“What?” Emmett reached for the bread basket.
“I mean.” Her eyes flicked around, inviting the others to back her up. “I’m just saying. Clearly you’re not ordering like that every day.”
“I’ll take that as a compliment.”
“It’s not.”
“Honey—” Mark said to no avail.
“What’s going on, Em? Don’t tell me you’re back on that hCG thing.”
“Haven’t you seen his Instagram?” Chris said. “Our little bro’s been killing it at the gym.”
“You know I don’t do social media,” Abby snapped.
“He’s famous,” Jayla said. “He has like twelve thousand followers.”
“Wow,” Shivani said.
Aaron put his arm around Emmett, glowing. “And all in what, four, five months?”
“Buthow—” Abby said, before Shivani cut her off, phone in hand.
“What’s your handle?”
“I just changed it. It’s thetrueme.by.emmett.t.”
“This is great,” Shivani said a moment later, scrolling through his grid. “I need some weight loss inspo. I’ve been trying to shift these ten pounds since Dev was born.”
“I do coaching too,” Emmett said.
“Ohgod,” drawled Abby, about to drain her merlot. Her expression shifted under everyone’s stares, and she lowered her glass. “I just don’t get the whole social media thing. All those airbrushed photos and sponsored posts. It just seems so curated. So superficial.”
“Isn’t all social interaction curated and superficial?” said Kumail.
“Parts of it might be,” Emmett said. “But just because something’s curated doesn’t mean it isn’t real. I get DMs every day from people saying my content inspires them or gives them hope or makes them cringe. Those reactions are real. The way they make me feel is real.”
“But those people don’t know you. Who cares what they think?”
“When the girls at school used to make fun of you for being fat, they didn’t know—”
“Okay,” Jayla said. “Abby, this is your night. Tell us about your court case!”
Emmett stewed, and not just about losing the spotlight. Who was Abby to give him a hard time about his eating? She’d struggled with eating disorders through most of her teens. She might pretend to be a health nut now, but everyone knew that was Mark’s doing.
Eventually the conversation circled round to Aaron. Everyone was interested in his job at the museum. “That must be so fun,” Shivani said.
“It can be. We have a new education manager and things have been a little…” He paused, checking Emmett’s expression. “I’ll just say it: the girl’s an idiot.” A ripple of surprise and guilty laughter went around the table.
“Serves you right,” Emmett said.
“What do you mean?” Jayla asked.
“Emmett didn’t tell you?” Aaron said. “He was in the running for the job. Unfortunately it didn’t work out.”
“But it brought you together?” said Shivani. “Seems like it worked out pretty well to me.”
“Right,” Aaron said. “I mean, so far it has.”
