Read 04 - Shock and Awesome for Free Online Page B

really good taste, but I didn't want that to go to her head. We'd only recently started getting on and I wanted to keep a sense of equality in the relationship somewhere.
     
          Serena nodded as if to agree that was perfectly reasonable, then persisted, "Why?"
     
          "I have to do this undercover thing and I have to dress..."
     
          I searched for the word, but Serena beat me to the punch with "Better?"
     
          I shrugged. "Yup."
     
          "I guess so," Serena agreed, turning and striding from the family room of her big house towards her bedroom. Victoria rested her chin on Serena's shoulder and watched me as I followed them. I blew more kisses and Victoria answered with a raspberry. She was definitely my favorite niece. I couldn't wait until she started speaking. "So what's the undercover thing?" Serena asked, glancing at me over her shoulder.
     
          "It's an, um..." I mumbled, coming to a stop and glancing around the bedroom. Serena was in the process of getting a divorce from Ted Whitman-the-boring-Third and while she got to keep the house, he most definitely had a field day removing all the furniture. Her bedroom looked particularly sparse.
     
          "He's taking the bed too, but he's welcome to it," said Serena, watching me noticing. "I have a new one on order."
     
          "Good?"
     
          "You bet," she replied cheerfully. "And I'm turning the guest bedroom into my office. The business is going well so far. I have clients! Actually, thanks to your suggestion, I'll be able to work from home and look after Victoria."
     
          "Good for you! Mom's really pleased that you started the business."
     
          "Thank you." Serena passed Victoria to me, who wriggled around until she found a comfortable space in my arms, settling down as we entered the large walk-in closet. I looked at the glass racks of jewelry suspended on the walls, purchased during Serena's more affluent days. I considered draping them over Victoria. I caught Serena looking. Maybe not. "What's the occasion? Business? Date? Really, who knows what your boss has you cooking up? Did you know he had Antonio doing surveillance dressed as a homeless man for a whole week? He couldn't even shower. Day four, I told him not to come over until the job was in the can."
     
          "I'm definitely allowed to shower." Come to think of it, I probably should smell really nice. I wondered what perfumes Serena might have lying around. "It's for a meeting with a..." I made a noise that sounded like “Burble Burble Agency” and hoped it would be left at that.
     
          "At a dating agency?" Serena gaped. "What for? Is this really work? Or are you trying to find a boyfriend? You should, you know. I've never been happier."
     
          "It's for work!"
     
          Serena gave me a suspicious look. "Are you sure?" she asked, pursing her lips like she caught me in a lie.
     
          "Yes!"
     
          "I really don't think you need a dating agency. What about your boss? Solomon?"
     
          While I was fully prepared to accept Serena's assumption, I didn't need a dating agency, was a compliment of sorts, I couldn't help pulling a face at the thought of my boss. Solomon and I always had chemistry, but only recently had that chemistry gotten naked while doing an undercover job, posing as husband and wife. It was a cover Solomon clearly took very seriously and our faux-marriage was most definitely consummated. Even as I thought about it now, my heartbeat sped up and my hands got clammy. Since then? Nada. Zip. Zero. And as for my ex-boyfriend, from whom I was on the rebound when the Solomon thing happened (several times), he was definitely a no-go subject. Nope, I was as single as single could be, and as long as I didn't think about it too much, I felt perfectly fine with that.
     
          "Huh," said Serena. "I'm glad I'm not telepathic. Your face just went through twenty emotions."