The Fidelity Files (Jennifer Hunter #1)(70)

No good. They were virtually indecipherable. Even with my superpower.

So I would have to take a chance.

I waited until it was exactly thirty minutes after Vartan's scheduled arrival time, and then I approached Lonely Man #2.

"Hi," I said sheepishly. "Are you waiting for someone?"

He looked up and flashed me a flirtatious smile. "All my life. And it looks like I found her."

I struggled to stay in character and fought the urge to roll my eyes. I laughed playfully, as if this were the most flattering comment I'd ever received in my life. "No, I mean, someone in particular."

He nodded. "Yes, actually. A business associate."

I smiled. This was probably him, but I had to play it wisely.

I frowned. "Oh, okay."

Out of the corner of my eye, I saw Lonely Guy #3 get out his wallet and place a twenty-dollar bill on the table next to the check. He was getting ready to leave. I had to move fast and figure out if the man sitting in front of me was Jason Trotting or just some random guy with bad pick-up lines.

"Are you waiting for someone?" he asked me.

I started to turn back to answer his question when a flashy white object caught my eye from across the room. Lonely Man #3 had picked up a glossy white folder and was tucking it under his arm as he stood up. I tilted my head and squinted my eyes to get a glimpse of the logo on the front.

Fiztech.net.

Bingo.

Flustered, my eyes darted back and forth between Lonely Guy #3 and the door. I had about twenty paces to stop him from walking out.

"Yes. And I think that's him," I said to the man in front of me, and then quickly darted to the other side of the room.

Keeping the flustered look on my face, I stepped directly in front of the man with the white folder who was now pulling a computer bag over his shoulder. "Hi, sorry I'm late! You must be Charlie."

He looked at me, completely confused. Had he missed something? Was Vartan really a woman? Or had he simply sent this woman to do business in his place? But why did she think his name was Charlie?

"No, I'm Jason," he clarified, half hoping the woman would slap herself on the forehead and say, "Oh, right. Sorry. My mistake."

But I didn't.

Instead, my shoulders dropped and my face fell into a disappointed frown. "Oh," I began. "Damn. You're cute, too."

This made him nervous. And clearly even more confused. "Excuse me?"

I giggled. "Sorry. I'm supposed to be meeting a blind date. And I don't know what he looks like. I was kind of hoping it was you. But it appears I got stood up." I twisted my mouth to the side, expressing not only my disappointment but now also my crushed ego.

His eyes were sympathetic. "Well, if it makes you feel any better, I got stood up, too."

"Blind date?"

He shook his head. "No. Blind business meeting. Potentially huge client. Looks like I'll be eating at Carl's Jr. for another eight months."

I laughed. "Good one. So how about a drink to nurse our shattered egos?"

I figured that since this wasn't a normal assignment and Jason wasn't anyone's husband, boyfriend, or fiancé – from what I could tell – there was no harm in me initiating the action for once. And this was a subject I simply couldn't afford to let walk out that door. Not when he held such valuable information in that vault of a brain of his.

By our second drink I finally felt ready to go for the kill. Jason had told me all about his Web-hosting company and how it barely paid the bills, and if he didn't land a client like Vartan sometime soon, he'd have to go back to working in a tiny cubicle writing code sixty hours a week.

"C'mon," I attempted to cheer him up. "You have to have at least one big client that keeps you afloat."

He shrugged and took a sip of his beer. "Yeah, I guess," he said nonchalantly. "I just signed a pretty big account. Some local hotshot who rented out a few hundred gigs of space. Although I don't think he's going to keep his contract for very long. He didn't sound like he needed anything permanent when we spoke on the phone."

This had to be it. Local, recent, short-term. How could it not be?

"Well, that sounds promising," I encouraged. "What's his story?"

He shrugged again. "Not sure really. He refused to give me his name. Some type of top-secret operation, I guess. So what about you? What's your story?"

"He didn't tell you anything about himself?" I blurted back, desperation seeping into my voice. I quickly covered it with a flirty smile. "I mean, that just seems really weird."

Jason looked at me somewhat strangely. "Yeah," he began warily. "I guess I could've looked it up from the name of his company, but it didn't really matter to me." He attempted to change the subject again. "So you were waiting for a blind date, huh? I guess that means you're single?"

I laughed and took a sip of my drink. "Yeah. Single. Gotta love the single life."

"Well, I'd love to get your number and maybe take you out sometime. I hope you like Carl's Jr."

I laughed again...on the outside. But inside I was screaming. "Maybe I know him," I suggested casually.

"Maybe you know who?" he asked.

"The guy...your client. If you tell me the company's name, I might be able to tell you the guy who owns it. I'm in PR. I work with a lot of companies."