The Fidelity Files (Jennifer Hunter #1)(26)

Zo? shrugged. "I read it somewhere."

"Yeah, but you'd need four-point-five lifetimes because of all the crap you'd be eating. You'd probably only live to be, like, fifty," he retorted. "I mean, places like Roscoe's Chicken and Waffles ain't exactly gonna help keep you alive."

"You guys!" Sophie pleaded loudly, causing Zo? to eye her suspiciously from behind her menu. "Aren't you forgetting something?"

Zo? and John exchanged mutually oblivious glances.

"Well, I don't know what you're referring to," John began smugly, "but guess who hooked up with the second runner-up from So You Think You Can Dance season three last night?" His face beamed with pride, as if he had just announced his acceptance into a secret society of celebrity groupies.

"Second runner-up?" Zo? raised her eyebrows.

"Hey, honey, it's better than your lame-ass excuse for a celebrity hookup."

She rolled her eyes. "I didn't hook up with him because he was on the Real World," she argued defensively. "I hooked up with him because I thought we had a very deep connection."

"Anyway!" Sophie interjected again, redirecting the attention of the group back to the issue at hand. "I didn't summon you guys here to talk about John's drunken conquests."

"You didn't?" John feigned confusion.

"Did you all forget that I had something I wanted to talk about?"

Zo? shrugged and took a sip of her water. "No, I didn't forget. You just don't look upset so I assumed you'd gotten over it by the time we got here." Then she reached around the back of my chair and affectionately patted Sophie on the shoulder. "Like you always do."

Sophie nodded in agreement. "I know, I know. I tend to overreact."

John looked away and fake coughed the word "understatement."

"Actually," Sophie started, luring our attention in. "I asked you here today because I have good news."

We all looked at her questioningly. My first thought was a promotion. She'd been waiting for one at work for over a year, and it was always being held up because of...

"Eric and I are engaged!"

My thoughts suddenly came to a crashing halt as her words collided with me like a Peterbilt truck. I couldn't compute them, nor comprehend their implication. I stared at her in disbelief, wondering if maybe I had misunderstood. No, actually... certain I had.

Then I heard John and Zo? scream, and at least five other tables turned to see if someone had either been murdered or spotted a celebrity. Because in an L.A. restaurant, nothing else is worth interrupting brunch for.

I continued to gape at her, my mouth hanging open, my head a blur. I tried to figure out what the hell she was talking about. I thought I had heard the word "engaged" but that couldn't have been right. My friends didn't get engaged.

Maybe she said enraged. That would certainly make more sense given Sophie's propensity for drama. Yes, actually, now that I think about it, I'm positive that's what she said. She and Eric are enraged about something.

But then Sophie pulled her left hand out from underneath the table, where she apparently had been hiding it since we walked in the door, and held it up so we could all see the enormous diamond that radiated almost as brightly as her face.

Zo? immediately leaped into action, leaning over me to get a closer look at the ring, pushing my body against the back of my chair in the process. I sat motionless, leaning as far back from the table as I could to avoid getting whipped in the face by Zo?'s long, dangling, blond hair. But, more important, to avoid the large, menacing rock that seemed to be drawing closer with every threatening move of Sophie's hand.

I watched the whole spectacle unfold in front of me like an old silent black-and-white movie. Pictures without sounds. Quiet, muted faces mouthing words of congratulations and joy. But somehow, completely unable to participate.

"Jen," I heard Sophie's voice come through a long wind tunnel, and suddenly all the humming and buzzing in my ears vanished.

I blinked. "Yeah?"

"What's wrong?"

I looked up to see Zo?'s and Sophie's faces staring at me from behind the giant diamond. Zo? was now hovering over the back of Sophie's chair to get a closer look.

"I... um, I thought you weren't able to see him this weekend," I said weakly.

Sophie's face glowed brighter. "I know! But it was all a ploy to catch me off guard. He showed up last night and surprised me!"

"OMG," Zo? gushed in her typical IM speak. She usually resorted to it when she wanted to be extra dramatic and express something either truly grotesque or truly mind-blowing. Or occasionally just to save time. "How'd he do it?"

Sophie's beaming face never dimmed for a moment. "Well, I was sitting at home alone, pissed off because he wasn't answering his cell phone. It was turned off. And I assumed he had shut it off because he was out drinking with his stupid friends from the hospital."

Zo? and John nodded eagerly, hungry for more, as if stranded on a deserted island and marriage proposal details were their only hope of survival.

"And then the doorbell rang. I had absolutely no idea who it could be. No one ever rings my doorbell, except my landlord when she's delivering a package." Her voice was fast and animated. And with every word her eyes lit up like sparkling firecrackers. "And I almost didn't open it because when I looked out the peephole there was no one there."