#wrapping this ancient thread up you can reply or leave it idc which one xoxo

[elijahfalvey]

Elijah supposed there was a point of comparison somewhere in Phoebe’s words, if he were to look for it. The time where Nilay’s boss was a colossal dick to both her and Phoebe almost immediately came to mind, transporting him back to that moment where he would’ve loved to do nothing but give that idiotic man a piece of his mind himself, but he brushed it off with a shrug in truce. Internally, he would instead insist that worrying about someone being an asshole was a lot different than the type of worrying that he was currently trying, and failing, to prevent Nilay from experiencing, but he appreciated the writer’s attempt at advice regardless. He appreciated her listening, which was all that he really needed from the beginning — not expecting much more. 

The mention of his bandmates caused him to duck his head, quietly admitting, “It’s - It’s not, no. It’s not easy. They’re not particularly … big fans of me, anymore. I guess I can put it that way.” He didn’t have to say much else, knowing that Phoebe — in all of her years of practice scavenging the internet for incredibly niche information — was perfectly capable of putting together some context clues. She knew what happened without him having to even mention it. “But I don’t really want to, um — get into all of that, really. I think I’ve … reached my limit, so to speak. We can move onto something else.” He tapped his pen against the desk, looking back up at Phoebe across from him with a genuine smile. “Thank you, though, Phoebe. I mean it. You're a wonderful listener.”

Elijah was considerably older than Phoebe — at least old enough to have more experience on life than her — so she didn’t know at what point her advice would no longer be deemed useful, and she would seem as more of an annoyance. His stumbling over words when he mentioned his reasoning for not involving Nilay, sent a warning bell to her head and she couldn’t help but ‘hum’ in disagreement. 

“I think couples tend to worry about each other no matter what, Eli. The other night, Foster had to calm me down because he was telling me a story about one of his line cooks having an attitude with him and I wanted to drive to that guy’s house and give him attitude right back,” She huffed out a laugh, “And he never says it but I’m pretty sure if I let him, Deb would have a rather nasty fall down the stairs.” They weren’t the same thing to what Elijah was discussing, but mild examples that when you were with someone, caring just came with the territory, and you were willing to eliminate any harm or upset that came with them.

She let out a breath of relief when Eli assured her he didn’t want to hurt himself, feeling every atom that made up of her ease up. “Sad, old man band stuff is still important. I…I know Antonio Beltran is in town.” She mentioned softly, “And with Roman, like, owning a store here, it can’t be easy.”