REVAMPED AS OF APRIL 2014

The thing about Rob Wallace was that he was the apologizer. He was the appeaser, and Carmen knew it. So, it came as no surprise that the next day, he had called and apologized for having gone into guard dog mode and spoken up when she was on the phone with Mort, and Carmen in turn conceded that she had probably over-reacted, which was as close to an apology as Rob knew he was going to get. He'd take it.

But speaking of Mort – he had failed to call again, and did not answer any of Carmen's calls. Was this serious? Was he really that upset?

After exactly five days of the mutual silent treatment, Carmen decided to at least return his clothes. She drove to his cabin – without getting lost, by the way – and left the clothes on a neatly folded pile on his porch. She made to walk away, but hesitated, then turned and knocked on his door.

"Mort," she said. "I know you're in there."

"I am. It's my house," came his voice from inside.

"Look, are you free –"

"Working unfortunately."

Carmen flinched, crossing her arms again and shaking her head. What was this? It couldn't have been jealousy, the idea of it being jealousy when they had known each other for barely a few weeks seemed preposterous. Rather than acknowledging it as a possibility, she simply… gave up.

"Alright. Well," she said, her voice stiff with clear displeasure. "Have a good one, then."

Mort - back in his tattered old bathrobe - was sitting on his couch as he listened for Carmen's car to drive away. It would have made him sound insane if he told her that what had really set him off was the fact that the unexpected interruption from Rob on the phone reminded him so much of the first time he had first suspected something from Amy. Who is that? Come back to bed, he could still clearly hear Ted saying in the background when Amy was supposedly at an art exhibition.

Mort listened intently to Carmen's stories, and he knew Rob was her best friend from work. It wasn't as though he felt like he hand any reason - or any right, for that matter - to be jealous. But it was too much of a reminder all at once, and he had just finally come to terms with the fact that maybe he was starting to get a little attached to this girl.

Attached? Oh. I think it's a little more than just attached at this point.

"That's deranged. I've known her for a matter of weeks." Mort growled through gritted teeth, reaching for the bag of Doritos he had left open on the table. "It's not like I'm - I'm-"

Well, deranged is sort of your specialty, isn't it? You're falling for her, and the sooner you admit it to yourself, the sooner -

"The sooner I can have myself admitted for some good old electric shock therapy." Mort said with a bitter laugh - both at the idea of falling for a woman again, and the fact that the familiar old voice in his head deemed it necessary to come back again. "I'm about my work now. I'm focused on my work."

You've eaten more bags of Doritos than words you've typed in the past year. That's saying something.

"Well, she doesn't see me that way, so - moot point."

You're pathetic.

"I'm practical," Mort retorted. "She's twenty-seven. She's got more going for her. She obviously hasn't shaken her mid-twenties wanderlust, and that's why she's in Tashmore Lake. You don't try to catch someone at that point in their lives - that's what went wrong with Amy and me. Besides, she's a professional, and I'm a mess."

She seems to be fine with how you look.

"She's a nice girl. I know that," Mort groaned. "But if I ran off and promised to world to every nice woman I met, I would have probably been kidnapped as a child and I wouldn't be having this conversation as a child. Actually, that doesn't sound so bad."

So you're going to pretend that she doesn't mean anything to you, and you're never going to speak to her again.

"Yes. I mean, no. I mean - will you leave?!" Mort said, grasping his hair in frustration and finally clenching his eyes shut as though to dispel the doubt being planted in his head. "Leave me alone! I can handle this!"

To say that Carmen was in a foul mood was an understatement - where did Mort get off? What excuse did he have for all of a sudden being so distant? Just because he knew that she was starting to like him as more than an acquaintance or a friend, suddenly he thought -

Carmen paused and grimaced. The thought crossed her mind that perhaps she was not as blameless as she would have liked. They had practically seen only each other, save for the occasional drive into town, for the past few weeks, and for someone in Mort's situation, she could see how maybe - maybe - she could have been a little bit more understanding.

But the problem was, apologies were not up her alley. They were two blocks down, turn left, and down a completely different alley. So, she called the one person whose apologies she knew first hand to be effective. Rob chuckled at the urgency in Carmen's tone the instant he greeted her on the phone.

"Here I thought you'd be calling in with some feedback about those layouts that I sent over," he joked. "I have half the mind to chuck them back in the art director's face. But anyway - what can I do for you?"

"This is bad."

"I'm going to need a little context if you want my help."

"It's Mort." Carmen said quickly, her voice sounding tired and exasperated. Rob gave a slightly forced chuckle and clucked his tongue, waiting for her to continue. "I - I think this might be something."

"I've heard this before," Rob said. "Random Starbucks guy. New York Public Library Guy. But you never had time for them, they never called you back - it's always been the same with you. You don't stay interested long."

"So you think I'm nuts?"

"You either get bored, or you pick the wrong ones. You've been spending time with Mort and only Mort since the day you got to Tashmore Lake, so it's obviously not the former," Rob said, treading carefully. "I'm just saying, I know you. If it's not your priorities, it's your taste. Do I need to remind you about flight attendant guy?"

"Hey. You're insulting yourself if you don't admit I've picked a good one at least once," she said, her grin crooked - she knew that Rob's expression was probably somewhat the same. "You know how that song goes, right love at the wrong time."

"Like I said. Priorities," he chuckled - the levity with which they approached conversations like this always caught others by surprise, the fact that they talked about having once been an item so casually and still remained good friends. "I'm just saying, I know I'm one to talk because I'm springing questions about work on you practically every day -"

"Literally, every day -"

"But your time out there in that cabin is supposed to be time for you, for you to get your head straight and everything, remember?" Rob asked. "And right now - maybe you're just bored. Maybe you're just not used to all of this relaxing and need something to occupy yourself. But Carmen, if the guy was pissed just to hear me on the phone, he's obviously thinking of you as more than a way to kill time. So... I don't know."

"You don't know?"

"Do you have feelings for him?" Rob asked. "I'm not asking if you're in love with him. I'm just asking - do you feel something for him? Because that's the only thing that matters."

Carmen was quiet - quite frankly, she was tempted to hang up because a part of her could not stand when Rob was right, and she didn't have the answer.

"Do you really think that he's interested in me like that?" Carmen asked hesitantly - and the fact that she cared was answer enough to Rob's question. "He just came out of something huge. He was married. He was with a woman for ten years -"

"And it ended," Rob interrupted, though the tone in which he was giving advice was more abrupt, as though he were now doing so only grudgingly. "I have a meeting but - Carmen, just think about it. I'm not sure I'm the number one fan of a recluse who throws you out into a lake on your first real date, but I think I can tell a guy who's got it bad for you when I see one."

"What's that supposed to -"

But Rob had already put down the phone on his end.

Relationship advice from Robert Wallace always came with a strange sense of discomfort, despite the fact that he was the only one she trusted enough to seek it from. There were times that Carmen could tell, Rob thought it was such a waste that they didn't work out. That was why, for all his success in dating - and he had been rather successful - nothing ever lasted. He just hadn't found someone better yet. Carmen knew he would.

Nine months. She and Rob Wallace had been a couple for nine months, starting in their senior year of college, although they already started seeing each other as sophomores. It had been the longest relationship either of them had made it through thus far, and somehow - with work and the fact that they constantly disagreed and hated backing down - it simply didn't last.

Carmen remembered - they had gotten all the way to the point of 'I Love You', and she had been the one to say it first because he was dead terrified of making the move. In order to make things last, Carmen realized, they had to be your priority - and that was why they didn't last. They simply had stopped making one another a priority in each other's lives.

Maybe now, when she had finally given herself permission to cut down on her priorities, she was ready to try again with someone - and if it was going to be with anyone, maybe it was best that Mort Rainey had been the man she met. He certainly didn't ask a lot. He needed a lot, and Carmen knew it - anyone who had been through what Mort had been through was probably a pretty scared, needy person - but maybe now, she was finally at a point that she had something to offer.

Carmen decided that if she wanted to see if this could really be something, she had to be the one to make it into something. She was going to make a move.

Original A/N's

Thank you to reviewers: Jacks-Strumpet, Dawnie-7 , Kurama13, and over-dramatic-05.