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looked…different. He was dressed kinda like Julian, only you knew Julian’s clothes were designer and Rick’s clearly weren’t. Ever the cheapskate.”
    She paused, and Melody made a ‘keep going’ motion with her hand.
    “Well…he was…there was…” She let out a frustrated sigh that Melody echoed. “He was with a woman.”
    Melody’s stomach turned sour, and she dropped her fork onto her plate with a clatter. “Are you sure?” she asked again, her voice unnaturally high.
    Olivia scrunched up her face and nodded. She looked like she wanted to crawl under the table and hide from Melody’s intense stare. “I’m so sorry, Mel. I didn’t even want to tell you, but I also didn’t want you to run into him and find out on your own.”
    Melody nodded slowly. Needing something to do with her hands, she took a sip of her coffee, barely feeling the scalding liquid as it burned down her throat. “A woman. He was with a woman. We broke up, like, two seconds ago, and he’s already dating?”
    Olivia reached across the table and put a soothing hand over Melody’s, then jerked it back when Melody started to laugh. The sound was borderline maniacal. “I could have gone home last night with the hottest guy ever , but I didn’t , partly because it felt like it was too soon and I didn’t want to disrespect what Rick and I had by moving on so quickly, even if it was just meaningless sex. But then he…already…this is unbelievable!”
    “Oh god, I wish I hadn’t told you,” Olivia groaned, leaning her elbows on the table and rubbing her temples.
    “No, no, I’m glad you did. It’s fine. Really.” The nearly hysterical tone of her voice didn’t do much to convince Olivia she was fine. Seeing Olivia’s wide, worried eyes when she raised her head, Melody said, “Okay, I’m not fine, but I’ll be fine. It’s just…a shock. He really is a dick.”
    Olivia ducked her head, but Melody caught the grin she was attempting to hide.
    “I think we should go back to Atlantis tonight,” Melody said, her appetite suddenly returning. She pulled her plate toward her and dug into her pancakes with gusto.
    “Tonight?”
    “Mm-hmm. We had a blast, didn’t we? Maybe Rick will be there and I can show him that he’s not the only one moving on. Or even better, maybe Julian will be there, and I can find the courage to do what I didn’t do last night.”
    “You mean go home with him and have crazy, sweaty sex?” Olivia looked at Melody through lowered lashes, covering her smirk by stuffing a bite of pancake into her mouth.
    “Yes. Exactly.” They both knew it was a lie, but they let it go, and began planning what to wear that night.
     
    *****
     
    “My mother is driving me crazy!” Angelica said by way of greeting when Melody picked up the phone late that afternoon. “She won’t leave me alone. She keeps asking when I’m moving home, or why I can’t find a job that pays better, or why I have to live in a city like Bellevue when I could live in Kingston, or when am I going to meet a nice man. I’m losing it, Mel!”
    That was the most Melody had ever heard Angelica say at one time. She sounded frazzled, like a live wire buzzing with electricity.
    “I’m sorry, Ang,” Melody said slowly, not exactly sure how to react to the outburst. “How much longer is she staying?”
    Angelica let out a long sigh on the other end of the line. “That’s the thing. She called her boss and asked for some time off, so now she’s staying an extra night, and wants to spend Monday together before heading back to Kingston. I have this awful feeling it’s going to stretch past Monday, though. I love my mother, Mel, but there’s a reason I moved an hour away.”
    Melody thought of her own mother, less than ten minutes away. They lived in the same city but rarely saw each other lately, because Mrs. Cartwright was raising Melody’s ten-year-old niece, Ava. Melody’s older sister, Jackie, who had moved to Ottawa before Melody