"I am saying that she has a boyfriend," Francisca said loudly as she sat back down at the table with her glass of water in her hand.

They all groaned at this. Francisca would just not give this up. No, Ziva having a boyfriend was not the reason she kept on skipping games. Sure, one or two games, yes. But the number she had been missing recently with no real explanation? No way.

And yes, they were gossiping about their friend when she was not there. She had given them good reason to, after all, acting all strange the past couple of weeks. That and they really had nothing else to talk about - they had had a lot more frequent Scrabble nights than usually recently so they had been seeing each other a lot. Maybe too much.

"Ziva would tell us," Raphael said confidently, putting down his letters to make 'Hater'.

"Ziva is a very private person," Lucas disagreed. "And that is not a word."

"Of course, it is. You are always hearing about these people who hate everything on the Internet. I, myself, have haters, you know."

"Critics of the fashion brand you design for are not haters, Raphael," Amelia said tiredly.

She did not need to hear that rant again. People were allowed to dislike a certain look or style, that didn't make them "haters". Oh, how she hated that word. It was so cringey.

"Of course, they are! They hate my work therefore they are haters."

"Pretty sure that that's not how the word is supposed to work."

Raphael opened his mouth to further argue his point only to be cut off by Francisca.

"So, Ziva's boyfriend."

"She doesn't have one, Francisca." Amelia said again.

"Of course, she does. Why else would she be skipping so many games with us?"

"Well, there's work, having other friends, being ill," Amelia listed off on her fingers.

But Francisca just brushed all of those aside.

"That is just not it."

"It could be."

"But it is not because that would make me wrong."

"You can be wrong sometimes, you know," Lucas said in an amused voice.

Francisca put her nose up in the air. "I am never wrong."

"What about that time you thought-"

"Never!" She said sharply, wagging a finger in his face. "I am never wrong."

"Okay," Lucas said meekly.

Raphael and Amelia hid their mirth behind their hands as Francisca gave them all an incredibly smug look.

"Anyway," Amelia said before more arguing could happen. "Boyfriend or not, she has had a lot happening in the past few weeks. I think she is allowed to miss a few games."

Or even months. And Amelia suspected that what Ziva had shared was not the half of it. You didn't get those far-sighted stares and dark circles around your eyes from a few tough cases, did you? Not to mention the snappiness. There was definitely something more going on there but Amelia felt like she couldn't pry. As much as they hung out with each other, she would be the first to admit that she didn't know Ziva that well. And she was pretty sure that was intentional on Ziva's part.

There were murmurs of agreement from everyone except Francisca.

"No, no, no," Francisca insisted. "She definitely has a boyfriend."

"She said that she didn't have a boyfriend," Amelia reminded her.

Because she definitely recalled Ziva very vehemently saying that she did not. Francisca made an impatient noise and waved her hands at her.

"No, she said that she was not dating that handsome partner of hers."

Amelia's eyebrows shot up into her head. "Tony?"

"Yes. Him. She said she was not dating him. That does not mean that she does not have a boyfriend."

Amelia opened her mouth to argue about that but closed it again. Francisca did have a point after all. And Francisca knew it. Drat.

"You, see?" she said smugly.

"It is not any of our business," Lucas told them. "Can we please play?"

"We are playing," Amelia said a put down an 'e' and a 'd' to make 'listed'. "See? What does that make me now?"

"Too slowly," Lucas complained.

"And you are still last," Raphael informed her.

"Seriously?"

"Yes, we are playing too slowly."

Amelia gave the German an extremely unimpressed look. "I meant am I seriously still last."

"Oh. Then yes."

"You aren't getting any better at this game," Francisca observed.

"I am. It's just so are you lot as well."

"I shall take that as a compliment," Lucas replied, looking very grateful that he could now take his turn. "Yes, that puts me first now."

Raphael pulled a face. It was he who Lucas had knocked back down to second.

"Only by eight points."

"That still makes me first by eight points."

"Not for long," Francisca told them.

The two men looked at each other and then burst out into laughter.

"Francisca, you are no threat. You are twenty-eight points behind."

"I can still win."

Amelia frowned at the board. Well, Francisca had a better chance than she did at winning.

"The tiles are rigged," she announced.

"You said it late, this game," Raphael told her.

"Oh, shut up."

"Can we get back to Ziva's boyfriend?"

"You mean the one that doesn't exist?"

"That you think doesn't exist," Francisca corrected.

Amelia sighed heavily, giving in. Okay, fine. Ziva probably had a boyfriend. She could at least play along with Francisca, that's what she obviously wanted. Francisca gave her a pleased look.

"I wonder if he is from Israel like her or it is someone from America," Francisca mused.

"Would she not prefer to be with someone from her own country? She goes back to Israel a lot."

"She works for the Israeli government," Lucas pointed out. "And is your wife French?"

"No. Fair point."

"We are not doing this," Amelia said half-heartedly.

Hey, someone had to say it. And this way she could say she had been against talking about it if Ziva ever found out.

"Maybe he is Arab and that is why she doesn't talk about him? Would her family look down on someone like that?" Raphael threw out there.

"She gets on fine with Fakhir," Amelia said, joining in.

If you couldn't beat them, you may as well join them.

"But maybe her family?"

"Maybe he's also a spy," Raphael said excitedly.

"Ziva is not a spy."