Things had been messy and wonderful since Lewis had come back, and Cleo felt it all when she woke up each morning. This morning was no different as she continued her morning routine, waiting to hear from Rikki about what their plan was for that day. Rikki had been pretty distant from them all since the Moon Pool got its magic back, but Cleo had expected her to come back around once Bella was gone and it was no longer two couples and Rikki. Yet, instead she kept to her same schedule as usual: Tuesdays and full moons they hung out. And that was it. That was all she gave Cleo.

Cleo sighed when she had managed to finish getting ready before Rikki texted her, so instead she sent her one.

Cleo: I'll be at Rikki's. I'll be waiting

By the time she had reached the cafe she had two responses from the cafe's namesake.

Rikki: Ok.

Rikki: See you soon

Cleo smiled then. She hadn't seen Rikki since she had gone off to visit family before Bella left. It would be wonderful to see her again, maybe go for a swim with someone else again. It had been a while.

"Hey, Cleo." Zane's voice rushed past her ear as she walked into the cafe. It had only been open half an hour, and given it was a Tuesday, it was dead. This gave Zane the much needed time to clean every surface he could.

"Hey, Zane. How's it going?"

"Oh. You know. You?"

He too was distant, but polite nonetheless, these days.

"Fine. Seeing Rikki for the first time in forever. Need any help?"

He involuntarily smiled at his ex-girlfriend's name and shook his head. "You'd go all fish on me if I asked you to help out." A beat passed. "Don't worry, I'm the only one working till two."

"And no one's in the bathrooms?"

"Even if there were, 'going all fish on me' is a better saying than chicken. You have to admit."

"You have to admit what?" The voice behind her belonged to none other than the blonde haired goddess Zane couldn't stop thinking about. Her curly hair was pulled back into a single ponytail, a new look on her, and her usual colors were replaced by a white tank top and blue shorts. If Zane hadn't known any better he would have sworn the woman before him were Rikki's twin, or a failed clone.

"Rikki!" Cleo shouted instead of answering her question. She threw herself at the girl in question and hugged her tightly. Rikki's arms staying loose at her sides before she brought one up to pat Cleo on the back.

"Hey."

"How was your trip?" Cleo asked, not moving from the doorway.

"Uneventful." The blonde said blandly, unsure how to speak in the presence of her best friend and ex-boyfriend, both of which were watching her with unwavering focus.

Zane was the first to break this focus, and he went back to cleaning the grout of the countertops. "Let me know if you want anything." He said in their general direction.

Cleo dragged her to a circular booth. "Come on, tell me everything."

"There's nothing to tell, Cleo."

"Oh, come on. There's got to be something to tell. At least any close calls?"

"My Uncle runs a diner, and I worked at said diner for the entirety of my trip there, and yet, somehow, I managed to have no close calls. I think it's this cafe. It's cursed to try and expose us all."

Cleo laughed lightly. In all honestly she wanted to know about Rikki's mother, she wanted to know what she was like, she wanted to know if they looked the same, if she missed her as much as Cleo missed her own mum, and if she felt the need to tell her the truth as badly as Cleo did her own mum.

"So who did you see?" Cleo pried on.

"Friends, family. Mostly friends." Rikki said.

"Any close calls with them?"

"No, not really. It was a boring trip. Nothing much to tell."

Cleo could tell something was being left out, but she reasoned that perhaps it was Zane's presence that was causing this. "We'll talk later?"

"Yeah, sure."

"This is ridiculous."

"If you don't want to help me, then don't."

"No, because the only thing more ridiculous than this is you doing it alone."

"Then just tell your sister I'm seeing someone. It'll get back to Zane that way."

Will sighed and dropped onto the couch in his boat shed. Rikki had now explained the first part of her plan, involving his sister, to him three times. Three times. And each one made it sound more and more ridiculous than the last.

"You realize you're insane, right?"

Rikki sat on the couch next to his manspread form, trying to avoid touching his knee with her own.

"You said you wanted to help. So here we are."

Will's hair was still wet from his shower only minutes before Rikki had arrived to give him phase one of her ridiculous plan in attempts to learn if she could trust Zane. This first step was what she considered the most crucial step of all. In order to know if she could truly trust Zane, she had to know whether or not everything he was doing was all in an attempt to win her back. The simplest way to figure out if this was the case? Well to Rikki that was easy. Have his Zane-obsessed and slightly crazy sister Sophie tell Zane she was dating someone else. Obviously.

"And if anyone asks to meet this mystery boyfriend of yours?"

"Already got that covered."

"Well, you just thought of everything, didn't you, Rikki?"

She looked at him with annoyance written on her face. He had thought her crazy when she first said she wanted to test Zane like this, but now he knew she actually was crazy.

"Any specifics you want me to tell her?" He asked, deciding that the sooner he went along with it the sooner Rikki would realize that Zane didn't really care about her, and on they would all go with their lives.

The same smirk he had grown to be comforted by appear on her lips.