He stepped into the room, holding on to Vanessa’s hand, and saw Callie at once. She looked expectantly past him hoping to get a glimpse of Frank, and looked perplexed when she didn’t see him. "Hi, Joe," she said pleasantly. "Where’s Frank?"

Joe paused. He could lie to her, but that normally came back to bite him, somehow, when he did that. He could tell her the truth, but he didn’t want to hurt her. So, he decided to be selectively honest, a term he often used when he wanted to tell the truth, but not the whole truth. So help me God, he added dryly to himself. "Um… Frank’s not here," he said vaguely.

"I see that, Joe. That’s why I asked, believe it or not," she said with a smile.

"Uh, well, what happened was that we went on the tour this morning."

"How was it?" Callie asked. She was grateful that Joe had volunteered to go with Frank that morning. Now, she was looking forward to the nice, romantic day that Frank had promised her. They were going to spend it together, and Joe and Vanessa would be on their own as well. Although Callie loved spending time with them, she longed to be with Frank alone for a little while. It seemed like each day of the summer was slipping away so quickly before they would have to go to college. She smiled as she thought about their day.

"It was…interesting," Joe said. "Um, Frank didn’t call you?"

"No," Callie said, beginning to suspect something.

I can’t believe you, Frank. How could you not call her? Joe shook off the thought. Frank had really put him in a tough one this time. Finally, Joe relented. "Well, we stumbled across a bit of a mystery, Cal." With that, he went on to tell Callie and Vanessa about the odd robbery that had taken place earlier in the week. He finished off his last sentence as tactfully as possible. "SO, Jenna wanted to look into this alone, but … um… rather than have her do that, Frank decided to help her out. He said he was REALLY sorry, and I am SURE that he’ll be back soon. You know Frank," Joe said nervously. "He always wants to help people out."

Joe watched as Vanessa remained uncharacteristically silent, and the smile fell from Callie’s face.

"Oh," she said, quietly.

Joe felt terribly. "Callie, look. I’m sure nothing is going on." Joe said that emphatically, hoping to convince himself of its veracity. "He just- well- loves mysteries, and he wanted to see if this was one."

Callie felt like crying, but was proud of herself for keeping her composure. She even managed to hold back the tears from her eyes. "YOU like mysteries, Joe. Is there a reason you didn’t want to help?" she asked.

Joe replied, "Because I honestly don’t think there IS one. Frank, though, likes to cover all the angles," he reminded her.

"I’ll bet," Vanessa muttered quietly to herself, but stopped when she noticed that Joe was staring at her.

Callie was quiet for a minute, and Joe sat next to her on the bed, wrapping an arm around her. Giving her a quick squeeze, he said to her, ‘Come on, Cal! Let’s you, me,

and Vanessa spend the day together. We’ll have fun!"

"Definitely!" Vanessa chimed in, sitting on the other side of Callie.

Callie closed her eyes for a second, grateful to have such kind friends. But, if there was one thing she hated, and always had, it was pity. She decided what she should do. "No way, guys!" she said with a smile. "This is your little romantic rendezvous! A third wheel is not welcome!"

"Callie," Joe continued. "How many times was I a third wheel to you and Frank over the years? My theory is it’s all about the third wheel. Really, it’s the secret to everything," he joked, trying to make her feel better.

"Nope!" Callie said, keeping up the optimistic front. She gave Vanessa a quick kiss on the cheek and then Joe one. "Thanks, anyway, buddies!" she added with a small smile.

"Are you sure?" Vanessa prodded. She didn’t want to leave Callie alone.

"I am."

"Positive?" Joe asked again.

"Now, you’re driving me nuts," Callie said with a wink. "Really, I’m fine. I’m sure there’s a perfectly logical reason for Frank not calling. Don’t feel bad for me, guys. I trust Frank. You should, too. Now- get out of here!" she said with a laugh, and pointed to the door.

"You’re something else," Joe said to her, looking at Callie in admiration. If the situation was reversed, he certainly wouldn’t be happy.

"Have a good time!" she said, and gave them a wave goodbye.

After they left, though, Callie buried her face in the pillow on the bed, and softly, started to cry.

***

It was almost 5:00 before Frank and Jenna were finished going through the papers. They had only yesterday’s paper left to cover, but it appeared as though nothing out of the ordinary had occurred. Frank was feeling more and more confidant that the robbery at the National Air and Space Museum was a one time, isolated incident, despite its strange nature.

As Frank was about to head into the last few papers, he heard Jenna’s voice. "Frank?" she asked, as he turned to her. "I’m so tired. Maybe we could take a ten minute break or something?" she asked, smiling sweetly.

"Oh. Yeah, sure," Frank responded with a smile. He couldn’t help but to notice again how pretty Jenna was. There was something wild and dangerous about her, despite her sweet exterior. Frank was simultaneously curious about that and a bit afraid of it. "I guess we have been working pretty long hours," he said to her. "The good news is that I think it’s not all that big of a mystery after all! You can rest easy now."

"Yeah- that’s great," she said hurriedly. "Frank- can I ask you a personal question?"

Frank raised an eyebrow. This was a little unusual. Still, something about her made him want to get to know her better. "Sure- within all laws of decency and sanity," he added with a laugh.

"How long have you and Callie been together?"

Frank was a little taken aback. That had NOT been what he had been expecting to hear. He finally collected himself. "Um, about 4 years. Why?"

"Wow," Jenna said with a sigh. "That’s a long time! Don’t you ever get bored?"

Frank slapped his forehead. "Ugh," he groaned. "Callie! I totally forgot to call her! She’s going to kill me!" He reached for his cell phone, but Jenna grabbed it from his hand.

"Don’t you think at this point it would be better if you talked to her in person?" Jenna asked. With a sigh, Frank realized she was probably right. He felt awful, but at this point an impersonal telephone call might do more harm than good. "Yeah, maybe…" he murmured.

"So, Frank- do you?"

"Do I what?" Frank asked her.

"Get bored? I mean, don’t you want to see what else is out there?" she asked.

"No," Frank replied. "You know, you sound just like my little brother used to. Too many women, not enough time, he used to say! But he found Vanessa. AND I have Callie. You know, when you love someone, you WANT to spend time with that person."

"I guess," Jenna said with a small pout. "But is Callie really your type? I have my doubts."

"What’s that’s supposed to mean?" Frank asked, feeling defensive of his girlfriend.

"Nothing, really. It’s just that she’s so…. All- American, you know? The rah rah cheerleader type. Blonde, beautiful… and I bet predictable, too."

Frank felt the color rush to his face. He took a moment to calm himself before he spoke. "You know, Jenna, I don’t even think I should be having this conversation with you. You certainly don’t know Callie, so you can’t make judgements about her." He lowered his voice, as he tried to calm down. "For your information, though, in case you were curious, Callie is NOT a cheerleader; she finished in the top 5 of our class; she’s funny; she’s giving; she’s strong. And," Frank said mournfully as it dawned on him, "I should be with her right now! So- if you’ll excuse me…" He got up to leave.

Jenna caught his arm at once. "Stop, Frank- please," she begged him. "I didn’t mean to upset you! I just- like you, that’s all. I respect your relationship with your girlfriend. Please- can you give me another try?"

Frank paused. She appeared sincere enough, and he had liked her company. Slowly, he sat down next to her. "All right," he said at last. "I… I thank you for the compliment, and I like you, too. But, I LOVE Callie. There’s a big difference. Please understand that, and know that we’re very happy together."

"Understood!" Jenna said with a smile. "Friends?"

Slowly, Frank returned the smile. "Friends."

"Now, how about we check out yesterday’s paper, just in case?" she asked.

"Sure!" Frank said enthusiastically. "It never hurts to be thorough."

After several minutes of perusing the papers, Frank heard a gasp, and turned to Jenna.

"What? Did you find something?" he asked her at last.

"Yeah. Oh, Frank- look at this!"

Reading over her shoulder, Frank realized that just yesterday, The Babe Ruth Museum, located in nearby Baltimore, had been robbed. The baseball that Ruth had used to hit his last home run had been taken. From following sports, Frank knew how valuable that was.

"Look!" he said to Jenna. "It also was stolen from the basement of the museum. It had that weird word, AGIB," as well as that saying, "So Defendants Will Prevail." This time, though, it was written on an orange envelope! How can the police not catch that?!" he asked her, excitedly. "There’s definitely a pattern here."

"Maybe they didn’t know what to look for!" Jenna added enthusiastically. Caught up in the moment, she gave him a quick hug, which he didn’t mind.

"We should report this connection, at least, to the local authorities," Frank said to her.

After reluctantly agreeing to do so, Jenna promised to meet with Frank the following day to report their findings. If necessary, perhaps she could even pull some stings and get Frank and Joe, hopefully, into some of the museums for after hours stakeouts.

Frank reached the hotel a little after 6:30. He was excited to tell Joe all about the case. First, though, he decided to see if Callie was in. She was.

"Hey—can I come in?" he asked her when she answered the door. Looking at her, he noticed her pretty flowered skirt and fitted blouse, and realized, with a pang, that he had ruined her evening.

"Yeah," she said quietly, and ushered him inside.

"Callie- I’m so sorry! I totally lost track of the time. I know I messed up, really badly, and I SWEAR I’ll make it up to you. I should have called, but… I just really didn’t realize how late it had become." He tried to meet her eyes, although he was afraid of what he would see there. Much to his shock, he saw—absolutely nothing. Her face was perfectly composed.

"It’s okay," she said to him with a small smile. "It happens."

"You’re not mad?" he asked incredulously.

"No, I’m mad," she said evenly. "You SHOULD have called. But what’s the use of arguing about it now? How was your evening?"

Frank shook his head in disbelief. Callie was the most incredible woman he had ever met. He couldn’t believe that she wouldn’t make an issue of this.

"Nothing happened between us, if that’s what you’re thinking," he said, quietly.

"Did I say I was thinking that?" she asked him.

Frank was perplexed by her reaction. "No, you didn’t. But I just thought I would clear the air."

"I didn’t know it needed to be cleared."

"Oh."

"Look, Frank, I trust you, okay? I KNOW if something happened, you would tell me. I mean, if we were going to cheat on each other, we might as well break up. You’ve never given me reason to doubt you, so I won’t start now."

Frank smiled tenderly at her. "Callie, I would never cheat on you," he said, feeling a bit choked up.

"So, tell me what happened, then," she said.

Over the next twenty minutes or so, Frank told Callie all about what he had found, and how he was positive there was some sort of investigation to be done. She tried to ignore the part about Jenna apparently being intricately involved in the case.

When he was done, he looked at Callie, who had been listening intently, and appeared interested. "So…" he said at last.

"So?" Callie questioned.

"Can we be friends again?" he asked her with a smile, extending his arms.

Callie smiled for the first time as she crawled into his arms and rested her head against his shoulder. It was then that her smile disappeared. She was glad that Frank couldn’t see her face.

"I’m so sorry I hurt you," he said softly to her. "I never meant to."

At the same time, Callie immediately picked up on the scent of Jenna’s perfume, which, unbeknownst to her, Jenna had inadvertently rubbed off unto Frank’s shirt from the hug.

"I know," she whispered back to him, holding back tears. The truth was, she didn’t know anything anymore…

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