“Hals?”
“Huh?”
“You should eat more.”
I try the password. It works. My palms sweat around the phone, my heart racing even faster than it did while I opened my present. “I’m full.”
“All right.” He slides my plate over and gets to work on it.
A little red bubble pops up with Finn’s notifications.
Holy shit.
Hundredsof likes, some comments, and a few tags. This truly is the perfect gift, and one that’ll keep me occupied while I’m avoiding Rich and his family this weekend. I scroll through the alerts until I can’t anymore, and I only make it through this morning. “How often do you check this?”
“Couple times a day. Once to post, once to see how it’s doing.”
“Wow.” I wiggle my feet in his lap. “It’s way more exciting when you get to see that bubble pop up with—” My jaw drops when I navigate to his profile. “Finn.”
“What?”
“You have DMs. So many!”
“DMs?”
I widen my eyes at him. “You’ve never checked your messages?”
“I didn’t even know you could get them.”
I browse his inbox. There are too many for me to get through now, so I read the first couple. A request from a half-naked girl to post her photo.Shit. Maybe it’s best he doesn’t read these. The next one mentions the captions, and I smile to myself. Whenever I start to wonder if Finn even needs me for this project, I read comments that make me think my poetry is a big part of the reason we’re doing so well.
I open one with a simple black and white logo as its profile picture—two B’s back to back. They’ve sent more than one message, so I start at the beginning.
Hello Mr. Cohen,
My name is Kelly, and I’m the marketing director here at Butter Boudoir. We’re huge fans of your work and we’d love to talk with you about partnership opportunities.
Underneath her unanswered message is another, sent a week later.
Hello again. I know you must be inundated with requests, but I hope you had a chance to consider my previous message. Can we send you some complimentary lingerie for your photo shoots? Or, if you’re willing to act as an ambassador and promote our brand, we can offer $1000 in exchange for 10 posts. Thanks for your consideration and we look forward to hearing from you.
Kelly
“Oh my God.”
“What?” Finn asks.
I look up, grinning. “There’s a message here from a lingerie company. They want us—me—to model and post their stuff. They’dpayus.”
Finn snorts. “Scam.”
“No, it isn’t.” I click on the profile photo. There are photos of women in Butter Boudoir’s pieces, but nothing nearly as stunning as the work Finn does. I should know, I’m an expert at analyzing art for its market. The description has a website, so I browse their shop. “It’s totally legit.”
“Well, if it is, doesn’t matter. I’m not posting photos of you in lingerie.”
I raise my eyebrows. “What about the stockings?”
“That was a one-time thing, and you were completely covered.”
