Chapter Ten

I’ll be the first to admit, I am quite possibly the last person anyone would ever choose to go on a secret mission with. I mean, if by some miracle I managed to get into the CIA, I’d just be that one person who can’t be trusted with guns or top-secret weapons. Hell, I’d barely be trusted with a stapler. But due to the evident lack of James Bond-ish men in my life to take my place, I was forced to pursue Dr. D’s phone call alone. Well, not entirely alone, I had Jack and Milo after all.

After the phone call we called Detective Reynolds immediately, unable to even touch a slice of pizza when it arrived, due to the butterflies in my stomach. Of course, I had snuck into the kitchen when everyone was asleep and had my share in secret, but that’s not the point. I had been so frantic on the phone, I had forgotten to sound sexy. I was too busy checking the cupboards in case Dr. D was about to jump out at any second and throw a spatula at me.

Luckily, Detective Reynolds had adhered to his promise of taking my case seriously. He had calmly explained that he was sending a police car to check outside my house, on the off chance Dr. D was somewhere close by. Now I’m not going to lie to you, I was a little disappointed that Milo and his perfect dimples were nowhere to be seen when the police finally showed up. Wasn’t this meant to be a good training exercise for him, or something? I was practically making his career here, and he didn’t even have the courtesy to stop by and make sure I was alive! Now that’s just plain rude.

But even after the police officer assured me that no one suspicious was outside the house, or inside it, I didn’t stop panicking. I had even considered asking Jack to sleep on my couch again, but then thought against it. I didn’t entirely trust what I’d do in my vulnerable state, and besides, Jack didn’t look like he could scare anyone away. He was more likely to attract them. If Dr. D was somewhere in the house stalking me from behind a shower curtain and wasn’t gay, one look at Jack would definitely send him swinging in another direction.

Mom and Dad obviously had to cut their dinner date a little short, which really set Dad off. He had pretty much banned me from going anywhere past our mailbox, including school, which admittedly wasn’t the worst possible thing that could have happened, even if it only lasted a few days. Hey, if he was giving me a few days off from my busy schedule, then I wasn’t going to complain. Dad had been absolutely no help when I had asked him what he had supposedly “taken” from the auto-tuned stranger. He just kept shaking his head as if he was trying to rack his brains for anytime he stole a doughnut or something off a friend.

But as it turns out, Detective Reynolds had found some answers on the Dumpling Hospital. As expected, the place was free of anything that could link the restaurant to my family, and apparently the food there really did suck, which I didn’t need reassuring about. They had also managed to find out a little more about the nametag. The mystery waiter, Ao Jie Kai, came to L.A. when he was in seventh grade and was now in his third year of college at UCLA. He was also a member of a fraternity, which was great and all, because at least now I knew my stalker was fairly socially accepted in society. Good for him. He had no previous criminal history besides a couple of minor parking ticket fines, and he’d been working at the Dumpling Hospital for about ten months. It was just he and his mother at home, no father. Detective Reynolds said he doubted that Ao Jie Kai was directly related to my stalking, but he was the only lead that they had. It wasn’t much, but it gave Jack and me a starting point.

After carefully devising a plan that was followed by lots of arguments and flat out refusals on Jack’s part, I finally convinced him to sneak out of the house with me and head off to UCLA to check out this Ao Jie Kai in person. With Dad in the shower and Mom at the spa, we had a small but perfectly timed window to make our escape. I was pretty certain Dad wasn’t expecting Mom to stay with us for as long as she was, which wasn’t helping his already high blood pressure, but she said there was no way she was leaving until things settled a little. Luckily for me, poor Anya had come down with some type of flu and was bedridden so she couldn’t play spy for Dad, and the rest of the housemaids didn’t care what I was doing as long as they were getting paid. Mike was too bothered with his own life to notice. Kenny was a slight problem because he was all buff and scary, but it turns out he was a sucker for Oprah reruns. The perfect distraction.

Of course father dearest wasn’t going to be too pleased when he got out of the shower, but by that time we’d already be long gone. Just in case, I’d left a note on the kitchen bench telling him that we’d gone to school to pick up some books for studying, promising to be back soon. We all knew that I was a massive liar, but at least I had been nice enough to leave a note with my fake story on it. Not many kids would do that, you know. I was basically Daughter of the Year.

Practically pushing Jack out the door, as I tried to gain control over my excitement and nerves, we finally set off. It was just past noon when we were sitting in his Jeep in one of the many University of California campus parking lots. I had seven missed calls from Dad, two from Veronica and three from Aria. If my life didn’t revolve around my phone, I would have run over it myself. Brendan had sent me just one text, asking why I wasn’t at school for his little “talk.” Not only did our absences make Jack and I look extremely sketchy to my boyfriend, I was pretty certain Meghan was going to be responsible for spreading ridiculous rumors about what we were doing instead of coming to school.

“This doesn’t seem like a great idea,” Jack told me uncertainly, watching students walk past, clutching books to their chests.

“You always say that.”

“Yeah, because your ideas always suck.”

“Well then why did you even agree to come?”

Jack leaned his head back against the headrest with a sigh. “Our freakin’ deal. The sooner we find out who Dr. D is, the sooner our lives go back to normal, remember?”

“Oh,” I said, crossing my hands over my chest. “And here I thought it was because you enjoyed my company.”

“I don’t know about that, but I am going to enjoy the paycheck your dad hands me when all this is done.”

Gee. He really knew how to give a girl the warm and fuzzies with his overwhelming sensitivity and affection. I’ll admit, I was a little offended. I mean, sure, Jack and I weren’t exactly besties for life. But I wasn’t that bad was I? It wasn’t a comforting thought that Jack’s mind was only on the money when I spent about eighty percent of my time trying to figure out ways to get him to love me.

“Well,” I said, holding my head up high. “I’m not leaving here until I find some answers.”

And with that I practically kicked the car door open, climbing out and slamming the door shut behind me. Jack took a few seconds before doing the same, probably doing some mental reasoning with himself not to have a breakdown. A group of girls walked by, their conversation almost coming to a stop as they eyed Jack slipping the car keys into his jeans pocket. Inevitably, their gaze drifted to me, standing with a smug smile on my face and shiny Tom Ford heels on my feet. They raised judgemental eyebrows as they continued on their way, no doubt wondering how and where they were going to find a guy like that.

Jack wasn’t paying attention to my little victory. Instead he ran a hand through his hair, which was sexier than I thought it would be, and turned to face the campus ahead.

“Shall we?” Jack said, squinting in the sunlight.

“Give me a sec.” I unzipped the leather jacket I was wearing and shimmied out of it. “Can you unlock the car?”

Jack nodded, eyes still on the campus. He glanced at me as he pulled the keys out of his pocket, doing a double take as he sized me up.

“What?” I said, looking down at my outfit.

Okay, I knew what.

“What the hell are you wearing?” he said, eyes scanning me in alarm.

I had kind of been hoping the outfit was hot enough to give Jack one of those electric shocks I always got around him. He definitely looked like he had been electrocuted, but not in the way I had hoped. I had opted for some casually tiny denim shorts and the hideous Lakers jersey that Jack had given me when we were disguised as gangsters. Only I had cut it that morning to make it a crop top, revealing my belly button. Basically, I was barely dressed, but had been using the jacket to keep some suspense.

“What’s wrong with what I’m wearing?” I asked him innocently, sliding my phone into my tiny shorts pocket.

Jack looked at me as if I had told him I was running away to herd sheep for the rest of my life. “I’m not going to take you around campus like that!” he exclaimed. “You’re not even wearing clothes!”

“Jack,” I began impatiently, folding the jacket across my arm. “We’re going to go talk to frat houses. No one’s going to talk to us if I’m dressed like a nun.”

“So nun and stripper were the only two options that came to your mind?” Jack exclaimed, taking the jacket and draping it across my shoulders, attempting to cover as much as he possibly could. “What about dressing like a normal person?”

Well jeez. Put a bunch of leggy supermodels in angel wings and lacy underwear, and the boy had no problems. But the moment I wanted to wear a crop top and shorts it was like, alert the feds! He was so focused on trying to cover me up; he was missing the brilliance of my plan. If I showed up to a frat house with Jack, who was of course an attractive male, the boys would presume that he was my boyfriend. We’d never get any information out of them that way! But if I was minimally dressed, then they wouldn’t care if he was my boyfriend. They’d be too busy ogling at me to notice my relationship status. Pretty damn clever, if I may say so myself.

“Would you stop complaining all the time?” I said, hands on my practically bare hips. “You’re worse than I am.”

Before he could reply, I began walking toward the buildings ahead with the jacket still draped across my shoulders. Jack hadn’t gotten around to unlocking the car doors so I wouldn’t be able to put it back. Plus, I had no doubts in my mind that he would send me home kicking and screaming if I didn’t come to some compromise with him. So the jacket stayed.

Jack kept looking down awkwardly, talking about how people were staring at me weirdly and how I just sent three people into cardiac arrest. But I was too busy concentrating on how beautiful the campus was to pay attention to him. UCLA was full of old-fashioned buildings with rustic brick walls and square roofs. There were lots of grass lawns and the entrances to the corridors were arched. I wasn’t sure it was the right place to go to college for me, but it would definitely have made one heck of a wedding venue. There were students everywhere, lying on the lawn and lazily soaking in the L.A. sun. Others were running, clutching stacks of books as they rushed to get to class on time. Jack was right; I was definitely turning heads with my inappropriate outfit, which should have embarrassed me, but it didn’t. It was nice to be getting all the attention for once. Jack was a pain to go out with. I was the daughter of an Academy Award winning actor, and nobody even cared when Jack’s blonde head was bobbing around the place.

We stopped a nerdy looking guy walking alone across the lawn and asked him to direct us toward the fraternity houses. His eyes practically fell out of their sockets when he saw what I was wearing, but he finally got it together long enough to give us some directions. After ten minutes of aimless loitering and getting majorly lost, we had finally entered the world of sorority and fraternity houses. I looked around, taking in as much as I possibly could. Veronica, Aria, and I had toured universities a few months ago to get a better idea of possible colleges. I had never gone to UCLA, but my friends had. Surely there was some excellent reason for missing out on the most obvious choice, but I can’t remember it now. Oh yeah, that’s right. Louis Vuitton was having a sale on handbags.

Standing on the street lined with white houses was like being in a slightly shabby part of Greece. It didn’t even look like part of a university, with cars parked along the sidewalk as if it were any random street in L.A. and not on a college campus. I had always been a little creeped out by the infamous stories of sorority loyalty gone too far and the emotionally scarring things they made you do to become a member. Mostly, I was going off things I had seen in horror movies and teen TV shows. I mean, it made one hell of a storyline. But there was a part of me deep down that thought it would be kind of cool to be able to call myself a sorority sister.

A group of four guys were jogging down the road, making lots of noise as they went by. They were dressed exactly alike, in blue jeans and black t-shirts that had Greek symbols on them. To me, it just looked like scribbles, but clearly it made sense to the other students around us because they were all cheering the four boys on.

“Local celebrities?” I said to Jack.

“Looks like it.”

I had a sudden image of Jack in a fraternity. If you were going off looks, he’d have been the president of his frat. But based on personality, Jack wouldn’t have lasted one day in a house full of boys with egos as big as his. His own pride would take up the entire campus.

The four boys passed us, as we stood rooted to the road, watching them work the small crowd of onlookers as if they were at a rock concert. Less than ten seconds after they passed, one of the boys jogged backwards so that he came up behind me to my left, beaming at me. He had sandy blonde hair and perfect teeth, and I was beginning to think that I should just drop out of school and pretend to be a student at UCLA for a while. He jerked a thumb toward Jack.

“Is he your boyfriend?” he asked, eyeing me up and down.

Jack and I looked at each other. “No,” we said simultaneously.

“Great!” The blonde guy said, thrusting a flyer in my hand. “We’re from the Kappa Alpha Psi house, and we’re having a party this Saturday night. We would love for you to come.”

I looked down at the flyer. It was black and had a picture of a cartoon vampire on it and another of a cauldron. In block, red letters it read:

HALLOWEEN PARTY
Saturday 9 PM
Kappa Alpha Psi House—INVITE ONLY

You should really know the place by now. It’s the cool one with the palm trees and white gate.

B.Y.O but no drugs, we almost got shut down last time. Dress up. Or down. No ugly people.

PARTAY!

Well, I had to give them some points for creativity. And really, they got right to the point, which is useful for those of us who can’t read or just don’t have the time to get through a whole invitation.

“Halloween?” Jack said. “That’s months away.”

“So?” The blonde guy replied with slight hostility. “People celebrate Christmas in July all the time. It’s just like that.” He turned back to me with a broad smile. “Besides, costumes are more freeing. They help people get their freak on!”

On the word “freak,” he did a little seductive shimmy in my direction with his pelvis. I took a step back and bit my lip, hoping I wouldn’t burst into laughter and offend the poor guy’s very talented hips.

“We’ll try to make it,” I told the blonde guy politely. “But I can’t promise anything.”

I put a hand on Jack’s shoulder, urging him to keep going so that the blonde frat boy couldn’t hit on me any further. I gave him a little finger wave as a goodbye and Jack and I continued walking down the road.

“See you there!” I heard the blonde guy say from behind me.

He wouldn’t, but I didn’t have the heart to tell him that. Jack and I continued on our heroic quest, past groups of sorority girls batting their eyelashes at Jack, and frat boys doing a double take at my outfit. The sorority houses weren’t in the same area as the fraternities, but it was clear that the girls knew the right places to hang out. After what felt like another hour of walking, when truthfully it had been about five minutes, Jack pointed out the fraternity house we were looking for.

“Phi Kappa Psi.” I read from the sign attached to the top of the large, white house. I couldn’t have understood the Greek symbols if you had paid me, but thankfully they had it written out.

“That’s what Milo said, right?”

“I think so.”

The Phi Kappa Psi house that stood in front us was a bit of a sight for sore eyes. Compared to its surroundings this fraternity was a rundown band geek amongst the jocks and cheerleaders of Greek housing. There was a narrow set of stairs leading to the front door, with two boys standing on them, seemingly having a deep conversation. One of the boys had brown hair and had his back to me, but the other brunette in desperate need of a haircut looked over at Jack and I as we approached them.

“Hi,” I said, turning my charm switch on. If my short shorts didn’t work on these guys, then nothing would. “Is this the Phi Kappa Psi house?”

The other guy turned around to face us, his eyes practically bulging out of his head as he saw my outfit.

“Uh,” he began, trying to peel his eyes away from my legs. “Can we help you?”

Jack rolled his eyes and said, “This is the Phi Kappa Psi house, right?”

Both boys nodded silently, eyes still glued on me. My smile broadened as I turned to face Jack. I mentally sent him a ha! In your face message, but he was purposely avoiding my victorious expression.

“Yeah,” the boy with over-grown hair said to me. “Can we help you with something?”

“Well,” I began, careful to stick to what I had rehearsed in the shower this morning. “Jack here wants to join a fraternity house, and we heard this one had a good reputation.”

“Really? A good reputation?” He turned to his friend in surprise. “Dude, I told you handing out money would work!”

Well then. Clearly Ao Jie Kai didn’t have good taste in fraternity houses. If the brothers had actually resorted to bribing people to join, something was obviously wrong with them.

“Hey you look a little familiar,” the Jesus look-alike said, peering at me. “I feel like I’ve seen your face in a magazine or something.”

I opened my mouth to say something, but nothing came out. Dad could stop me from covering Cosmo if he wanted, but there was no stopping me from occasionally appearing in Us Weekly, especially now that the Miss Golden Globe role was up for grabs. I turned to Jack with a panicked look. No one had recognized me in my shower rehearsal!

“Uh, no. You must be thinking of someone else,” Jack said as smoothly as he could. “This is my sister, Miranda.”

I forced myself not to whack him on the arm. Miranda? I looked nothing like a Miranda, let alone Jack’s sister. He was blonde, I was brunette. He was a sex-god who was a clear ten out of ten at all times. When I wore extra eyeliner, I was an eight.

“Anyways,” I continued before they could start questioning us some more. “Jack and I, Miranda, Jack’s sister Miranda—”

“I think they got the point, Miranda.”

“—talked to a few fraternities and we were considering yours.”

Jack nodded and said, “Do you have many members?”

“Well,” the guy with long hair began, finally coming to terms with my provocative get-up. “We’re one of the smaller frat houses, but we have a really strong brotherhood.”

“Yeah,” the other guy agreed. “We’d invite you in to meet some of the boys, but three of them are probably still asleep, and the rest are at class or out at the moment.”

“I’m Ryan, by the way,” the guy with mop-hair said.

“I’m Lou,” the other one said.

“Nice to meet you guys.”

“So do you go to UCLA, Miranda?”

I gave them a tight smile. “Uh, no.”

The two boys standing on the stairs looked at me expectantly, waiting for me to elaborate, but I didn’t. Hey, I didn’t have to write them an autobiography on my fake Miranda life. There was an awkward silence for a few seconds as I thought of my next step. Clearly my shower rehearsal sucked, because it hadn’t helped me at all. I couldn’t exactly just blurt out “Hey, do you know someone called Ao Jie Kai, because he may be stalking me?” Actually, I could.

“So—” Jack began, but I intervened.

“Oh!” I cried in fake surprise. “Phi Kappa Psi! That’s why you sound familiar! Do you guys know someone called Ao Jie Kai?”

“You mean AJ?” Ryan asked, raising his eyebrows in surprise. “Yeah, he’s one of the brother’s here.”

Jack’s eyes widened as if to say what exactly do you think you’re doing? I ignored him, concentrating on my new plan of action.

“How do you know him?” Lou asked me.

“I have a friend who goes here,” I explained, impressed with my impromptu skills. “She introduced me to him at a party. Great guy. Super nice.”

I sent a mental message to the heavens above, hoping that Ao Jie Kai actually was a nice stalker.

“Oh yeah?” Ryan said with a smile. “Yeah, he’s great! Who’s your friend? Anyone I’d know?”

“Oh, I doubt it,” Jack cut in, shaking his head. “She does fashion designing.”

“Hey, my girlfriend does that!” Ryan replied, and Jack and I looked at each other. What were the odds? “What’s your friend’s name, she may know her?”

“Um—” Jack began, but I got in first.

“Scarlett,” I replied quickly. “Scarlett . . . Johanessburg.”

Jack let out a sigh next to me. The boys probably wouldn’t have picked up on it, but I knew exactly what it meant. He thought I was an idiot.

“Hunh,” Lou replied thoughtfully. “Isn’t that an actress?”

“Uh, no, it—it’s really not,” I said truthfully, shaking my head. Hey, it wasn’t technically a lie.

Ryan shrugged and said, “The name doesn’t ring a bell, but I’ll ask my girlfriend.”

“So,” Jack continued, his fake smile reappearing. “Is AJ around? I know Miranda and him really hit it off.”

I forgot for a few seconds that I was Miranda and Jack nudged me lightly with his elbow as a reminder he was talking about me.

“Oh right!” I said. “Yeah, we really hit it off. Is he home? I’d love to catch up with him.”

“He’s at class right now and then he’s got work right after,” Lou told us with an apologetic smile.

“Today’s a pretty packed day for him, but you can stop by sometime later tonight if you’d like. He should be home after eight.”

The two boys looked at each other hopefully and I raised an eyebrow. It’s amazing what minimal clothing will do to the human mind.

“Oh that’s okay, we may stop by when we’re in the neighborhood next,” Jack replied, grabbing onto my wrist. “But thanks anyway.”

I gave the two boys one last killer smile and could almost see birds circling their heads. The trip had been kind of a waste of time, my feet were killing me and I actually did feel a little ridiculous in those clothes. It had been nice to have my fifteen minutes of fame amongst the testosterone packed males of UCLA, but I just wanted to go home.

“Are you going to the party?” Ryan asked, and Jack and I turned around to face him.

“What party?”

Lou pointed to the flyer that was still in my hand. I looked down at it in surprise.

“I haven’t really thought about it,” I told them, folding the flyer in half.

“Well they have great parties and all,” Lou said. “But the guys aren’t the friendliest. I mean, it’s great if you want rich boys in Tommy Hilfiger shirts with fancy cars and alcohol. But you know, our brotherhood is real. Plus, they don’t have Pictionary night like we do!”

Truth be told Tommy Hilfiger shirts and fancy cars sounded like just my type, as long as they weren’t as immature as Brendan’s friends. But the boys were really pulling out the fireworks to try and convince Jack to join. Sure, it was probably because they hoped his all too liberal sister Miranda would visit frequently in her tiny clothing, but all the same.

Jack nodded politely and said, “I’ll keep that in mind. Thanks guys.”

“You know,” Ryan said, right as we turned to leave again. Beside me Jack gave an impatient sigh. “We were planning on going to their party this Saturday, if you’re interested. AJ’s going to be there. You guys could always catch up there?”

The hopeful look on both of their faces returned, but I wasn’t celebrating my newfound attention anymore. Jack and I were already exchanging glances that told me we were thinking along the same lines.

“I’ll consider it,” I said simply, trying my hardest to be noncommittal and suppress my excitement.

We said our goodbyes, I smiled some more and we finally left, making our way back down the fraternity house street.

“So what do you think?” Jack asked.

I weaved my arms through the arms of my leather jacket, deciding my outfit had completed its job for the day. I unfolded the flyer and tried to smooth out the creases.

“About the party?” I said, and Jack nodded. “Well Ao Jie Kai is going to be there. It may be worth it to make an appearance.”

Jack nodded in agreement and said, “That’s what I was thinking.”

“Wait,” I said, genuinely shocked at how easy that had been. “You actually agreed to go to this party without complaining?”

“Oh don’t gloat,” Jack replied, but he was smiling a little. For some reason that made my insides do this little hip-hop crunk thing that was extremely unsettling.

“Now we just have to figure out how to get out of the house on Saturday without Dad making a big deal out of it.”

“We’ll figure it out,” Jack said. “Your dad loves me.”

The sad thing was, my dad did love Jack. I was always getting yelled at and grounded, but Jack could throw a puppy off a bridge and my dad would still think he was incredible. It was super depressing, but also convenient if Jack and I ever did decide to take whatever we had to the next step. Oh lord. Now that was a scary thought.

“Miranda?” I asked him, and his smile widened. “Really?”

“What?” he said. “I was thinking about Miranda Kerr and it kind of just came out.”

Trust Jack to be thinking about Miranda Kerr while we were on a secret mission. Although, if Miranda Kerr had ever met Jack, I doubt she’d be able to walk the runway without him in mind. The two of them would have fantastic children, which is a little heartbreaking.

“Why not just say Scarlett! It wouldn’t have even been lying because she’s actually your sister!”

“Maybe it was because you turned her into a fictional student with a real actress’s name!”

“Hey! That’s not her actual name! I changed it a little.” I felt my phone buzz in shorts pocket and pulled it out with a groan. “It’s probably Dad. Yet again.”

But it wasn’t Dad. And in a snap second, being grounded for all eternity actually seemed pretty ideal after I saw the increasingly familiar title of No Caller ID staring back at me.

“Pick it up,” Jack said, after leaning in and reading the caller ID.

I thrust the phone at him and shook my head. “I don’t want to.”

He sighed and took the phone, taking me by the wrist and leading me to a corner of the sidewalk, out of everyone’s way. He answered the phone and put it on loudspeaker, holding the phone out of my reach when I tried to hang up in a panic.

“Say something,” he hissed.

“You say something!”

“Gia!”

“I can hear you, you know,” came the auto-tuned voice through the speaker, and Jack and I froze.

“Hey man,” I said, and Jack closed his eyes, shaking his head. “W—What’s going on?”

“I suggest you stop this childish investigation, Gia.” Dr. D said.

Jack held the phone between us and we listened silently, waiting for him to continue. When he didn’t I looked at Jack and he shrugged.

“Hello?” I said, leaning in closer to the phone so Dr. D could hear me.

“You need to stop searching for answers. You’ll get them eventually. Investigating will only get you hurt.”

I would have been shitting myself if it hadn’t been for the auto-tune. Don’t get me wrong, I was still freaked as heck. But the editing of his voice kept making me want to laugh. It’s hard to take someone seriously if they’re threatening you in singsong.

“Are you here right now?” I asked him, scanning my surroundings.

I couldn’t see any creepy lurkers, peeping out from behind trees with binoculars, dressed in black from head-to-toe. There was silence for a few seconds and I looked at Jack expectantly. He was staring intently at the phone in his hands, waiting for Dr. D to reply.

“Let this be a warning call,” Dr. D finally said. “Or else I’ll be forced to put the pain in T-Pain.”

The line went dead and Jack and I stared at the phone for a few more seconds in silence before he handed the phone back to me. I replaced it in my pocket shakily, as Jack put a comforting arm around my shoulder. Under other circumstances, I would have been overjoyed, but my heart could only deal with one extreme emotion at a time, and fear was definitely winning over lust.

“He didn’t actually just say that, did he?” I asked Jack.

“It was super lame, but I think he did.”

“Well what do we do now?”

He thought about it for a beat as I gave a defeated sigh. Jack looked at me, almost smiling but not quite. A part of him was secretly enjoying the thrill, I could tell.

“Well,” he said. “Get your party shoes on.”