The antiquified grandfather clock in the living room chimed out the hour of four as Joanna Moray - Millet listened to Daren's voice mail answer yet another call. Over the last 5 hours she'd managed to call him 9 times; 4 of those being in the last hour. This was something that she herself would normally have found obsessive, but considering she'd been waiting to start cooking lunch for him since eleven o'clock that morning, she currently felt it was justified.

Resisting the urge to shoot the messenger by sending the innocent cellphone hurtling across the room, she tossed it on the counter and began to angrily clean up the prep work from what little bits of the intended meal she'd bothered to have ready in advance. She'd known Daren long enough and put up with enough of his little vanishing acts to let herself think any plans they made were ever set in stone.

No sooner had she finished the clean up and resigned herself to eating a slice of reheated pizza from one of the many boxes in the fridge, her phone chimed to life alerting her to a text message newly received. It was Daren of course. He had an eery nack that bordered on sixth sense for knowing exactly when she'd given up, and how to magically pick that exact moment to finally get in touch.

"Sorry. Been busy. Call you later if I get time." was all the message read.

After 9 calls from her part, the simple, unconvincing apology without explanation wasn't going to cut it. Without a second thought, Joanna hit the button to call him yet again.

"Hey Babe. You get my text message?" Even in her rage, Daren's voice still sounded as smooth and comfortable as liquid chocolate on the other end of the line.

"Yeah, I got it." Joey shook her head as she reminded herself why she'd called in the first place. "What the hell, Daren? I've had everything out and ready to cook lunch since eleven. I thought you were going to call me on your way back into town so I could start cooking?"

"Jo-Jo, Babe, would you chill please? You know I can't listen to you when you yell like that." As usual, Daren's concern started and ended with the fact that she /sounded/ angry, with little to no regard as to why she was upset or how he could remedy it. "I don't see why you had everything ready to go anyway. I said I'd call /if/ I could stop over when I got back in town. I didn't realize you thought those were definite plans when you suggested it."

"Like fucking hell you didn't!" Joanna was fully shouting, fuck whether he could stand listening to her when she did or not. "I asked if you wanted to come over when you got back. You said you'd like that, and told me you'd be back around noon. When I asked if you wanted me to cook us something for lunch you said 'Yeah, sure, sounds great babe.' You never said maybe. You even told me what you wanted! How the fuck does that translate into a 'maybe if I have time' Daren?"

"Joanna, so help me, if you don't quit fucking yelling at me I'm hanging up and taking the battery out of my goddamn phone. Secondly, you're putting words in my mouth, again. I fuckign hate it when you get like this, Jo-Jo. Every time I have to go out of town for you you get all paranoid and crazy; you stop listening to what I actually say and start imagining the conversation went the way you think it should. I told you that if I would like to stop by /if/ I was going to have time, and I told you that I'd love to have chicken cordon blue /if/ I was going to be able to come down. I never said for sure that I could, or that I definitely would."

The tense silence that came next went on for an awkwardly long time as Joanna seethed. Daren finally broke it with an overly dramatic huff.

"Look, I feel bad about not being able to make it for lunch, babe, I really do, but you have got to quit vilifying me for all you fucked up emotional insecurities." And just like he knew it would, Daren's words began to turn Joanna's rage into guilt. "I'm sorry that I can't be there glued to your side 24/7/365, Joanna, but you're a grown woman, and I'm a busy guy, you have to let me do what I need to do without checking in every five fucking minutes or spending every minute with you."

"I don't fucking need you here every minute, Daren!" Joey snapped back, but already she was on the verge of tears. "I haven't seen you in two fucking weeks. And I don't want you to check in every five minutes, just call me and let me know that you aren't going to be able to make it when we have plans, or /might/ have plans or what the fuck ever."

No answer came this time. Joanna might have thought he was actually thinking about what she said and feeling guilty were it not for the familiar sound of Grand Theft Auto 5 faintly audible in the background. The fucker wasn't busy at all, he was just playing a video game.

"Well, it's almost dinner time now, and I still haven't eaten anything today. Why don't you come over in an hour or so and I'll make this for dinner instead." Even though she was still hurt and angry, Joanna did her best to sound pleasant and inviting.

"Sorry Babe, cant. I'm gonna be busy till probably midnight or later."

"I can hear that fucking game in the background, Daren! How the hell does playing a fucking video game count as busy?"

"Damnit Joanna! I'm not going to be playing a fucking game all night! I'm headed over to my mom's to have dinner with her in about 45 minutes then I'm helping her clean out the garage afterwards. Her hot water heater burst over the weekend and even though the got it fixed there's still a giant fucking mess. God forbid I just got home from eign away for 3 days and wanna blow off some fuckign steam before I do."

"Fine. Why don't I come with you?" This was turning into a song and dance Joey knew all too well; so well that she didn't even attempt to hide the smug tone of her voice.

"Jo-Jo, you know that's not a good idea. My mom is still close to my ex-wife. You know I would love to take you over there, but until she realizes that Catherine and I are never getting back together she's never going to accept me having a new girlfriend."

"Well, maybe you should finalize that divorce then. We've been together for almost three years Daren, and in that time I've met exactly 2 of your friends and none of your family. If your place wasn't such an obvious bachelor pad I'd honestly have started to wonder if you and your wife were actually separated at all!"

"You know what, I don't have time for this right now. I have to go change out of my work clothes and find my rubber boots to go wade around in a muck filled mess all night. I'll call you later Jo, maybe, if I get time." Daren emphasized the last 4 words louder than probably necessary, then hung up the phone without another word.

Joanna let loose with an enraged wail that would have been heard by the neighbors, if she had any that lived closer than 3 miles, but the 250 acres that her little cottage sat in the middle of made a nice buffer for someone as eccentric as her. This time, her phone did go flying, but she at least had control enough to send it directly into the soft cushions of the couch instead of directly against the drywall like she really wanted to.

Joey herself soon followed the phone as she dove face first into the over-stuffed cushions and began to throw a temper tantrum that would rival even the angriest child. It took less than half an hour for Joanna to cry herself into a stupor that lead to a mid afternoon nap.

Less than twenty minutes had passed before a bleary eyed Joey woke to the sound of her text message alert chiming at her yet again.

“Sorry for overreacting. Phone will be off at Mom’s, but I’ll call to see if your still up when we’re done, stop over if you are.” The message from Daren was met with an eye roll from Joey and the phones prompt and forceful return into the cushiony couch grave.

Unsure of what to do with herself, Joanna picked up the remote and began to flip listlessly through the channels. She’d never been much of one for watching television, but with her propensity to get inside her own head, having at least the basic cable stations to serve as distraction had been crucial for times when she needed to not think.

She tried to watch the travel channel at first, but all that made her want to do was pick up and leave town. Then again, maybe that wouldn’t be such a bad thing. She could work from virtually anywhere so long as she packed her laptop and a few basic instruments; the full studio was only necessary for vocal work, and few of her clients ever asked for that.

Sighing to herself, Joey flipped the channel. it was a silly thing to think about when she had no idea where to go and no one to go with.

The next station to catch her interest was one of the locals. A syndicated talk show host was going on about some fantastic recipe for risotto, which held little appeal to Joey. She honestly wasn’t sure why she’d stopped on that channel, but admitted defeat at the hands of the gods of daytime television anyway and tossed the remote on the coffee table.

Nodding off again was starting to seem like a fantastic idea until a commercial caught enough of Joey’s attention to roust her back to life.

Armored horses with flashy knights in full suits of armor rushed toward one another as the announcer began to speak and a bad, old English accent. Clips of costumed people and happy crowds peppered around a comfortingly familiar landscape played across the screen as the narrator listed a handful of crowd favorite activities for the largest Renaissance Festival in the state.

Smiling ear to ear, Joey made a mad grab for her phone. Memories of happier time before all of the shit or the world drove her fingers to dial a number she’d memorized in highschool and never forgotten; of the one person she still felt to this day she could always call for anything, anytime, and never be let down.

The phone rang and rang until she started to anticipate it hitting voicemail. She’d already begun trying to sort out what to say in the message when she found herself greeted instead with a familiar song being sung to her mid verse.

“But if I seem to be confused, I didn’t mean to be with you. And if you said I scared you well I guess you scared me to. But we got lucky once before, and I don’t wanna close the door, so if you’re somewhere out there passed out on the floor... ohhh,Joey I’m not angry anymore.”

Micah Donahue's soft, tenor tones crooned through the phones speaker as Joey instinctively moved her lips along to the words.

“Is that really still my ringtone?” Joey giggled in a way she hadn’t in years as she collapsed back on the couch, twirling the non-existent phone cord out of habit.

“Till the end of time, Lovey-Dove.” Micah, or Mickey as she’d always called him, had a way of putting her mind to ease in ways no one else ever could. “Long time, Joey. How ya doin’ kiddo?”

“I’m alive.” She sighed out. “But... you’re never going to believe what I just saw a commercial for. What are you doing this weekend?”