I considered the terrarium. I still loved it, but Ros was right; it was expensive. I had a little money—my parents had given me some before I left—but it wasn’t like I was making bank at the internship. Even so, I would have willingly handed over all my money if it meant I could look into that terrarium every night. But Ros’s indifference had poked a hole in my enthusiasm. When they looked at the green of the stained-glass window, they didn’t see the same wondrous thing that I saw.

“I’ll think about it,” I said to Jess.

“No problem,” Jess said. The bouquet she was working on was stupidly gorgeous, a brilliant array of hot oranges and pinks. “I can put it back for you. Don’t worry about it.”

We left the store empty-handed, strolling slowly down the sidewalk.

“I hope I get that job,” Ros said.

“Don’t be disappointed if you don’t,” I said.

“Why would you say that?” Ros said, stopping suddenly in their tracks. “Don’t you want me to get it?”

“Of course I want you to get it,” I lied, and my voice sounded stringy and thin.

“It sounds like you’re rooting against me,” Ros said.

“I’m not,” I said, even though of course I was rooting against them. I didn’t want them to get the job. I didn’t want them to spend more time with Jess Orlando. My crush on Ros often made me a bad friend, and the ugly truth was I was so afraid of losing them—to Jess, or to anyone—that I wasn’t being the sort of friend Ros needed.

“Should we get ice cream, or…?”

“Sure.” Ros shrugged. “Ice cream sounds fine. Maybe we’ll run into Oliver Teller.”

We walked up the street, and I babbled on and on about how good this ice cream place was supposed to be—I’d read all about it back home—how they partnered with a local dairy, how they’d gotten written up in so many magazines, how their waffle cones were not to be missed. Ros nodded, half listening to my ice cream spiel, but it didn’t take a rocket scientist to sense that they were elsewhere. They’d left a piece of themselves in the Hidden Fern, with Jess Orlando and her fern spores, and there was nothing I could do or say to bring them back to me.