- - - - - - SEPTEMBER 2, 2023 - - - - -
St. Petersburg, Florida 6:30 p.m.
"AM I... INTERRUPTING something or can I come in?" Ivan asked.
"No," blurted Theo and June together.
"You can come in," June clarified.
"Coming in," said Ivan, making a show of peeking around the door before opening it all the way. "A little birdie warned me the two of you might have a bit of a situationship."
"What?" Theo asked.
"We don't have much of an anything-ship," said June, "unless you count when we pretend." The words came out of her mouth before she could stop them, like the fizz on a shaken can of soda. Theo winced like he'd been burned.
"Ooookay," said Ivan, leaning against the door frame. "I'm getting the vibe that I shouldn't have said anything, so I'll get to the point. With the help of my," he coughed, "good friend Bethany, the two of you will be able to enter headquarters."
"When is our meeting?" Theo's voice was hollow.
"That's the thing," said Ivan. "You don't exactly have one."
"Uh, what?" June asked. "I thought that was the whole purpose of getting us in."
"It is, which is why we'll just have to get creative," Ivan explained. "Bethany said she can get you as high up as possible, but her clearance only goes so far. Once you're in, you'll have to figure out the rest yourselves."
"How are we supposed to do that?" Theo asked.
"From what I heard from the others, the two of you supposedly have good chemistry. Use it." June suddenly became laser-focused on digging a line in the carpet with her toe to avoid the feel of Theo's gaze on her. They may have had chemistry until she'd gone and opened her big mouth. "Your flight leaves tomorrow morning."
June didn't move until long after Ivan and Theo left the room and the sun started to set. The sound of her stomach grumbling shook her out of her thoughts long enough for her to stand, though she paused again with a hand on the doorknob. She needed to face Theo and what she'd said, but how? And how on earth were they supposed to make their situation seem important enough to earn 10 minutes with the head of the FBI?
Finally, she found the strength to push down on the door handle and make her way into the kitchen. It was connected to the living room, but the only sign that Theo had been there was a tousled blanket and a half-empty glass of water. Judging by the light shining underneath an adjacent door, Theo was freshening up. June released a small sigh of relief and tugged on the door to the fridge. She wasn't sure she'd ever be ready to face him again.
Ivan's fridge looked about how June expected it to. She imagined it looked much better when Corinna and Knight were around, but unless their dinners usually consisted of several boxes of pizza, Ivan was clearly living the bachelor pad lifestyle while they were away.
June pulled a piece of pizza out of one of the boxes and was nibbling on it when she caught a glimpse of a landline phone sitting on the kitchen island.
At AIMA, all personal cell phones were confiscated to protect the security of the school. All parents and students knew this rule, and not having a phone didn't make too much of a difference when time travel was part of your curriculum and both of your parents were dead. Nevertheless, standing alone in Ivan's kitchen with nothing but her thoughts, she'd never felt more homesick.
June slowly walked over to the phone like it would jump out and attack her at any moment. Part of her wondered if it even worked. She hadn't seen a landline phone like this in years. Why did Ivan have one?
Upon closer inspection, the phone was wireless, connected to a charging port that needed an outlet. It let out a soft beep as she disconnected it from the port, though the battery on the screen appeared to be fully charged. June stared at the buttons so long that the phone's tiny screen dimmed. When it sounded like Theo was getting ready to exit the bathroom, June scurried back to her room, phone clutched tightly in her fist.
Safely behind a closed door once again, June didn't hesitate any longer.
"Hello?" The voice on the other end of the phone filled June with an unexpected wave of calm.
"Aunt Tessa?"
"Junebug?"
Just hearing her aunt say her childhood nickname was enough to send all of her emotions spilling out of whatever mental dam had been holding them in. Before she knew it, she was sobbing, hot tears spilling onto her cheeks.
"June, honey, are you okay?"
"I... I don't think so," June blubbered. "I think I've just messed everything up."
"Shh," cooed Aunt Tessa. "It's okay, Juney, just try to breathe. In. Out. In. Out. What happened?"
"There's this guy," said June after a deep breath in. "I've liked him for probably as long as I can remember but he's been giving me mixed signals for weeks. Some days, I'm convinced he feels the same way and then others he's a giant question mark. I think it finally got to me because I just said something I really regret."
"Hmm," hummed her aunt. "Does this guy know you like him?"
"Probably, which makes it even more embarrassing. Everyone seems to know."
"What's stopping you from talking to him about it?"
"We're supposed to go on this top-secret mission tomorrow and I don't want to complicate things or lose him as a friend."
"I see," said Tessa. "Here's what I learned when I met your uncle. Men act stupid, but they're far more intuitive than you might think. They are fixers, not validators. There's a possibility that Theo knows how you feel and may even feel the same way but is more focused on how to fix it than figuring out how to articulate how he feels. Does that make sense?"
"Honestly, no," admitted June.
"Okay, what is this boy's name?"
"Theo."
"Have you and Theo shared any intimate moments yet that might have warranted a follow-up conversation about your feelings?"
"We kissed once," said June, unsure how many details she could give while still maintaining the secrecy of the mission. "But we had to convince someone we were in a relationship so I, uh, told him to."
"Hell yeah, Juney," said Aunt Tessa. "Look at you going after what you want. What was his immediate reaction to it?"
As much as June would have liked to say her memory was fuzzy from that night, she'd remembered every detail. "He said he hoped it was okay."
"See? There it is."
"There what is?"
"That's his 'fix-it Felix' attitude coming out. Instead of telling you that he enjoyed it or how it made him feel, he turned the tables on you to make sure that he hadn't done anything wrong."
"Oh," said June. "That might explain a conversation we had not that long ago. He wanted to know what he did to upset me and how to make it better."
"Exactly," confirmed Aunt Tessa. "Guys tend to believe that sharing their feelings means that they are then responsible for your reaction to it. So, they keep it to themselves and go into damage-control mode. If he kissed you, there is a very real chance he does like you but is hiding his emotions about it because he is nervous about how it will make you feel."
"What do I do?" June asked. What her aunt was saying did make sense, but what if the reason Theo wasn't sharing his feelings was because he didn't want her to be upset when he told her he didn't like her back?
"I know it's scary, but you need to take some initiative on this one. It sounds like the ball is in your court, so you need to go to him and tell him how you feel. Reassure him that you value his point of view and need some straightforward answers about where he sees himself in your life, whether that be as a friend or something more."
"What if he doesn't even want to be friends after what I said?"
"What did you say?"
"He made a comment about how we could just pretend to be in a relationship again in a worst-case scenario. One of my, uh, teachers said they'd heard we were a thing and I said I didn't think we were much of anything unless it was fake." The words stung as they left June's mouth, even though she was leaving most of the context details out. If her aunt knew they'd kissed to save themselves from Jack the Ripper, she likely would have had a heart attack.
"Oh, Junebug," her aunt sighed.
"I know," said June. "I ruined it."
"I remember when I was this smitten over someone. You didn't ruin anything; you just made a mistake. A mistake that, if fixed, might leave you happier than ever before."
"Okay," June sighed. "I'll talk to him."
"Good. Is there anything else going on? I didn't think you were allowed to call me during the school year."
"Technically not," said June. "I'm in a little bit of a... unique situation right now."
"Are you okay?"
June chewed on her bottom lip. "I think so."
"Anything I should be worried about?"
While June appreciated her aunt's desire to help, there was nothing she could do aside from what she'd already done: help June out with her boy problems. And if there was anything she'd learned from that part of the conversation... "I think this is something I need to figure out on my own."
"I'm always here for you, Junebug. Stay safe."
June took a deep breath after the phone call ended. She hadn't realized how much she'd needed that conversation, how much she'd needed to receive some sense of validation that she wasn't losing her mind over something silly. But if she'd learned anything from Corinna, Knight, Landon, and Rowan—hell, even Bonnie and Clyde—it was that love wasn't silly.
June could no longer run from the fact that she loved Theo. It had finally caught up to her and she needed to tell him before they ran headfirst into a mission where they needed to have each other's backs. Even if it ruined everything, at least June could say she'd tried.
- - - - - - SEPTEMBER 2, 2023 - - - - -
St. Petersburg, Florida 10:30 p.m.
"THERE BETTER BE a fantastic reason for you calling so late, Martin," grumbled Paul. The last thing he wanted to spend his evening doing was answering another dumb question from his colleague.
"We have a situation," Dr. French barked.
"What kind of situation?"
"I was completing my inspection and noticed that the time capsule's charging light was on."
Paul scraped a hand across his face. It felt like every conversation he'd had lately was costing him thousands of brain cells. "So?"
"The time capsule shouldn't need to recharge until our field operatives have returned. Its battery can withstand two time-jumps before its 48-hour recharge period."
Paul sat up in his armchair. "What are you saying?"
"I'm saying that I think the field operatives may have returned to the 21st century. Have you been watching the cameras?"
"Of course I've been watching the cameras, I haven't left my desk hardly at all unless—" Paul's words died in his throat. Since there was no way the agents could predict when he used the facilities, their only opportunity would have been... "No."
"Sir?"
"The boy, Simon, called me out of my office the other day claiming the vending machine was broken."
"You mean Silas?"
"Whatever. Martin, how sure are you that this happened?"
"Relatively positive. I mean, their Travel bands aren't even connected anymore."
"Dammit!" Paul stood up and chucked a nearby throw pillow at his TV.
"What should I do, sir?" Martin asked. His voice had gone from stern to uneasy. He should have been since he was certainly getting fired once the dust settled.
"You should have been doing your damn job and keeping an eye on them from the beginning," hissed Paul. "Find them. Hell, find the other two and get them to talk. We need to figure out what their plan is."
"Yes, sir."
"How long does the time capsule have left to charge?"
"40 hours. What are you going to do?"
The field operatives had returned almost a full eight hours ago. What did they think they were doing? Paul paced back and forth in his living room, searching his brain desperately for a solution. So what if they didn't want to carry out the mission? It hardly mattered as long as somebody did.
"I'm going to the 19th century."