I sharpen the focus on my binoculars. Are those green peppers or jalapeños?

As Brendon McDonough takes another bite of his pizza, a long, gooey slice of cheese oozes down his chin and drips onto the table. He picks it up, pops it into his mouth, and wipes his face with his sleeve. Charming. What does Jolene see in this dude?

I shake my head and make a note on my tablet: pepperoni, jalapeños, extra cheese. When it comes to winning a guy’s heart, the devil is in the details—especially when those details pertain to food.

A knock on my car window startles me. Crap. What’s Chris doing here? I shut down my tablet and slip the binoculars into my coat pocket.

“Lexi? Is that you?”

I roll down the window. “Hey. Whattup?”

“Nothing. What are you doing?”

“What’s it look like?” I point toward my tablet. “I’m … uh … ordering pizza.”

“From your car?” He nods toward Italiano’s, where Brendon and his friends sit by the back window scarfing down their food. “Why don’t you walk in and order it?”

Good question. I open the car door and hop out. My breath makes tiny frosty puffs that disappear into the darkness. I shiver but resist the urge to grab Chris’s arm for warmth. Ugh. A year ago I’d have done that without a second thought. He’s my best friend, after all, and has been since the third grade. I wheel around on the rubber soles of my Chucks and head toward the door. “Maybe I will. Just trying to save some time, I guess.”

Chris follows me. “That makes sense. Who wouldn’t want to sit out here in the freezing cold rather than walk into the nice, warm, pizza-scented restaurant where you can tell a real live person what you want and sit down with your soda while you wait for it?”

I turn, stopping so abruptly that Chris runs into me. I ignore the flutter in my stomach. “Why do you do that?”

“What?”

“Make fun of me.”

“Make fun? Lexi, I’m playing. You know that. What’s up with you lately?”

I want to shove him and tell him to shut up and get out of my headspace, but instead, I sigh. “Nothing’s up. Nothing at all.”

Chris leans down toward me. I’m five-nine in flats, so not many guys tower over me like Chris. His light blue eyes shine beneath the parking lot lights, and his blond hair is spiked to hide the cowlick he’s fought since we were little. He lowers his voice. “Is it that time of—”

“Omigod!” I stick my finger in his face. “Don’t ever ask me that. Got it? Never. I can’t believe you almost asked me that.” I spin back around and head into Italiano’s without waiting for him.

“One slice, please,” I tell the girl behind the counter. “Plain cheese.” I had a huge dinner and am not the least bit hungry.

“Thought you said you ordered online.” Chris tugs at my ponytail as he comes up behind me.

“Tried to. Before I was so rudely interrupted.”

He laughs. “Come on. Isn’t this better than sitting in your car?”

We fill up our sodas, and I grab a booth as far away from Brendon’s table as possible. Discretion is paramount in my line of work.

Chris loosens the paper on his straw and blows it at me. “So where were you this afternoon?”

“Busy.” I grab the fluttering paper out of the air and play with it, mainly so I don’t have to look him in the eye. “Why?”

“We were trying to get together a game of two-on-two down at the courts. I texted you twice.”

“Oh, right. Sorry.” I twist the paper around and around on my pinkie finger. “I turned off my phone. I was at the library doing my psych report.” That’s only a partial lie. The part about the library is true, but I was there to keep tabs on the math team captain for one of my clients. “Sorry I missed it. Who else played?”

Chris grins. “Massey and Briggs. We ended up playing HORSE. I smoked them, obviously.”

I laugh. Massey and Briggs suck at HORSE. If it weren’t for layups, neither of them would ever score a basket. Even I’d have crushed them, and I’m not as good as Chris. “Now I’m really sorry I missed it.”

Chris looks up and gives a low whistle. I follow his gaze to find Alicea Springer and Ty Walker ordering at the counter. Ty has his arm around her.

Chris leans toward me. “Think that’s a Boyfriend Whisperer couple?”

I shrug. “Who knows?” Part of me wishes I could fess up and tell Chris everything, but I can’t let pride get the best of me. Ty was my toughest assignment ever, and the fact that he’s still with Alicea after two months is my biggest success to date. He’s super hot, a star forward on the soccer team, drives a BMW, and on top of all that, he’s smart. Alicea, meanwhile, was basically a nobody. She’s pretty enough, but she’s quiet and shy and, until recently, had the self-confidence of an earthworm. At least, I assume earthworms lack self-confidence seeing as how they eat dirt and all.

“It’s gotta be.” Chris shakes his head. “That chick had more face time with her computer than with guys before they started going out. Ty would never have given her the time of day without some sort of—”

“What do you know?” I kick him under the table. He’s right, of course. In fact, he’s echoing my exact thoughts when Alicea hired me, but still, his attitude bugs me. “Maybe some guys are better than others at seeing past a girl’s image. We’re not always what we seem, you know.”

“Since when are you an expert on girls?” Chris gives me a teasing grin. “It’s almost like you think you are one.”

That does it. I slide out of the booth without a word and walk up to the counter to wait for my pizza, leaving Chris to wonder what he’s done to tick me off. At least, I hope he wonders. I hope he feels bad for hurting my feelings. I hope he regrets being kind of a jerk tonight. Most of all, I hope he didn’t notice the tears that sprang to my eyes as I left our booth.

No. Even more than that, I hope he’ll wake up and realize that I am, in fact, a girl.