“Also?” she continues around a mouthful of beef. “I pulled a muscle in my butt two years ago, and I haven’t been able to do more than twenty squats in a day since, and I skip ab day at least three times a month. I run because I’m trying to run away from the people I’m related to and the hoops they make me jump through just so I can feel loved.”
“What—” I start.
Phoebe shushes me.
Tavi’s video keeps rolling. “I eat chicken. I eat cheese. I love hamburgers. And I bought a run-down cacao farm to try to save it three years ago, and I make the most delicious truffles, all full of sugar, and I eat them and I love them. Life isn’t supposed to be about how you look. It’s supposed to be about who youare.”
Holy shit.
Holy fucking shit.
She’s not hesitating as she speaks to the camera. “I’ve been lying to you for years. I’m not successful. I’m not pretty. I don’t like my mom’s handbags. I’m not even rich. All of my money? It comes from a trust fund, and that’s gone now.Poof!I’m supposed to be in this little town in Wisconsin right now, sucking up to my grandmother so that I can get my trust fund back, but I’m not. I hired someone who looks like me to stand in for me so I could take a trip to check on my farm,twice, andmy family didn’t even notice.”
She grabs a truffle, shoves it in her mouth, and moans.
My heart’s in my throat. I’m so damn proud of her that it might burst, and also furious that she didn’t trust me enough to tell me she was leaving town, and more than a little worried about what else is going on in her head and how bad things are wherever she is that she feels like she has to do this.
Her eyes slide closed, and she whimpers softly, the same way she does as she’s coming down off an orgasm, and now my dick’s hard too.
“Wait—twice?” I say to Phoebe.
She shushes me once more as Tavi’s gorgeous blue eyes slide open again, and she stares directly out of the phone screen. “So here’s my last note to my family: I’m not coming back. I don’t want your money. If I want to eat a truffle, I won’t worry about how it’ll sit on my hips for the rest of my life, and you don’t get to define whether or not I’m a good person. For those of you who aren’t my family, there’s a link in my bio if you want to talk about investing in Zero Ducks Chocolates.”
Her voice wavers while my heart takes a roller coaster ride.
Was that a subtle nod to me telling her I saw her saving the ducks? Or not?
She shakes her head and reaches for a cup, tilting it toward the camera. “That’s what I have left to give. Zero fucks. But you can’t put that on a chocolate wrapper, can you? Also, this is totally a cookies-and-cream milkshake. And you know what? All of you watching right now? Don’t let other people put you down. You areawesome. You’re perfect exactly the way you are, and the only thing I’m doing here today is dropping truth bombs, so you can take that to the bank. Surround yourself with people who believe in you, and fuck anyone who doesn’t. Do you. Dothe hellout of doing you. Give zero fucks. And that’s the last piece of advice you’re ever going to get from me.” She puts the straw in her mouth, sucks, moans again, and then her arm blocks the view as she shuts off the video.
It immediately starts up again, but Phoebe switches the phone off and looks at me.
I slowly sink to the steps, pride for her warring with injured pride for myself.
Talk about taking charge of your life.Jesus.She’s fucking amazing.
But she also didn’t say anything about me.
She hasn’t texted.
She hasn’t called.
And—twice?
When did she swap places with her doppelgänger here before?
My phone buzzes in my pocket. Then again. And a third time.
I pull it out, hoping it’ll be Tavi, but it’s not.
It’s friends and family and clients, more piling up by the second as my phone blows up once more.
“Did she tell you she was leaving?” Phoebe asks.
I shake my head.
“Tell me you didn’t sleep with that woman who was posing as her yesterday.”
I scowl at her. “You knew?”
