“You could have gotten lucky, and they had another woman by the name of Jane.” He looked at me like I was stupid.

“That would be some coincidence,” Aiden said, wiping his mouth.

“I asked for her by her full name. Like Aiden said, it would be a huge coincidence that another Jane Ramos would be in the hotel I called,” I said, finishing up my sandwich.

“Ok, let’s say it’s her, what do we do?” Nathan’s mouth was full again.

“Have you called again?” Aiden asked, putting his plate down.

“No, but I left a message. I asked the front desk woman to give her a message for me.” I leaned back on the sofa.

“What did you say?” Nathan took the last bite of his sandwich, downing it with water.

“I told her I loved her, we loved her, and to call us back,” I said, confidently.

“That’s a little presumptuous, Cal,” Nathan spat out. “You can’t speak for all of us.”

“Didn’t you tell me you loved her just last week?” Aiden questioned him.

“Yeah, but… you can’t just take that away from me. I swear, Cal, all you do is shit on yourself. You always put Cal first, and I knew you only said that because you thought that would get her to call us back.” He raised his voice.

“Look, I was … ”

“Fuck you, Cal,” he interrupted me. “I’m so sick and tired of you fucking it up for us.” He got up, walking to the other side of the coffee table.

“I didn’t know she was going to walk in on Aiden and me talking. I was fucking talking in confidence to a friend. I was telling him what I was worried about, what was going through my mind, and you’re going to fucking fault me for that?” I said, standing up too.

“Why did you even say that?” he snapped.

“I was fucking scared, Nathan.” I raised my voice. “For someone who is always saying I’m socially inept, you sure are making me feel like shit for voicing my thoughts and saying how I feel.”

“Guys, we aren’t going to solve anything by yelling at each other.” Aiden got up, too.

“Oh yeah, you always take his fucking side, Aiden,” Nathan snarled at him. “Like last time you took his side, too. Now, because you guys are fucking idiots, she won’t fucking talk to us. It has been a week and a half with no word from her.”

“I’m not taking anyone’s side, I’m just saying arguing isn’t going to make anything better. Do you think I want to be wasting time playing referee while we could fly to Dallas and try to get her to talk to us?”