“Jacob Archer, you’ve been served.”

Ina handed a file to me over the table, and I grinned. We were having an early dinner at an Italian-Vietnamese fusion restaurant called L’Amio while Nora was finishing off the job of clearing out her old place with her best friend Angie. I couldn’t wait for Nora to officially live with me. Now that Ina was moving out soon, we would have the whole place to ourselves. Everything was falling into place perfectly.

“So what do I need to sign?” I asked, opening the file and leafing through all the paperwork.

“The lawyer marked it all out. So just sign it whenever, and send it back. We have to be separated for a certain period of time before it’s all processed by a judge, but once that’s done, we’ll officially be divorced.”

“Great. It was nice being married to you.”

Ina smiled. “Yes, it was,” she said. Her expression turned serious. “I don’t know how I can even begin to say thank you for everything you’ve done for me, Jake. You saved my life. Literally. And you could’ve gone to jail if anyone ever found out.”

“Well, we pulled it off, didn’t we?” I said, patting her hand over the table.

“Yes, we did. But really, Jake, thank you. From the bottom of my heart. You didn’t just stop them from sending me back, you also took me in, gave me somewhere to live and helped me start my own business. I’m in your debt forever.”

“It’s fine. I was glad to help,” I replied. “And you aren’t in any debt. You paid me back the money for your business as soon as you turned your first profit.”

Ina was currently heading up a small gin importing business with a friend of hers named Robbie. They bought relatively unknown brands of gin from overseas and sold them on to boutique bars. Gin seemed to be the fashionable new drink at the moment, so things were going swimmingly for Ina and Robbie in that department, and they were going to expand to other liquors soon. I’d initially helped her out by lending her the seed money to start things off, but she paid me back years ago.

“I meant I’m in your debt figuratively. At least let me pay for dinner tonight,” she said.

“Sure. Your business seems to be doing well, so it’s not like you can’t afford it,” I said with a wink. “Maybe you can even pay me alimony now that we’re divorcing.”

Ina laughed and picked up her wine glass. “Cheers.”

“Cheers.” I clinked my own glass against hers.

She took a sip of her drink, then cleared her throat. “When is Nora going to be finished moving in?”

“Soon. She’s just grabbing the last of her stuff from her old place now. I was going to help, but she texted me saying she’s having a girly pizza night with her friend.”

Ina nodded slowly. “I honestly never thought I’d see this day, Jake.”

“What do you mean?”

She gave me a sly smile. “Don’t pretend with me. You know what you used to be like. A different woman every week. Sometimes there would even be more than one in a week. But now… now you have Nora. You’ve settled down. I think it’s wonderful.”

“She’s wonderful.”

“Yes, she is. Far too good for you,” she said with a giggle.

“Wow, you’re turning into a bitter, vindictive ex-wife already, huh?”

She stuck the tip of her tongue out at me. “You know what I mean. How many other women would be as understanding as her? If I was dating someone and they told me they were already married… hell, I think I’d run like the wind. But she stayed. She listened, and she understood.”

“She sure did.”

“You’ve found yourself someone really special in her, Jake. Don’t do anything to screw it up,” she said, a note of warning in her voice.

“I’m trying my best.”

She was silent for a second, and then she snorted with laughter. “I still can’t believe she ever spoke to you again after that date you took her on.”

“Yeah, she really had to lower her standards to do that,” I replied with a grin.

“Lucky for you she did.”

I was about to take a bite of food when I was interrupted by a familiar voice.

“Jake? Ina?”

I turned to see Chris standing nearby, waving at me. “Oh, hey, man. What are you doing here?” I called out.

He headed over and gave Ina a kiss on the cheek before answering my question. “Big company business dinner tonight. Everyone’s here, in the function room over there,” he said, pointing to the western side of the restaurant, where a set of stained glass dividers cordoned off a function room for big group bookings. “I was just heading back from the bathroom when I saw you guys.”

I looked over at the dividers. Through a crack in the opening, I saw James summoning a waiter. Damn, of course he was here—Chris just said the whole accounting company was at the dinner.

I was sorely tempted to go over and punch the weedy little prick for continuing to harass and terrorize Nora, but I didn’t want to attract attention to myself in such a way. Not when I was trying to clean my image up for her sake. Getting arrested for assault wouldn’t help with that, and I already had a narrow miss when I punched him last time. He’d threatened me with assault charges then, but luckily he never ended up pursuing it.

If I acted like a hothead and attacked him again, I might not be so lucky this time, especially with all the other patrons of the restaurant as witnesses. I also didn’t want to make things even more awkward in the workplace for Chris, so I kept my cool and turned my gaze away and back to our table. “Company dinner on a Tuesday night? That’s gotta suck.”

He shrugged. “At least it’s not on a weekend. Then I’d have to waste my Saturday night when I could be out slaying.”

I laughed, and Ina rolled her eyes and shook her head. “You two are terrible.”

“Hey, I’m not anymore,” I protested.

“No, now that he’s with Nora, he’s a changed man,” Chris said, rolling his eyes good-naturedly. “Anyway, I better leave you two to your meal and get back to the most boring event of the century. Nothing like dining with thirty other accountants to make you want to end your life.”

“Oh, wait, speaking of accountants,” Ina said, holding up a hand. “Would I be able to talk to you for a minute before you go back to your thing? Our business accountant is going on maternity leave soon, and we need someone to fill her shoes while she’s away. Could you help us find a decent new one who understands our line of work?”

Chris grinned. “Sure. Anything to escape those guys,” he said, taking a seat. “I’ll tell them I’m drumming up new business if they ask. Anyway, there’s plenty of people I could recommend. Some in our company, others elsewhere. Really depends on what exactly you’re looking for.”

I wiped my mouth and stood up. “I actually have to get up very early tomorrow for filming, so why don’t I leave you two to chat about this stuff?”

“Are you sure?” Chris said. “Sorry, didn’t mean to hijack your meal.”

“It’s fine. Like I said, I’ve gotta be up first thing tomorrow morning.”

I said goodbye and headed off to collect my jacket from the restaurant’s small coatroom. After handing over my ticket to the checking attendant, I waited for ten minutes, tapping my foot on the floor impatiently. When the attendant finally returned, his face was drawn with anxiety. “I’m so sorry, Mr. Archer. I can’t find your jacket.”

I frowned. “Well, can you look again? I definitely checked it. I had my phone in the pocket, too.”

“I already looked everywhere,” he said, twisting his hands nervously. “Let me just get the manager.”

I sighed and waited for the manager to show up. After she did an extensive search of the coatroom as well, she returned with a hangdog expression. “My deepest apologies, Mr. Archer. I think your jacket has been taken by someone else by mistake. Sometimes a ticket will be misread and the wrong item handed out to patrons. We’re happy to reimburse you the cost of your—”

“It’s not actually the jacket that’s important, it’s the phone,” I cut in, holding up a hand. I was more than a little irritated by this point. Usually I kept my phone on me at all times, but I’d wanted a quiet evening with Ina to celebrate our impending divorce over dinner and drinks, so I left it with my jacket in the coatroom.

Just my fucking luck that it went missing the one time I did that.

“Again, I’m so sorry. Whoever took it will probably realize quite soon that they received the wrong jacket, and I’m certain he or she will be back as soon as they realize. Can I take your home phone number so we can contact you when that happens?”

I gave the manager my home number, then left the restaurant with a frown on my face. My cell phone had all my contacts in it, not to mention the fact it was linked to my online cloud storage account, which had literally everything on it… including the little tape I’d filmed with Nora all those weeks ago. If the phone fell into the wrong hands, her reputation and livelihood could be on the line, because how many production companies would hire a consultant who created—and accidentally leaked—a sex tape made with an actor who starred in one of the films she worked on? Not many, that was for sure. To add to that, she’d be humiliated and hounded by the media for months, maybe even years.

Christ, I needed to get that phone back without any trouble, because if I was responsible for doing any harm to Nora’s career or life in general, I’d never forgive myself.

And she might never forgive me.