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didn’t see –”
    “Send them to me.”
    “The pictures?”
    “Yes. I want to see them.
    All of them.”
    Emerson stared at him a
    moment. His charm had turned off like a light switch. He made a formidable force when he was angry.
    “Okay.” She made a zip file
    then emailed it to him while he paced a path behind her. “So you want me to keep going?”
    Gaze on the floor, he
    nodded. “How long do you need?
    Can I come back this week?”
    “It depends on her activity.
    I’ll email you when I have new information.”
    He didn’t say anything for a moment, just stared at the carpet, frowning. She felt compelled to do something, make him feel better.

    Odd. She’d never had that urge before. Especially since he, and most of her clients, had put themselves in this position in the first place. He was stupid enough to believe in an online romance. He should’ve known it could’ve ended this way.
    After a deep breath, she said, “You seem like a nice guy.
    You must have lots of options for girlfriends.”
    He arched a brow. “Are you
    about to give me the ‘there are other fish in the sea’ speech?”
    “No,” she lied. Scratch that spiel off the list. “I was going to say she doesn’t deserve you.”
    He snorted.
    Yeah, it was cliché, but what else could she say? She thought through other sentiments she’d read on Hallmark cards and in fortune cookies, but the truth was, he was hurting. Nobody could fix it for him.
    “I’m sorry.” She mentally kicked herself for not being better at this. At least she didn’t have to tell him how much he owed and that she only accepted cash. That was always awkward.
    After a long sigh, he nodded then seemed to brighten a little.

    “Like you said, it could be worse.
    Darren will be relieved to know she’s a girl at least. She talked about being stalked before. Maybe it was worse than I thought.” Sure, she’d go with that.
    “Exactly. She’s probably the same girl you know, just a different hair color.”
    Nodding, he peered around the room. She felt too unqualified to say anything else. The tension was annoying and she could probably get in a few hours of work before needing to sleep. How could she get him to leave while still being tactful about it?

    “Hey.” He squinted at her bookshelf beside the desk. “Is that a Nintendo?”
    “Yeah.”
    He moved closer. “Like a real old school nineteen eighties Nintendo console?”
    “Yep.”
    Standing in front of the shelf, he studied it. “Does it work?”
    “Of course.” She scooted
    her chair back from the desk. “I used to play it when I had a TV but we had to sell it to pay rent. Once I find a new prime number though, I’ll be able to buy it back.”
    “Whoa! You have original

    games too?” He pulled out the Mario Brothers case and stared at it. “This is worth a lot of money, you know. If the system works.” She shrugged. Jess had tried to get her to sell it instead of the TV
    but she was too attached to it now.
    “You a collector? Or a
    gamer?”
    “Neither. I just have a thing for the original Nintendo.” It was just one of the many quirks her mother hated about her. On her eighteenth birthday she’d even gotten a pixilated mushroom tattoo on her hip. Her secret rebellion.
    He flipped through a few other games on the shelf – Donkey Kong and Duck Hunt. “How do you even get it to work on a modern TV?”
    “I run it through a DVD
    player.” It wasn’t that hard to figure out, but she often forgot most people weren’t like her with technology. She tried to stay humble about it, and not sound like a stuck up bitch, but normal people frustrated her.
    “I would kill to play some of these,” he said absently. “I was obsessed with Lara Croft when I was a kid.”
    She chuckled. “You and

    every other raging hormonal boy.”
    “That was on PlayStation
    though. Original Nintendo was on its way out by the time I was old enough to play.”
    “Me too but my older
    cousins had one. It was my