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Chapter Twenty-Nine


"Eat," Nick encouraged, pushing the plate of pancakes at me. I stirred the little bowl of grits that'd come with my food, then sighed and pushed it away. Nick frowned, "Please eat. You need to eat."

"I can't," I replied. "I can't eat when Addison's pissed at me like this." I pulled my phone out for about the twelve-hundredth time.

Nick chewed a bite of his own pancakes slowly.

"I wish she'd answer my text," I said, shaking my head.

"She will when she cools down," he said.

I shook my head, "Not particularly. Not Addie. She's stubborn as hell. She always has been. You know one time she didn't talk to me for an entire summer when we were kids? Neither of us had any other friends - not even one - and yet she wouldn't speak to me. We had nobody to play with all summer but she was too stubborn to break down and talk to me. I don't even remember what we fought about that time."

Nick reached across the table and took my hand. "I'm sorry," he said.

"What? Why?"

He took a deep breath. "I heard... a little... of the conversation. Well, your end of it." He licked his lips nervously, his eyes apologetic. "I wasn't like... purposely eavesdropping or anything, but.. Well, you were yelling, you know?"

I covered my eyes with my hands.

"I'm sorry that I caused you guys to fight."

"You didn't," I said. "You were just... I don't know, a by product of it." I paused. "How much did you, um, hear?"

"Pretty much from me being a vibrator on," he answered.

I felt my face grow hot. "I'm sorry, I didn't mean for you to hear that," I said.

He shook his head, "It was... enlightening," he said. He paused. "There is one thing though, that I have a question about."

"What's that?"

"You said you heard everything at the hotel."

My mouth went dry. "I was in the bathroom."

"What?"

"When you and Cora were in the hotel room that night, the night we met. I was in the bathroom. I was having a smoke and Cora and you came in and I was about to go out and tell you I was there when she got naked and I couldn't and I sat there in the bathroom and I heard all of it." The words burst from my mouth.

"But... Cora went to the bathroom," he said, confusion lighting up his eyes.

"I was under the sink," I said.

"Damn," he said. Then he laughed and sat back, a smirk on his face. "So when I asked you to work for me as a private investigator based on your Monk-like abilities, you must've thought I was nuts. You didn't really have a Monk-moment, you actually knew anyways." He looked down at his plate.

"Well it's not like I'm horrible at it, I mean I found out about -----" I stopped mid-sentence.

Nick looked up. "About what?"

"Er..."

"Sam?"

I took a deep breath. "Okay so that day I came over your place... the first day Cora left her purse there?" He nodded, listening. "When you left the room, I looked through it, and... so... I um, found her cell phone in there, and... Z had called her..." I paused. "Z's seeing Cora. Like you were seeing Cora."

He stared at me. "Z is gay," he said.

"What?"

"Z's gay," Nick repeated.

I blinked. "But --"

"Z and Lawrence... they're not business partners."

I felt my face grow hot. "So Cora's not fucking Z?"

"Z literally gets sick at the thought of having sex with a woman," Nick answered. "Cora's not fucking Z."

"Oh God, I feel like such an idiot," I said.

"It's okay," Nick said, "You're not the first woman that's thought he was a straight arrow, but trust me, that guy's gayer than Elton John."

I covered my face. "Oh God you're paying me for nothing."

Nick laughed. "It's okay, Sam."

I shook my head. Then something occurred to me. I looked up. "Oh my God. You can't pay me at all. You need to take your money back."

"What?" he looked confused.

"If we start seeing each other, you need to take your money back or I'm just a hooker."

Nick literally snorted.

"Well it's true," I gasped.

He shook his head, took a sip of iced tea, an amused expression playing on his face as he swallowed and tried to regain composure after the almighty snort. He put the glass down and wiped his mouth with a napkin. "Samantha," he laughed, "You can still work for me and be my girlfriend."

"But I'm not really working for you if I'm the worst private eye ever..."

"You're my personal assistant," he reminded me.

"All I've done is plan a party."

"One fuck of a party," he pointed out.

"And one night I delivered the wrong size condoms."

He grinned, "Aren't you glad now that small was the wrong size?" he winked. I paused. That reminded me.... I reached into my purse and dug around. He raised an eyebrow. "Sam? What'cha lookin' for?" I pulled out the condom I'd gotten from Cora's bag and looked at it, then looked up at him, and tossed it across the table. He looked down at it. "Now?" he asked.

I shook my head, "This came out of Cora's purse, too," I explained. "Look at the size."

He looked. He looked up at me.

"Small." I said.

"Maybe it's for Hugh," Nick snickered.

"Please, that guy's toes are probably too big for a small condom," I said. "Nick, maybe it's not Z, but she's obviously seeing somebody else."

He cleared his throat and pushed the condom back across the table. "Put that thing away before the waiter comes over and thinks I take a small," he commanded. I chucked it into my purse again. Nick stared at me. He took a deep breath. "I know Cora wasn't exclusively with me, Sam," he said. "I mean, I wasn't ever... positive, but... I was fairly sure I wasn't the only one." He shook his head and looked away, like he couldn't bare to stare me in the eyes as he said the next words, "I just... thought I was lucky to have what little bit of her she could give me... and... I just... wanted more." He looked up at me. "I thought I could make her want more, too."

"She is such a hypocrite," I said, heatedly.

Nick laughed.

"No seriously, she expected you to be faithful to her to the point of firing me because she couldn't stand being jealous, but she runs with every single thing that has a penis."

Nick muttered something.

"What?"

"That's not always a requirement, I said," he repeated himself in a jumbled mess of words. I stared at him. He shrugged.

"Well, man, woman, or unicorn, I can't imagine anyone being given the opportunity to be loved by you and turning that down," I said.

Nick laughed, "Unicorn?"

"By the sounds, Cora has no limits..."