Calliope gave Kathy the time capsule. She had to. There was no way she could justify holding onto something created by Kathy’s ancestor which had been found on the Standish family property. In her logical moments, she felt like she shouldn’t have taken it home in the first place. But her logical moments were growing fewer and farther between.

“Rebecca asked for daisies in the table arrangements for the Garrett wedding, not chrysanthemums,” Melody said, walking into the back room of the flower shop, where Calliope was trying to work.

“What?” She blinked at her work, at the pile of chrysanthemums she’d been trimming to go in two dozen small arrangements. “Crap,” she sighed. She gathered the russet flowers into a bunch and tossed them into the trashcan beside the table.

“Hey!” Melody snapped. “What are you doing? We can use those for something else.” She marched to the trashcan and began pulling out chrysanthemums.

Calliope didn’t answer her sister’s scolding. She scowled and stomped back to one of the glass-front refrigerators where the shop stored their flowers. Nothing was going right. She’d hated giving the time capsule to Kathy, just like she hated the way Kathy kept nattering on about mosaic backsplashes. Things with Jonathan were frustrating too. One night of mind-blowing sex, and all she’d had for the past six days were phone calls, late-night texts, and the occasional few hours ripping up linoleum or painting someone else’s kitchen. No nookie at all.

And now Melody was turning on her.

“Do you need to take a break?” her sister asked, settling the rescued chrysanthemums in a plastic vase by the sink. “Because whatever put that hideous frown on your face, it’s starting to interfere with your work.”

Calliope yanked a vase of daisies out of the fridge and slid the glass door closed so hard it rattled. “Excuse me, but what gives you the right to call me hideous?”

“Your face,” Melody said, crossing her arms. “And your attitude. What is your problem lately?”

“I don’t have a problem.” Calliope walked back to the table and plunked the vase down hard enough for the water to splash out. “Unless you’re my problem.”

“I’m definitely not your problem.” Melody narrowed her eyes. “This is all wrong. You should be floating and dippy right now, not turning into a total sourpuss. You’re dating a sweet, hunky guy, and I know you spent the night at his house last Friday.”

“Yeah, last Friday,” Calliope grumbled.

Melody let her arms drop and leaned against the table. “Is that what this is? You’re not getting enough?”

She damn sure wasn’t, but hearing it from Melody was a touch too humiliating. Calliope didn’t answer. She merely scowled at her sister.

“So booty-call him,” Melody said. “I doubt he’d mind.”

Calliope stared at her, flat as roadkill. “I’ve tried that. Both times he was at the office, working late on that stupid rocket.”

“Yeah.” Melody pushed away from the table and moved to help Calliope with the arrangements. “Will’s been working late too. Howie has them working basically around the clock to make sure the launch happens on Founder’s Day.”

The comment was an olive-branch. Calliope knew that. And yet, something about it just fanned the frustrated flames inside her. “That’s easy for you to say. Will lives with you. He’s going to come home eventually.”

Melody arched an eyebrow. “And you don’t think Jonathan will come back to you?”

The question stung. It reminded her of the first day of eighth grade. But Calliope answered, “Of course he will. We’re dating.”

And yet old, deep worry swirled up in her even as she said it aloud. Jonathan kept saying he wanted her, that he was happy to be with her. He was sure flirty enough in those precious phone conversations that were all they had. But Calliope was familiar with the pattern. People got close. They have a few laughs. Then they pulled away. It had happened with Kathy, it had happened with her other friends, and it was happening with Melody. Just when she felt like everything was perfect was usually when it all fell apart.

“Well,” Melody continued with a shrug, “I wouldn’t worry about it. You’ve only been a couple for, what, three weeks?”

“Yeah.” Calliope stabbed a daisy into the spongy, green oasis that anchored one of the table arrangements.

“So that’s a really new relationship. And everyone is super busy right now with work and Howie’s latest competition. You picked a bad time to get involved is all.”

“I what?” Whatever acceptance of the situation Calliope had been striving for collapsed. She turned to her sister and plunked a fist on her hip. “Excuse me?”

Melody let out an exasperated breath. “Don’t get snippy with me for stating the facts. There’s a lot going on for everyone right now. And I know you like to spend a lot of quality time with the people you care about, but you can’t always get what you want.”

“What’s that supposed to mean?”

“Okay, you really need to can the attitude.” Melody threw down the flower she’d been about to stick in her arrangement. “You know exactly what it means. You’re high-maintenance, Cal. And most of the time that’s fine, because usually you’re fun to be around. But right now? God! Get your head out of your ass!”

Melody stomped off, heading back to the shop’s front room. Calliope’s temper boiled over, leaving her near the edge of tears. Her sister was supposed to be her ultimate back-up, the one person she could rely on to pick her up when she was down. But no, now that she had Will, Melody didn’t need her. Well, she wasn’t going to stand for that.

She threw down her work and marched into the front of the shop, loaded for bear. “You want to talk about hideous?” she demanded. “Let’s talk about the way that you’ve completely ignored me since shacking up with Will.”

Melody had slipped behind the counter, but turned to Calliope, her brow shooting up in surprise. “You like Will.”

“That has nothing to do with it.” Calliope marched to the edge of the counter, but didn’t join her sister behind it. “Ever since you and Will—ever since all you guys—went and found someone better to spend your time with—”

Her rant was cut short as the bell over the shop’s front door jingled and none other than Jonathan walked in. He wore a light jacket over faded jeans and a t-shirt, but it was his broad grin that sucked the words and the air right out of Calliope’s lungs. All that hotness, smiling at her. Where had it been for the last week?

“What are you doing here?” she asked. The words came out laden with leftover irritation from her argument with Melody.

Jonathan blinked, his grin growing guarded. “I came to buy my girlfriend flowers.”

Melody snorted. “It’s gonna take a lot more than flowers to turn this sourpuss sweet.” She pushed away from the counter and edged out past Calliope, heading for the back room.

“Really?” Calliope called after her. “You’re gonna throw shade like that, then walk away?”

Melody didn’t answer. She disappeared around the corner, deeper into the workroom. Calliope’s frustration made her skin crawl and her eyes sting with helplessness. Caught between anger and embarrassment, she didn’t even want to look at Jonathan.

He had other ideas, though.

“Bad day?” he asked, stepping over to her and pulling her into his arms.

His large, calm presence, the firmness of his arms and chest as he held her, and his warm scent, both comforted her and came perilously close to pushing her over the edge into sobs. This was exactly what she needed, but she needed it way more than once a week.

She pulled away enough to look mournfully up at him. “Am I really your girlfriend?”

Jonathan started, shaking his head. “Of course you are.” His lips twitched into a smirk, and his gaze grew heated. “I would have thought all the things we did Friday night were proof of that.”

The pinched feeling in Calliope’s soul squeezed tighter. “But that was almost a week ago.”

She could tell he was trying not to look confused. “So?”

“So why haven’t I spent the night at your place since then, or you spent the night at mine?”

His eyes softened as if he understood. “Because of work, all the things going on right now.”

“That shouldn’t matter if we’re—” She stopped herself from saying “in love”. The realization that she kinda really did love him—way more than the way she usually felt about the guys she’d dated or just slept with to get her jollies in the past—startled her. And it made everything ache ten times as much. She could handle being brushed aside by a friend-with-benefits, but being ditched by someone she cared about?

Jonathan let out a breath and shifted so that he was resting against the edge of the counter, Calliope still held loosely in his arms. “Okay, talk to me. What’s really going on?”

“Nothing,” she said, a wave of self-consciousness hitting her. She couldn’t meet his eyes with an answer like that, so she let her shoulders sag and said, “It feels like nothing is going right in my life right now.”

“How so?” he asked.

“It’s just—” She pressed her lips shut, unable to come up with an answer that worked.

A gently-teasing grin played across his lips as he studied her. “It sucks having a beautiful home to live in, a fun job, a bunch of friends, and a super-hot, studly boyfriend, doesn’t it?”

The guilt that hit her was so powerful it sent heat rushing to her face. “And now I feel like a horrible person.”

“No, no, don’t feel like that.” He laughed gently, tilting her chin up so that she looked at him. “I was just teasing. I didn’t mean to make you feel worse. My mission in life is to make everyone feel better.”

“I’m just a hopeless case then.” He was making her feel better, though. The fact that he hadn’t cussed her out and walked off was a small miracle that put a faint smile on her face.

“No one is hopeless,” he said, giving her a quick kiss. “So what’s really eating at you?”

She caught a hint of movement from the back room as Melody moved toward the fridges. Calliope couldn’t tell if she was trying to give her and Jonathan space or if she was listening in. And she couldn’t decide which option she liked more.

“It’s just that…this isn’t the way things are supposed to be,” she said, covering both the way she felt about Jonathan and the frustration she felt over Melody’s recent behavior.

“What are things supposed to be like?” he asked.

Calliope blinked. She’d never really sat down and thought that through. “We’re supposed to be together,” she said. “Like, more often than one night a week, and not around a ton of people working on projects.”

“Okay,” he said, though Calliope couldn’t tell what he thought about it. “What else?”

She tilted her head to the side and frowned in thought. “The people I care about are not supposed to ditch me when they start dating someone.”

Jonathan hummed as though he’d connected some dots. “So you want to spend a lot more time with me, just me, but you don’t want other people in your life who start dating to abandon you.”

“And that makes me the most selfish person in the entire world,” Calliope sighed. She wasn’t so stupid that she couldn’t grasp what he’d just pointed out to her. She sighed and pulled away from him, pacing around the small space of the shop. “Okay, I get it. I’m trying to impose a double-standard on the world. I’m some sort of needy, sick attention hound.”

“Yeah, but you’re my needy, sick attention hound,” Jonathan said, pushing away from the counter and reaching for her.

She let him kiss her once before pulling away again. “It isn’t right, though,” she went on, delving into her thoughts. “What kind of person does it make me if I resent all the time the people I love spend with other people?” Jonathan opened his mouth, but she answered before he could. “It makes me a jealous bitch.”

“No, it doesn’t,” he said with a grin. Calliope couldn’t tell if he wasn’t taking her problems seriously enough or if he was simply smiling to cheer her up. “It means you’re human. You’re a human who likes other humans and wants to be with them.”

“Yeah,” she replied, brimming with uncertainty.

He caught her in a hug again. “So why don’t we get out of here and go be human and spend time with each other. Preferably sexy time. Although food time might be a good idea too.”

His humor grated up against the frustration that she was holding onto with a death-grip. “Don’t you have work?”

He shrugged. “I can spare a few hours. Do you have work?” He turned the question on her.

“I have a ton of it.”

“I got it,” Melody called from the back room, proving she was listening after all.

“She’s got it,” Jonathan repeated with a grin. “So let’s go get something to eat and then have crazy-hot sex.”

Part of Calliope wanted to be angry, but he was making that next to impossible with his sexy jokes and optimistic smile. She let go of some of her tension and leaned her head against his shoulder with an exhausted sigh.

“Promise me you won’t leave me anytime soon, okay?”

Jonathan chuckled. “Who said I was leaving you?”

“Everybody leaves,” she said, knowing full well she sounded ridiculously gloomy. “Even if they don’t physically leave. Every friend I’ve ever had checks out on me, from Kathy on.”

The way he tensed at her words was just barely noticeable. “Kathy?”

Calliope leaned back, feeling like a rag that had been rung out. “We were best friends one day, but bitter enemies the next.”

“Yeah, you told me.” He wore a curious expression.

“What’s that look for?” she asked, stepping around the corner into the back to grab her purse. She only had to nod to Melody to let her know she was leaving. Melody didn’t seem to mind.

“I just think it’s interesting, is all.”

“What’s interesting?” She walked back to him, took his hand, and drew him out of the shop to the street. The bell jingled above them as they left.

“Well, you’ve been wrapped round the axle about things lately. Your old frenemy Kathy is back in town, and you’re working on a project that will benefit her.” He shrugged. “I just wonder if there’s a connection between the two.”

Calliope let out a wry laugh and shook her head. “Try again, Mr. Psychologist. Kathy isn’t really my friend. And I was in a bad mood before she came back to town.”

“And why is that? How does that make you feel?” he asked in his best impersonation of a psychologist.

“I can tell you one thing,” she said with a wry laugh. “It doesn’t make me feel like getting naked and riding you like a prize bull, that’s for sure.”

Jonathan laughed out loud, drawing a startled smile from someone walking on the other side of the street. “Okay. Topic of conversation closed. We’ll stick to the food and sex portion of the afternoon and save the deep emotional work for later.”

Calliope laughed along with him, but underneath her smile, she shivered in fear. Because whether he knew it or not, Jonathan was right. She was going to have to dig deep and sort out her emotions if she wanted to save the relationships that mattered most to her.