"Admit it."

Monday morning, and Nancy was running late. Bess, who had slept through at least half of her morning undergraduate classes, was awake, had already finished her cereal, and looked way too damn chipper for Nancy's mood.

"Admit what." Nancy tapped her toe as she waited for the bagel to pop up.

"That it affected you when you saw Ned sitting on the couch next to me last night."

Nancy rolled her eyes, the mental clouds going a few shades darker. "Bess, I have a boyfriend," she said, repeated, in what seemed to be the endless litany since Frank had called and apologized and promised to make up for the fact that he was missing her twenty-first birthday. "Do I think Ned's cute, and you should already start naming the children you'll eventually have? Sure. Yes. Go for it. You have my blessing. I like him a little better than Kent, even."

"So you had a good weekend in the mountains with Frank."

Bess knew the answer to that. Bess had to know the answer to that. Nancy tamped down her annoyance before answering, "It was great, until work called."

Not that she had expected anything different. Even though she'd figured out that she could take Monday off, Frank had encouraged her not to give up her original Sunday afternoon flight home. And she hadn't. And now she was here, on Monday morning, instead of sleeping in a tent on the hard ground with no coffee waiting for her.

"Great."

"Okay, it kind of sucked," Nancy said, finding a knife in the drawer and slamming it back into the cabinet. The bagel popped up and she hissed as it burned the tips of her fingers. "I mean-- work calls him on Saturday night. Saturday fucking night. He can't get a flight out-- how the hell did he even get a cell signal out there? And why didn't he turn the fucking cell phone off? I had mine off. I had mine off until he drops me off at the airport on Sunday morning with a kiss and a promise that next time it'll be better, but, I mean-- this is the most time we've spent together since-- when? I have no idea."

"His birthday two years ago," Bess supplied helpfully.

"And then I come home and see you sitting on the couch with one of the two guys you're stringing along right now. So, yeah. It did affect me, a little. I guess I just wanted to walk in and yell about it for a while with you guys, and there was Ned."

"So you think I'm stringing them along."

"I didn't--" Nancy spread lowfat cream cheese on her bagel. "Not like that. I mean, you don't seem serious with either one of them yet, and they're friends so I'm sure they talk to each other, it's not like you're dating them both without either knowing..."

"Because I'm not." Bess swept the tub of cream cheese off the counter and put it back in the fridge. "I really like Kent."

"So you spend the day with Ned instead?" Nancy furiously chewed a bite of bagel. "What is he, chopped liver? Does he know that you're not the one he wants?"

"Oh, he knows," Bess said. "I'm pretty sure I'm not the one he wants, either."

George came in then from her morning run, and Nancy felt a stab of jealousy, as she did nearly every morning. George could afford to go in late. "Hey Nan, toss a bagel in for me before you go," she called just before the shower started, and Nancy saw Bess smile before she closed the front door behind her.

It had affected her, and it shouldn't have. She only realized that during lunch, while she stared at her silent cell phone and stabbed at another defenseless lettuce leaf. While she had fumed at the airport, she had made a mental list of everything, and decided that the weekend would only be a total failure if she came home and figured out that Bess had spent any part of it with Ned.

And she shouldn't have cared. Shouldn't've mattered at all. But he'd been there and her heart had sunk down to the absolute floor and then, only then, was the weekend a total failure. Not Frank's unassailable belief that he was the only one who could crack the case on the theft ring. It was a theft ring, for God's sake, not a serial killer. So another day lost meant Frank would eventually recover another set of stereo equipment. And even that hadn't been as bad as his almost knowing, before they'd even left, that spending Monday with her was out of the realm of possibility.

Which paled in comparison to seeing Bess's arm wrapped snugly around Ned's.

Fuck, she snarled to herself, dumping her unfinished tray of salad into the trash.

She hadn't told Bess that the second she'd first seen Ned, her heart had been in her throat. It was inexcusable. Because the spark of their eyes meeting was electric, the way it had almost been a long time ago, before Frank seemed to find nearly any excuse to avoid spending time with her, but stronger.

Which was wrong. She was supposed to be with Frank, practically had been since childhood; their fathers were old friends, she and Frank thought so much alike it was almost scary, and, and...

She wondered if Ned ever kissed on first dates.

"So what are we doing this weekend," Nancy asked with elaborate disinterest in her voice that night, as she served herself another helping.

"I was thinking maybe a big group of us could just go out," Bess said, her eyes sparkling. "You know. Wherever we feel like, wherever the mood takes us. Like to that club that opened a few months ago up on Fifth."

"You gonna invite Kent?"

"Probably," Bess said, her eyes sparkling. "Maybe he can bring some people along too."

George pushed her chair back and rolled her eyes. "Ned's already said he'll go, Nan," she said, shooting a look at her cousin, seemingly oblivious to the flush that began to spread up Nancy's neck. "I mean, not that you're coming to see him, anyway."

"Of course," Nancy said, shooting an unconvincing glare at Bess for a second before she gave up and joined in with their laughter.