Fidelity Files by Jessica Brody

two of them were almost always in the middle of some type of mock competition over who could be the most clever and the most annoying at the same time. Sometimes it was amusing to watch, but most of the time it just got old... fast.
    "There have to be a zillion restaurants in L.A. and we always come here." Zoë opened her menu, completely oblivious to Sophie's unmistakable glow.
    "I like it here," Sophie defended herself timidly, her hands tucked under the tabletop, like a shy child eating for the first time at the grown-ups' table.
    "Did you know that it would take four-point-five lifetimes to eat at every single restaurant in the city of Los Angeles without ever duplicating," Zoë stated expertly, keeping her eyes locked on her menu. "And that's if you start at age five!"
    "Did you have a date with the heir to the Zagat fortune last night?" John asked.
    Zoë shrugged. "I read it somewhere."
    "Yeah, but you'd need four-point-five lifetimes because of all the crap you'd be eating. You'd probably only live to be, like, fifty," he retorted. "I mean, places like Roscoe's Chicken and Waffles ain't exactly gonna help keep you alive."
    "You guys!" Sophie pleaded loudly, causing Zoë to eye her suspiciously from behind her menu. "Aren't you forgetting something?"
    Zoë and John exchanged mutually oblivious glances.
    "Well, I don't know what you're referring to," John began smugly, "but guess who hooked up with the second runner-up from So You Think You Can Dance season three last night?" His face beamed with pride, as if he had just announced his acceptance into a secret society of celebrity groupies.
    " Second runner-up?" Zoë raised her eyebrows.
    "Hey, honey, it's better than your lame-ass excuse for a celebrity hookup."
    She rolled her eyes. "I didn't hook up with him because he was on the Real World, " she argued defensively. "I hooked up with him because I thought we had a very deep connection."
    "Anyway!" Sophie interjected again, redirecting the attention of the group back to the issue at hand. "I didn't summon you guys here to talk about John's drunken conquests."
    "You didn't?" John feigned confusion.
    "Did you all forget that I had something I wanted to talk about?"
    Zoë shrugged and took a sip of her water. "No, I didn't forget. You just don't look upset so I assumed you'd gotten over it by the time we got here." Then she reached around the back of my chair and affectionately patted Sophie on the shoulder. "Like you always do."
    Sophie nodded in agreement. "I know, I know. I tend to overreact."
    John looked away and fake coughed the word "understatement."
    "Actually," Sophie started, luring our attention in. "I asked you here today because I have good news."
    We all looked at her questioningly. My first thought was a promotion. She'd been waiting for one at work for over a year, and it was always being held up because of...
    "Eric and I are engaged!"
    My thoughts suddenly came to a crashing halt as her words collided with me like a Peterbilt truck. I couldn't compute them, nor comprehend their implication. I stared at her in disbelief, wondering if maybe I had misunderstood. No, actually... certain I had.
    Then I heard John and Zoë scream, and at least five other tables turned to see if someone had either been murdered or spotted a celebrity. Because in an L.A. restaurant, nothing else is worth interrupting brunch for.
    I continued to gape at her, my mouth hanging open, my head a blur. I tried to figure out what the hell she was talking about. I thought I had heard the word "engaged" but that couldn't have been right. My friends didn't get engaged .
    Maybe she said en raged . That would certainly make more sense given Sophie's propensity for drama. Yes, actually, now that I think about it, I'm positive that's what she said. She and Eric are enraged about something.
    But then Sophie pulled her left hand out from underneath the table, where she apparently had been hiding it since we walked in the door, and held it up so