SEEK And Find

Epilogue

The month that drifted by after her adventures overseas almost seemed like it wasn't happening. Of course, the week spent in the Mediterranean had been equally dreamlike and bizarre, but this was a different kind of surreality.

Kristoff and Rapunzel had grilled Anna for all manner of details. At some point, as much as she resisted, she had to show them that somewhat-suggestive selfie as evidence that she wasn't delirious. Then she had to swat Rapunzel's phone out of her hands because she whipped it out the moment she saw, desperate to Tweet about what she had just found out — which absolutely could not be allowed. Once they had the "coming out is not something you can do for someone else or it makes you a really crappy person" conversation, Rapunzel ultimately relented and said she would keep Elsa's secret.

What didn't help was the way Elsa kept behaving. At the Madison Square Garden show, she played a stirring rendition of Elton John's "Someone Saved My Life Tonight" on the piano, singing lead vocals with the other three SEEK girls singing the backup and chorus parts. She dedicated it to "My good friend, Anna." Seemed for now, that was the best she could manage in a public setting — and it was enough to set the named redhead blushing and squealing into a throw pillow.

That wasn't all. She mentioned Anna on the Late Show, and again during the final concert of their tour in LA. Media slowly began to wonder who "Anna" was, but there was no mention of them being in a relationship other than platonic. Nothing well-founded, anyway. In the absence of anything juicier about the elusive "friend", the subject floundered and faded in the face of gushing about Elsa's previously-unknown skill with the piano.

There was one less-than-pleasant surprise: Anna's phone bill. It wasn't something she had thought about when making sure her phone was able to function while overseas, but apparently, she ran up several hundred dollars in charges that she hadn't realised would incur. After a day of worrying herself sick about how she was going to pay it, Elsa was able to assure her she would cover the cost, claiming she should have known better than to let Anna use her phone willy-nilly on Ibiza without warning her about the consequences, and it was therefore her responsibility. Her parents didn't quite agree, but neither did they forbid the star from covering the obscenely high fees.

That was balanced out by her mother answering the door one afternoon to find none other than Esmé standing on their fuzzy green doormat, a scarf covering most of her hair and those large sunglasses in place. It didn't take long for Anna to bowl Mom over and hug her, inviting her in. Turned out that she had asked Elsa for the address when she knew she was going to be in Toronto for a small guest spot in a movie being filmed there. She declined their offers to let her spend the night, saying the studio was footing the hotel bill for her and it would be a waste not to take advantage.

And, as it turned out, she also wanted to meet Rapunzel — not so much for the girl's own sake, but more because she considered Anna a good friend and wanted to do her a favour. The poor fan nearly fainted again, but Anna was able to swoop in through the door and catch her just in time. She continued to mainly stare at Esmé all through the visit, barely speaking, and only when they were about to leave did she manage to squeal out that she loved her. Just that: "I love you!"without the qualifiers of why, such as her singing or her fashion sense. Anna knew that's probably what she meant... or had it been a slip of the tongue, revealing her true feelings? Either way, Esmé told her she was sweet and kissed her cheek, which made Rapunzel finally lose consciousness, after all.

Every night, without fail, Elsa would at the absolute least text Anna and let her know that she was exhausted but thinking of her. Despite her mother's misgivings, her warnings that she would go back to her "real life" and forget all about the random ginger she picked up in Canada, the pop star never missed a single day. Most days, they would text back and forth many times, and would have a few minutes to call or Skype at the end of the night when things were less hectic.