be polite, and just stayed silent. Even though she had a hunch about what Jasmine was going to ask.
"And curiosity has unfortunately gotten the better of me so I am afraid I have to ask: What became of you and Anna Dawson? Do you still keep in touch?"
Her hunch turned out to be true. Elsa made a few noncommittal noises as she tried to figure out just what to say and how much. In the end, after leaving Jasmine hanging for an eternity, she decided to just come right out and say the whole truth.
"Er, well that's a really long story, but...do you remember when I told you I have someone back home?" Because Elsa definitely didn't forget that blatant lie.
Jasmine's eyes widened, "Oh!"
Elsa hissed, "Yeeeeeah, before I get to that I just want to say that we're not...actually together. It was, I dunno, I guess you could say wishful thinking."
"Oh?" Her expression changed, "I am not sure what you mean."
"It's complicated, really complicated." Elsa laughed nervously at her understatement of the century.
"We dated back in college but I broke up with her over something stupid. We reconnected recently, and things were going great until I realized I had been repressing all these feelings for her and...well she confessed first." She sighed and looked out the window. "And I did something stupid again, and ruined it."
"How did you ruin it?"
Elsa closed her eyes hard and when she opened them, she saw a look of equal parts sympathy and curiosity on Jasmine's face. "I-well she told me over the phone cause we were talking on the phone, you know? And so she told me and I...hung up on her."
"Oh no!" Jasmine replied with full sympathy.
"Yeah, and that was two, almost three, weeks ago and I still haven't told her how I've felt. And honestly I don't think I'll ever get the chance." She looked down, the all-too-familiar guilt covering her. "With how much I've hurt her, I don't think I even deserve another chance."
Elsa didn't mean to say that statement. Or the one before that. Or the one before that. It was just that she didn't have anyone to vent to or process any of this, hopefully this didn't paint herself in a different light for Jasmine.
After an agonizing amount of silence, Jasmine spoke. Quietly, yet still able to be heard amidst the muffled sounds of the car. "Can I tell you a secret, Elsa?"
Elsa looked up, and not wanting to say anything else she nodded.
"I am not actually married, I added the 'Mrs.' to my name to deter any suspicious suitors from trying to make any advances towards me."
"W-wow…" Elsa said wide-eyed. "Is that true?"
"Very, and it has worked like a charm. Aside from Mr. Westerguard's tactless attempts to 'persuade' me, not one man has even thought about smiling suggestively in my direction for years. Of course, that may have more to do with my general demeanor and Rajah, but I like to think the prefix is their first hint not to try anything. It is a blessing, but also a curse…"
Jasmine frowned and took her arm off the headrest to repeatedly press her thumbs together in her lap, possibly a nervous tick. "See the thing about people being too fearful to look in your direction is that it makes it very difficult to, well, connect with anyone. As shocking as it may sound, I do one day hope to actually find someone and settle down."
"That doesn't sound shocking at all." Elsa interjected, knowing that she wanted the same thing.
Jasmine smiled sadly, "What I am trying to say is that I have dug myself into a proverbial hole, made from this fear that anyone interested in me would only be interested in my money or my position. A fear that keeps me from something that I have wanted for a very...very long time. I ask, Elsa, that you do not do the same thing, that you take your chance."
She leaned over and placed a hand on Elsa's knee, "This is an opportunity for you to have something great, and I would hate for you to throw it away because of fear or doubt or this notion that you are too late. If you like Anna as much as you say do, then do not let anything stop you from letting her know."
The car came to a halt as Elsa was still reeling from the waterfall of wisdom that had just cascaded down on her. The tragedy of Jasmine's tale wasn't lost on her either, and she wanted to console and reassure her just as much as thank her for the reality check. But as the car door opened, it didn't look like she was going to get that chance.
Jasmine's smile grew slightly larger, although the sadness was still prominent in her brown eyes. "Ah, it seems we are out of time. Thank you for meeting with me Elsa, I look forward to our partnership and I hope you have a safe flight tomorrow."
"Y-yeah, um you too…" Elsa replied distantly. She moved to get out of the car, and then she remembered what her new business partner/apparent love guru literally just told her about taking chances.
She sat back down in her chair, much to Jasmine's surprise, and spoke with an opportunistic glint her eye, "Where's the best place to buy a gift in Agrabah?"