“That’s fantastic. Congratulations, man.”
Alex stayed at the party just long enough to say goodbye to Trent and have another beer, then walked home, thinking about what Garrett had said. And feeling guilty for how he’d treated Julia. They couldn’t end up together, but she was still his neighbor and his friend. He owed her an apology.
CHAPTER TWENTY-ONE
It was Wednesday, and Julia was so busy with all the new business, she’d barely taken time to process Alex’s insulting accusation. Well, that wasn’t entirely true. She’d thought briefly about what he said but delayed a deep-dive analysis because, the more she looked at it objectively, the more she realized he made a very good point. She wasn’t being fair. So, to avoid adjusting her plan, she put it on the back burner to dissect later.
Saturday, she’d gone out with Kevin, the widowed dad who’d been set up by his sister. Julia had harbored high hopes, but by the time the bread came, it was clear he wasn’t ready for another relationship. All he talked about was his dead wife, which was fine. He was still grieving, and Julia understood that. But he wasn’t going to be her knight in shining armor. At least not anytime soon. She’d listened sympathetically, and they’d parted as friends, but she wouldn’t be seeing him again.
Since then, she’d been on and off the phone with Ellie making decision after decision about which sponsor offers to accept and how to produce videos fast enough to capitalize on their momentum. A lot of this notoriety would wane, so they were taking advantage of every opportunity as quickly as possible.
New followers and fresh sponsors would keep the social media channel trending upward. That would be good for long-term income. The book sales were free money that would keep her comfortable for a long time. In the four days after Thanksgiving, she’d earned two million dollars in royalties. She wouldn’t see that money until the following month, but just knowing it was coming put her mind at ease.
Right as she was about to take a break, Ellie called again.
“Have you been checking comments on your last video?” Ellie asked.
“No, have you?”
“There are so many now, I’ve gotten behind for sure. But you need to see what DaddyMack01 posted yesterday. It’s bad, Julia. I think you should call the police.”
“What? How bad could it be? It’ll take me forever to find it. Just tell me what it says.”
“It says, ‘Bitch, I know where you live. I’m coming for you and your son. My girl left me because of you, and now it’s time you pay the price for your arrogant, stupid words of wisdom.’ That last part is in quotes.”
“He knows I have a son?” She felt the color drain from her face.
“And supposedly where you live.”
“Shit. Okay. That is pretty bad. I’ll call the police and see what they can do.”
“I thought about deleting the post, but I’ll leave it until we know if the police need it. They should be able to get info from the embedded code.”
“Thanks, Ellie. Talk to you later.”
She hung up and searched for the nonemergency number for the police department. After being put on hold several times, she finally explained her situation to someone. They said they could take a complaint and try to obtain the person’s name from the social media company, but told her that rarely worked out. Reading between the lines, Julia realized they were blowing her off and couldn’t do anything to protect her.
She didn’t blame them. There was little to go on, and it wasn’t like the threat was so specific they could show up at a certain time and stop it. After hanging up, she closed her eyes and took a few calming breaths.
When she opened them, the Christmas tree lights had come on according to the timer. Calvin was hunched over a piece of paper at the coffee table, working on his letter to Santa. She didn’t want to leave, but perhaps they should stay with her mom for a while.
At the very least, she would inform the doorman and the super, so they could be extra cautious about strangers in the building.
A knock snapped her out of her reverie. Alex stared back through the peephole. Not what she needed right now. He knocked again, and she sighed before opening the door. He stalked in without invitation.
“Hi,” she said. “Come on in.”
“Did you see the threatening comment on your latest video?” he asked, not catching her sarcasm.
“If you mean the threat, yes.”
“Hi, Mr. Alex,” Calvin yelled from the living room. “I’m writin’ my list for Santa.”
“Sounds good, buddy,” Alex said, waving. “Did you call the police?”
“Yes, but they admitted there’s not much they can do.”
“Well, I don’t think you should just wait around until this jackass actually does something.” He whispered so Calvin wouldn’t hear, which she appreciated. She didn’t want him alarmed or worried.
