“Technically, yes.” I pushed the phone away. “I’m too scared of the comments to watch it, though.”
“Scared?” He laughed. “Girl, people love you.”
My heart stopped. Then it kicked up to a fast tempo, like I was in the middle of a marathon. “Really?”
“Really. Let me read you some of my favorite comments.” He cleared his throat before taking on high-pitched impressions. “She’s right, influencers get anything they want,andWhale girl spits nothing but facts,and my favorite,Glad Noah finally found someone who puts him in his place.” Calculator Cal gasped like we were two teenagers in a gossip session. “Are you dating Noah Hansley?”
“Of course not!” I squeezed my coffee cup so hard the top flew off. “I don’t know how that can be the impression anyone gets from that video. Did you miss the part where I called him an asshole?”
And he called me a judgmental princess.
“Did you forget the part where you also said he had a pretty face and hot body?”
Did caffeine heighten or worsen anxiety? Too late. I downed the rest of the topless latte. “We only complimented the physical stuff. That doesn’t mean anything.”
I hated how gentle Calculator Cal’s voice was when he said, “He did say you were beautiful and witty. And he let you wear his jacket when he was obviously freezing.”
“…he was?”
“Whoever took this video has amazing camera quality. I mean, you can literally see the goose bumps on his arms.”
Guilt, the filthy traitor, grew stronger in my chest. I yelled at him while wearing his jacket? I never returned that jacket, either. It was buried somewhere in the bottom of my carry-on, which I inevitably won’t unpack for another week.
“I need to get back to work,” I hinted.
“Fine, fine.” He pushed out of the chair, then lowered his voice. “But you always complain about how Victoria closes doors for you instead of opening them. This looks like a newdoor that she doesn’t have the key to. Knock, knock, bitch. Time to open it.”
Once Calculator Cal was gone, I pulled out my phone and opened Instagram. I hadn’t checked it since stalking Noah’s posts in California, and I didn’t want to set any expectations now.
Fifteen thousand new followers.
The phone slipped out of my hand and onto the floor. Whispering a prayer to the gods of phone screens that it didn’t shatter, I picked it back up and double-checked the number. Yep, my follower count doubled overnight.
I had never bothered to focus on social media. All I did was post the photos Victoria never let me attach to my articles, and I shared links to those articles. But now, people were leaving comments about how good my photos were. About how pretty I looked during a recent girls’ trip to Charleston. About how they wanted to read my column.
And read it they would.
Knock, knock, bitch.
4
NOAH
I woke up to the sound of my phone vibrating nonstop. Typically, I silenced it before going to bed, but I couldn’t be trusted to accomplish much after an exhausting flight home. I rolled across the bed, reaching one arm out from under the duvet to pull my phone off the charger. The most recent text was from my cousin.
Nathan: Is that video online really you?
My sister blasted me with texts, too.
Daphne: Why is there a video of you trending on TikTok??
Daphne: Who is this girl?
Daphne: I wanna meet her
I was about to respond and ask what she was talking about when another text from Ezra, my manager, came in.
Ezra:Call me ASAP
