“You don’t really know me, but that’s never stopped you from putting my toes in your mouth.”
“Fuck you,” Aaron said.
“Wish someone would.”
Aaron’s mouth puckered into a scowl; he slugged his wine.
“You used to like that I was popular online,” Emmett said. “Just be honest about what this is. You’ve barely looked at me since you saw me in the bathroom that day. You didn’t like what you saw.”
“All right, fine: the loose skin isn’t exactly a turn-on.”
Emmett had asked for it, but it still hurt.
“Nothing’s fucking good enough, is it?” he erupted. “You didn’t want me when I was fat, and now I’ve lost weight and you have a problem with my skin. Like, sorry, but I can’t just wave a magic wand and be this idealized body. I’m fat, I’ve been fat my whole life, and there’s no getting away from that.”
“Don’t let your followers hear you say that, ‘thetrueme.by.emmett.t.’?”
Emmett’s gut blazed, Hungering for blood and meat and revenge.
He needed to get out before he lost control, before he did something he regretted. He turned and rushed out of the apartment.
Appendix W—Facebook Post
News 8 San Diego
223KLikes •298KFollowers
1hr•
A jogger reported finding bloodstained garments washed up along the San Diego River bikeway. Police believe the items may be connected to the murder of Justin Matthews, a 36-year-old man found slain in his apartment November 6.
CHAPTER 45
Emmett awoke the next morning feeling heavier than he had in months. His dread seemed to possess a physical mass, his body a leaden weight on the mattress. He didn’t want to go to work. There’d be no avoiding Aaron or the awkwardness of their fight.
Then he remembered, heavier still: the announcement.It’s happening today.
He’d thought about taking the day off, giving his followers his full attention, but between Zoom meetings with Monstera, photo shoots, and medical appointments, he’d been in and out of the office for months. The team had complained. He had the feeling he was already on thin ice, even before his blowout with Aaron.
He went in, not realizing a bombshell lay waiting in his inbox.
A teacher had emailed late the previous night claiming that one of the museum’s educators—a twenty-four-year-old man—had been swapping nudes and inappropriate texts with a seventeen-year-old student since a recent field trip. The parents were up in arms, threatening legal action against both the museum and the school.
The crisis was well-timed. The ensuing firestorm swallowed up not only any awkwardness between Emmett and Aaron but all thought of the announcement, which was prescheduled to go live on Instagram at 11 a.m. It wasn’t until he was sitting in an emergency meeting with the senior staff, the museum’s attorney board member rambling on speaker, that Emmett felt his phone buzzing and remembered what was happening online.
Hurrying back to his desk after the meeting, he declined a call from his mom and opened Instagram. Seeing he had more than four thousand new engagements sent an electric jolt of excitement through him.
Sitting, he opened the post.
It was his first time seeing the final edit of the photo. It wasperfect: Emmett, smiling and healthy against a light background, standing beside himself at 324 pounds, Photoshopped in from an older photo. Their clothes were identical in style but five sizes different. The disparate colors told a story of butterfly-like transformation: from dark and drab to brilliant and colorful, the bright springtime hues of his size-medium outfit matching those of the Obexity brand mark in the corner of the image.
In the end, the caption had been an exercise in compromise:
If you’ve been following my #weightlossjourney here, you might’ve been wondering, “How does he do it?” In fact, many of you have asked me that very question!
Today, I’m delighted to be able to give you the answer I’ve been dying to share all along.
Over the last six months, I’ve been participating in a clinical trial of a miraculous new weight loss drug called Obexity™.
