The group did end up going to bed at a somewhat reasonable time. The girls slept in one of the guest bedrooms upstairs while the boys went to sleep in Jeremy's childhood room nearby.

Once the girls were alone, they debriefed on the night like two business associates would talk about a project performance evaluation and next steps. The meeting minutes:

1. Chloe decided she liked Jeremy even more (3 to 5 minutes)

2. The women discussed all available clues to form an analysis of how Jeremy felt about Chloe. They recapped his subtle flirty comments and the way he asked them to stay overnight as he was looking at Chloe with longing in his eyes. Definitely, sexy vibes was the final evaluation (45 minutes to 1 hour)

3. Lana admitted that she was starting to re-think the whole friends thing with Jack (3 to 5 minutes)

4. Chloe provided an analysis of why she thinks Jack is actually a good guy and why it's an indicator of future good behavior. Lana listened intently and didn't deny those remarks. The final evaluation decided by Lana was she will think about proceeding with caution (45 minutes to 1 hour)

5. Final conclusion and next steps: See how things go

When Lana woke up around 7 AM the next morning, she saw that Chloe wasn't in the bed next to her. She got up and checked the bathroom but still no sign.

She tiptoed around the spacious hallway and passed by a room with an open door. She peered in and saw Chloe snuggled on a couch, fast asleep with Jeremy, who was also sleeping. Lana grinned, thinking about their likely late-night rendezvous.

That sneaky, sneaky girl. She totally kissed Jeremy last night.

Lana continued through the hallway to see if Jack was awake. She peered through the crack in the door and saw Jack typing away on his phone.

She was about to knock but something about the way the light from his phone reflected off of his face made her pause. He looks so good. How do people actually wake up looking like that?

Unintentionally, she leaned in closer to get a better look and caused the door to slightly shift. Suddenly Jack looked up and smiled as he saw her.

"Good morning," he said as he set his phone down and began to sit up in bed. He wasn't wearing a shirt, and Lana was mentally preparing herself not to stare at his chest. She walked in and was very aware of her shorts and button-down cloud print top, courtesy of Hannah.

"Hi, Jack. I was just coming to see if you were awake. I passed by Chloe and Jeremy, who are definitely still asleep and looking very cozy together on the couch, I might add."

"Oh yeah, I heard Jeremy get up in the middle of the night, and he must have bumped into her because he never came back after that."

Lana laughed at the thought of Chloe doing the same thing. Then her smile quickly faded.

"Is everything ok?" Jack said, likely noticing her changed expression.

Lana perked back up. "Oh yeah totally, just still a little tired." And maybe a little jealous of my best friend who is not afraid to take what she wants.

"So, Lana." Jack smiled and patted the end of the bed gesturing for Lana to sit down.

"So, Jack," Lana said as she sat.

"I was thinking, since we are friends now—some might even say on our way to becoming the best of friends—" He smiled widely as he spoke. "We should get to know each other a bit more and, you know, build our friendship or whatever."

Lana laughed. He was in a playful mood this morning. "Sure, what do you want to know?"

"Well, let's start with the basics. What did you study in college?"

"Education."

"And how did you end up at Trader Joe's?"

"Well, it started as just a summer job in between teaching semesters, but it actually ended up paying more than my teaching job so I decided to stick with it. Okay, my turn. Hmm, let's see." Lana paused for a moment, thinking over the millions of questions she wanted to ask him. "What's your favorite color?"

"Easy. Red. It's a fun and vibrant color."

"Oh, interesting. Red is not one you hear about very often."

"What's yours?"

"Light blue. It's calming and safe."

"How can a color be safe?"

Lana laughed. "I don't know. I just feel it. Okay, my turn again. How come you don't have a girlfriend?"

"Wow, jumping right into the hard-hitting stuff I see."

Lana blushed. She didn't mean for it to come across as grilling, but she wanted to know. He was so attractive and charming; why wasn't he taken?

"Hmm, well, to be honest, I work a lot and travel a lot when I'm not working. And I'm kind of working on a big side project. I guess I didn't have time to go on dates. My last serious relationship was maybe about five years ago."

Lana was about to ask a follow-up when a loud growling sound came directly from her stomach. Jack laughed as she clutched the perpetrator.

"Let's go get you something to eat," said Jack as he got up and out of bed. Lana looked down at the floor quickly to force herself not to stare at his abs and the V that she clearly already saw. Once he threw a shirt on, he stretched out his hand to lift her off the bed, "Also, I don't mind if you check me out."

In an instant, Lana's heart began fluttering wildly. "Um, what? I wasn't checking you out!"

"No? I must have got that wrong then," Jack responded with a smirk.

"Get over yourself," Lana responded playfully. "If anyone was checking anyone out, you most definitely were checking me out yesterday."

Jack laughed deeply, and Lana's heart resumed its fluttering. "Ah, so I wasn't that subtle, huh? Damn, I thought I was."

She snatched a pillow and playfully threw it at him. It lightly hit his arm before tumbling to the ground. "In your dreams, Hanscom," she said with a smirk as she led the way out of the room.

Jack laughed as he followed behind her. "I'm just teasing you. You know that, right?"

Lana giggled as she stopped in front of the wide open doorway to the room Chloe and Jeremy were in. Jack turned to Lana and whispered, "Okay, on the count of three, we jump on them."

Lana nodded, giddy with excitement.

Jack quietly mouthed "One, two, three" and Lana joined him in aggressively jostling the two lovebirds. Chloe sat up disoriented, and Jeremy was still snoring. No matter how much they tried to shake him awake, Jeremy would just roll over and start snoring again. He finally woke up, unaware of what just happened, when all three of them dragged him off of the couch.

They headed downstairs toward the kitchen and saw a table with a full breakfast buffet set before them.

"Wow, is it like this every morning?" asked Lana.

"Pretty much. It's nice being back home for the meals," said Jeremy.

"Yeah, I'm sure that's the only nice thing about being back home for you," said Chloe rolling her eyes.

She needs her coffee—stat.

The group filled their plates and sat at the large round dining table to eat. A moment later, Hannah joined them. "So, you guys had fun last night, I take it?" she said. "Must be nice to be an adult and not have to worry about going to school." Hannah sighed deeply.

"Oh shoot, I forgot about work," said Jeremy. "Okay, everyone eat quick so Jack can drop you back home. I'll just Uber to work from here to save time."

No one seemed to be in a rush and continued eating their food. Lana devoured the scrambled eggs and smoked salmon before moving on to a bowl of yogurt and granola.

"How was your night last night, Hannah?" asked Chloe as she set down her coffee and began spreading cream cheese on her bagel.

"It was fine. Boring, actually. No new boys came in. I ended up just playing games on my phone. Did you know that you can upload your photo to Google and find a person in a famous painting that looks like you? I tried it a few times and the paintings looked like me. It was scary," she replied.

"Oh, interesting. I think I heard about that a couple of years ago. How do they do that?"

"I think it's something called Google Image Reverse. It's like instead of typing a phrase, you can search for something by an image. And so, they must use that functionality and check all of the paintings they have in the database to find a match," Hannah said.

The group continued to eat but stopped as soon as Chloe dropped her cream cheese knife against her plate. "Guys," she said and stared wide-eyed at Hannah. "I have a brilliant beyond brilliant idea!"

Jeremy laughed. "Nice. I love Parent Trap."

Chloe took in a sharp breath, and Lana laughed. She's so going to be even more in love with him at this point for calling out her favorite movie quote.

"I have to say, Lindsey Lohan is a great actress. Too bad her British twin never became a big star like her," Jeremy continued before taking a bite of his eggs.

"Wait, I thought Lindsay Lohan played both parts in that movie?" Jack raised an eyebrow. "You know she's not a twin... right?"

"No, you're thinking of Mary-Kate Nashley," Jeremy said confidently.

"Huh? No, they're definitely twins," Jack said, rubbing his forehead. "You literally just combined two people's names. Mary-Kate AND Ashley. Did you think they were one person?"

Jeremy stared at Jack—partly shocked at this new revelation and partly embarrassed that it was so obvious. Without another word, Jeremy shrugged and went back to eating his eggs in silence.

"Okay, okay, what's your brilliant idea?" said Jack, directing his attention back to Chloe and letting out a small laugh.

"Okay, guys," Chloe started, getting visibly excited and waving her arms in the air as she spoke. "What if we did a reverse Google image search to find the box?"

The group stared at Chloe with eyebrows raised. Lana shook her head as if to say, 'What are you babbling on about?'

"No, hear me out. I know it's a long shot, but maybe we could find something, anything about this box. I could draw the box based on the descriptions you guys have been saying, and we can upload it into Google and see what comes up. Who knows, maybe we'll find something that could help us track it down?"

"I don't know Chlo, I feel like if the buyer wanted to be anonymous, then why would they post anything about it online?" said Lana skeptically.

"Well, isn't it weird that it was bought by a company? I don't know, you guys. I have a feeling this could work. Could we at least try it and see? If it doesn't work out, then we'll be at the same place as if nothing ever happened," Chloe replied. She looked at Jack, who she likely knew would be behind whatever plan was set forth.

"Might be worth a shot," he said.

"Great! It's settled. Once you all get off work, you can come by my studio, and we'll get to work on the drawing!" Chloe said and then continued eating her bagel as if the case was indeed settled.

"Tonight?" Jack asked pensively. "I can't tonight. I have dinner plans."

Lana looked at Jack, and he didn't go further. She was dying to know who he had dinner plans with. Was it another woman? She was annoyed at herself for even thinking about it.

"Okay, so when can you do it? Or should we just plan for a time without you?" Lana asked with a hint of annoyance in her voice that she didn't intend to convey.

"Um, yeah, you know what? On second thought, I can reschedule my plans. Not to worry. I don't think she'll mind. Let's meet up tonight," he said as irritatingly nonchalantly as possible and continued eating.

Um, excuse me, she?

"No, no, that's okay. Let's do it another night. I have plans tonight as well," Lana said after picking up a spoonful of berries.

"What plans? We're not going out tonight," Chloe said through bites.

Lana paused for a moment, debating whether she should say anything about the date she had, which was technically not yet set, with Grayson. She decided these were her friends, after all, so might as well just go ahead and say it. She was planning to go out with the guy anyway.

"I'm going on a date. Well, technically it's a blind date." Lana quickly stole a glance at Jack, and her stomach was in knots trying to decipher what he was thinking.

Chloe gasped. "Um, Lan, what the hell? Since when has this been on the schedule, and why am I only finding out about it now?"

Lana shrugged. "We have a mutual friend, and he texted me last night asking to take me out. My mom thinks we'll hit it off."

She looked at Jack again, who was now looking straight at his breakfast, picking off a piece of his muffin. Most of his face was hidden, but she could've sworn she saw his brows twitch.

After a moment, he looked up and leaned back in his chair. A weird calmness overtook him. "Well, that'll be fun. What's his name?"

Is it getting a bit hot in here, or is it just me? Lana pulled at the collar of her shirt to allow a draft on her skin. "Uh, I think it's Grayson."

Chloe squealed. "Oh my God, Lana. A blind date? Is everything okay? Like, what is in the water you're drinking these days, and can I have some?"

Lana laughed. "I know, it's weird. I'm a little nervous about it."

"Well, why don't we sus out the situation tonight?" Chloe looked at Jeremy and then at Jack. "We can be undercover and grab a table nearby. That way if the man is secretly psycho, we can rescue her."

"No, no need, guys. That might make me more nervous and uncomfortable. Maybe just you go, Chloe?"

"I'm not going to sit all by myself! No, it's settled. Jack, Jer, and I will have dinner together and sit nearby. Oh shoot, I just remembered that Jack can't. So, I guess it'll just be Jer and I."

At that, Jeremy's face lit up, and he wholeheartedly agreed to play private detective.

Jack chimed in with a devilish smirk playing on his face. "Actually, I hadn't decided yet where I'd be going to dinner tonight, so I can easily be there as backup as well. You might need all the help you can get. Was going to text Tammy later on. Where should we be and what time?"

Ugh. Tammy sounds like a pretty woman's name.

"Um." Lana's chest tightened. Shit.

She paused before the first thought came to mind. "Night+Market in Venice. Seven PM."

Well, hopefully, Grayson likes Thai food.

"Oh, I love that place. He chose well! Hopefully, he's hot!" said Hannah absentmindedly. She clearly was clinging to every word they were discussing.

"Okay, seven at Night+Market it is," said Jack as he grabbed his phone. Lana quickly did the same and responded to Grayson's message from last night. She felt the knots in her stomach grow.

Today is going to be very interesting.

***

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