Indiana waited outside the women’s staff cabin.

He knew Nikki was inside, but there were so many women in there, it didn’t seem right to knock on the door and wake them.

Instead, he paced between the door and the woods.

It was so early the sounds of the communal shower hadn’t begun yet. Normally, the big staff cabins were alive with laughter and voices. But now it was eerily quiet.

To stay calm, Indiana ran through the complete works of William Shakespeare in his head while he paced.

The first time Indy had read the complete works of William Shakespeare he had been more worried about content than tone. This time he found himself trying to understand the details.

What made The Merchant of Venice a comedy and Romeo and Juliet a tragedy? This was not a question he had posed to himself on first reading.

But now that his human sensibilities were heightened, Indiana realized that the tone of the plays did not define them.

Merchant with its heavy speeches was called a comedy.

And Romeo and Juliet, in spite of the giddy hilarity of characters like Juliet’s nurse, was a tragedy.

And so, perhaps it should not be quite so unthinkable that in spite of their light-hearted summer, Indiana and Nikki’s romance could be a tragedy after all.

Indiana’s chest was hollow and sore, as if he had wrenched his own heart from its place.

She was betraying him, and his brothers, and their brothers and benefactors back in Stargazer.

He had seen the evidence back at the pavilion.

Yet he hadn’t fully accepted it. He couldn’t really believe that she would do anything to harm him.

And even now that he knew it for sure, some part of him was already forgiving her.

She was a journalist, and he was beginning to understand that digging for the truth was part of who she was. It had been chillingly naive of him not to realize her real purpose the moment she had revealed her career.

And besides, her betrayal was nothing compared to his own treachery.

Because he wasn’t there to accuse her.

Indiana had come to declare his love for Nikki. To beg for her hand, in spite of all she had done.

Surely it was worse for him to betray his own brothers than it was for her to betray them.

But this logic was getting him nowhere, so he returned to Coriolanus, hoping she would come out soon.

“Oh, hey there,” said a soft voice. “You surprised me.”

He turned to see Denise, one of the lifeguards.

“Hi,” he said, with what he hoped was a normal smile, and not the grimace of a desperate man. “I’m just waiting for Nikki.”

“Isn’t she up in the senior cabin?” Denise asked.

“No, I think she’s here now,” he said. He didn’t have the heart to tell her that Nikki had been kicked out of the other cabin by her roommates.

“Let me go look,” she said, and went back in before he could stop her.

A moment later Nikki emerged, looking exhausted but hopeful.

His mind instantly memorized each facet of her appearance. One side of her curls was pressed flat against her cheek. The other side was as springy as usual. There were lavender circles under each of her eyes and she wore the same clothes she’d had on yesterday.

She was exquisite.

“Nikki,” he said.

But as soon as she saw it was him her expression turned woebegone.

“Leave me alone,” she said, her voice as dry as sand. “Haven’t you done enough?”

“Nikki, listen,” he began, unsure what it was he was supposed to have done, but certain he could get to the bottom of the misunderstanding through careful conversation. This was not one of Shakespeare’s many plays. People didn’t just make grand declarations and then storm off without an explanation.

“I don’t ever want to see you again,” she said.

Before he could process her words she had already gone back inside, the door closing firmly behind her.

Indiana stood there a bit longer. Maybe Mr. Shakespeare had a better handle on the human way of things than Indy after all.

Resolved, he headed to the check-in desk of the lodge for a pen and paper.