Thanks for the lovely reviews, everyone! If you haven't read TSFT, again, there aren't really any spoilers in this chapter. I can sort of see a hint of one, but it's nothing that would ruin anything at all. Thanks for reading this far, and please read, enjoy, and review!

March, 1895

"At least tell me why," I say with a sigh, staring at Felicity's back as she stares across the park. It's cold out and her shawl is wrapped snugly across her shoulders, yet still there is that hint of something attractive and supple beneath. She moves her arms this way and that as she ignores me completely and waves ardently at a beautiful girl on horseback who laughs with the other girls near her. The girl notices Felicity and waves back and in the look that she throws her, I know that this girl must be Pippa.

Annoyed at being displaced, I roll my eyes and make my way closer to Felicity. "Just tell me why. That's all I ask," I say from over her shoulder. She puts her arm down, but from this angle I can still see the loving smile on her face as Pippa rides off. The girls she races with all have a competitive look in their eyes, but she just seems happy to be there.

"Why?" Felicity asks, never taking her eyes off of the race. "Why must I tell you? Can't you take no for an answer?" I think that she wants me to respond, but she continues speaking. "Not every girl you come across is going to want you, you know."

I glare at her shoulder, at the girl who has just won the race. In a minute she's going to come over here to talk to Felicity, and I just can't handle that right now. I need an explanation and I need one now. "I don't care about every girl I come across," I say rather harshly, stepping away from behind her and standing directly in front of her so that her view of that beloved friend of hers is obscured. "I don't care what their explanations are. I just want yours."

Felicity's smile falters for a bit, and when it returns it is not as it usually is. Her passion is missing. There is no twinkle in her eye, no smirk playing across her lips, just a silly little smile. "I have no explanation," she finally says. The smile is not evident in her voice, and now I know for sure that it's a false one. "I just…"

She trails off and I'm left hanging on a thread. She's not dangling me on purpose like she normally does. Her eyes don't wander to Pippa, who is surely approaching. Her eyes meet mine, and there's something sad in them. Something I can't quite capture and don't know if I want to.

"Look, Simon," she finally spits, shaking her had and turning to look beyond me. "If you didn't want your intentions shot down on Easter Sunday, then you shouldn't have brought them up." She steps to the side and in a moment her beautiful friend is in her arms, laughing merrily.

"I've never been good with horses," Pippa says with a light laugh in her voice, not even acknowledging me. She's lost in her own little world with Felicity. "Oh, but it was so much fun!"

I wander away, off to find my family, or someone, anyone who isn't Felicity. It's not that she's broken my heart; she's just left me rather annoyed. Have I ever been spurned before? I think back, and am really not sure. It would seem that only Felicity has ever spurned me, and multiple times, at that.

But I've turned her down numerous times, as well, and I'll do it again and again and again, just as she shall do to me. It will be a never-ending cycle. It's always been this way. Normally I'd smile and laugh at this. I like our relationship—the constant pushing and pulling, saying never while meaning always and yes while meaning no.

I don't mean to, but I send Felicity a backwards, wistful glance. I'm not sure if I'm surprised to see that she has been looking at me for quite some time now by the way her eyes are fixated. Suddenly, I understand that sad look on her face, and that feeling in the pit of my stomach. I'm just not happy with this never-ending cycle anymore, and it would seem that neither is she.