The Fidelity Files (Jennifer Hunter #1)(77)

"So what are you going to do?" Sophie asked after I finished.

I shrugged my shoulders and released a pained sigh. "I don't know yet. Try to talk to him, I guess?"

"You think that'll work?" she asked with about the same amount of doubt as I was feeling inside.

I tucked my feet underneath me and fidgeted with the fraying cuff of my jeans. "Not sure. I suppose it's worth a try."

"Well, I'm glad that Zo?'s going to find out," Sophie proclaimed after a short but loaded silence.

I smiled. "Why's that?"

She sat up proudly. "Because now at least she'll know for sure that I was right."

I crinkled my forehead. "About what?"

"About you!" she exclaimed. "You know how long it took to convince her that your little lack-of-dating problem really was a problem? She insisted that it was just work-related. But I knew it was something more, and it turns out..." Her voice trailed off as her thought process came full circle.

"That it was work-related?" I maintained with an amused smirk.

Sophie waved my comment away. "You know what I mean."



THE DOORBELL rang as I was stepping out of the shower on Thursday evening. A brief panic hit me as I did a double take at the clock. It was only six-thirty. Jamie wasn't supposed to pick me up for our date until eight o'clock. I immediately worried that I might possibly have marked down the wrong time.

I peered through the peephole in the door to find Sophie and Zo? standing anxiously on the other side. I reluctantly opened the door.

"What are you guys doing here?" I asked, somewhat aggravated by their surprise visit.

"Well, nice to see you, too, bi-atch!" Zo? feigned offense.

"Yeah, not much of a welcome committee, are ya?" Sophie added.

I held my towel around me with one hand and rested the other on the door handle. "Sorry."

"So what's this big secret that everybody knows about but me?"

I glared at Sophie.

"Sorry!" she said. "I thought you would have told her by now!"

"It's only been a day!"

Zo? looked impatiently back and forth between me and Sophie. "Well?" she demanded. "Here I am. So tell me, already!"

I opened the door wider and motioned for them to come in. They stepped around me, and without any hesitation seated themselves on the couch, like guests on a talk show waiting for their personal interviews to begin. I closed the door and started to make my way to the bedroom. "Let me just put on some clothes."

"No!" Zo? insisted. "Nothing I haven't seen under there. You'll tell me now."

I rolled my eyes and tucked the edge of my towel under my armpit. I sat down next to Sophie. "Okay, so what did you already tell her?"

"Nothing!" she cried defensively. "I just asked what she thought about your news and she looked at me like I was crazy. Then I realized that you hadn't said anything and I insisted that you tell her yourself."

Zo? tapped her stiletto heel against the hardwood floor. "I'm waiting."

I let out a loud sigh. "I didn't really want to tell you like this. I was waiting for the right time to sit you down and explain everything to you."

Zo? motioned to the couch. "Well, we're definitely not standing."

I ran my hand over my wet hair. "Okay. To put it simply, I'm not exactly an investment banker."

Zo?'s face remained expressionless as she waited for me to continue.

"In fact, I'm not an investment banker at all. For the past two years I've been doing a very different kind of job."

Still no reaction. So I kept going.

"I...um... women hire me to 'test' their husbands and boyfriends for, let's just call it, 'unfaithful tendencies.'"

Zo?'s tongue ran over the front of her teeth as she earnestly contemplated my last sentence. However, if she had reached any sort of opinion about it, her face still refused to show it, almost as if I had simply informed her of my decision to switch dry cleaners. Although, knowing Zo?, she would probably have had an opinion about that, too.

Maybe she just hadn't been given enough time to fully absorb it. "You see, Zo" – I decided to try another approach – "I go out and flirt with these men...pretend to be interested in them to see if they'll try to have sex with me."

There... that should do it. It doesn't get more blunt and visual than that.

But the look on her face was still nothing more than someone trying to remember where they had last seen their missing keys. She was completely unresponsive to anything coming out of my mouth.

Sophie watched her intently and then turned to me, her eyes searching for answers, but unfortunately, my eyes were asking the same exact questions. We were both at a total loss.

Zo? finally looked at Sophie, then at me, and with a slight shrug asked, "Is that all?"

Sophie stared in utter disbelief. "What do you mean, is that all? Don't you find that just a tad bit shocking, Zo??"

She contemplated this as well, and then with another shrug and a simple shake of her head, replied, "No, not really. I mean, it was pretty obvious that Jen hasn't been an investment banker for a while now."

"It was?" I spit out, stupefied.