High Profile

46

Sunny sat at the bar with Jesse in the Gray Gull. She put the pictures of Jenn and Timothy Patrick Lloyd on the bar.

“You recognize Jenn,” Sunny said. “The guy she’s with is the stalker.”

Jesse drank some scotch.

“Who she denies knowing,” he said.

“And who denies knowing her,” Sunny said.

Sunny looked at Jesse’s face as he stared down at the pictures. His face showed nothing. The couple in the pictures was embracing.

“They are not strangers,” Jesse said.

“No.”

“You have a plan?” Jesse said.

“My plan was to see what you thought I should do.”

Jesse nodded. She wondered how it must feel for him, looking at the pictures of Jenn with another man. It wasn’t like a surprise, but it had to be painful, Sunny thought. She sipped her martini and looked at him over the rim. He was still looking at the pictures. His face was empty.

“I guess we need to confront her with these pictures,” Jesse said.

“I can do that,” Sunny said.

“No,” Jesse said. “I need to do it.”

“Why?”

“It’ll be easier for her,” he said.

“For you to catch her in deceit instead of me?”

Jesse nodded.

“She’ll be less mortified,” he said.

Sunny didn’t say anything.

“Imagine if it were Richie,” Jesse said. “Wouldn’t you want to do it?”

“Proving that I’m crazy,” Sunny said, “doesn’t prove that you’re not.”

“I know.”

“She...” Sunny started and stopped.

“I know,” Jesse said.

They both drank.

“Is there anything she could do that would make you give her up?” Sunny said.

“I don’t know,” Jesse said. “For a while there, when we were in L.A. together...”

“I remember,” Sunny said. “And now?”

Jesse stared into his drink.

“I love you, Sunny,” he said. “Hell, I probably love Molly Crane.”

“Whom you’ve never touched,” Sunny said.

“Of course not.”

“But Jenn is Jenn,” Sunny said.

“Yes.”

“God save me,” Sunny said. “I understand this.”

“I know you do,” Jesse said.

He finished his drink and motioned for a refill.

“So what do you want me to do with her?” Sunny said.

“Stay with her,” Jesse said.

Sunny nodded. She finished her drink and nodded to the bartender.

“When will you have time to talk with her?” Sunny said.

Jesse smiled slightly and shook his head.

“I can make time,” he said. “It’s when will I have the strength.”