Olive was watching the four people at the table six feet away from her. They had been speaking in low voice for the last twenty minutes. But Olive tried to exercise her body language reading skills and discern what was going on…

Ned was refusing to look at Chuck or the girl who had come in with them. He would occasionally glance up at Emerson with such a pitiable expression in his beautiful, warm eyes that Olive wanted to do nothing but go over and pull him into her arms and soothe him like a child.

Hmm…

Olive concluded Ned was feeling guilty about something and wanted Emerson's sympathy.

Now. What about the others?

Chuck had her "I'm trying to be understanding" expression. She was trying to make eye contact with Ned, but was failing miserably. So she would look at the new girl, but the girl also wouldn't really look at Chuck. Then Chuck would look at Emerson.

Conclusion: Chuck knew what was going on but was trying to be understanding and caring.

Next, Emerson.

Emerson was looking at everyone with a slight scowl on his face. When Ned tried to get sympathy from him, Emerson would snort derisively and take a loud, noisy gulp of his coffee. When Chuck tried to look at Emerson, Emerson would raise his eyebrows and glance at the girl.

Conclusion: Emerson was upset that he was caught in the situation.

Lastly, the girl.

Olive took a minute to look her over. The girl had dark brown hair which could have been her best feature if it were styled properly. It was tied into a messy pony knot at the back of her head. She was wearing a lime green sweat shirt and a brown denim skirt. Not exactly the colour combination Olive would wear, but it seemed to work on her. Sort of.

Olive shook her head. Why was she looking at this girl's appearance? It was completely irrelevant.

She looked at her mannerisms.

The girl was looking down at her uneaten slice of pie, her hands folded on her lap under the table. She would occasionally glance hesitantly at Ned and Chuck, but she did not dare look at Emerson.

Conclusion: She, too, was feeling guilty about everything.

Olive took all these into consideration as she wiped the counter top. Then, with a jolt, she realized that there could only be one explanation to that scenario:

Emerson discovered Ned cheating on Chuck with the unknown girl.

Fury rose in Olive. How dare Ned cheat on Chuck? How dare Ned cheat on Chuck with a girl who was not Olive?

Men.

Olive watched Chuck say something to Emerson. There was a snort and Emerson left the table. To her joy, he came over to Olive.

"So what's happening over there?" asked Olive, nodding in the direction of the remaining trio.

Emerson looked at Olive. "What do you think is happening?"

Olive was on the verge of blurting out her cheating theory, but it suddenly felt stupid. She bit her lip and answered, "Nothing."

"That's right," said Emerson. "Nothing. A good twenty minutes and we've got nothing out of her…" He went away muttering to himself.

Olive looked over at Ned, Chuck and the girl again. By the sound of it, that girl was there because of an investigation. Olive felt happier. That meant Ned had not cheated on Chuck (that she knew of) and that there was no other object of Ned's affections.

She would have watched longer, but someone wanted to order. With a sigh, Olive turned away and attended to the customers because that was what Ned had hired her to do and would have expected her to do. God knew that Olive would have done whatever Ned expected her to, except stop loving him.

Let us now shift our attention to the table where Ned, Chuck and the girl were sitting…

A/N: Hey guys. Sorry it's taken so long for me to update! I've been dry on inspiration and busy with a lot of other stuff…I hope that the chapter is not contradictory with Pushing Daisies chronology and events. I've not watched the series for a long, long, long time. Hope you guys like this chapter. It's for all of you who have reviewed.