“Sounds like you were listening well to your instincts.”
She had been, damn it. If only she’d continued to do so. “Except for a message when his brother died, I cut off contact.” He hadn’t responded to that, but she hadn’t expected him to. “A couple of months ago, though, when I was sick, I reached out again.”
Rhiannon let out a breath, and Jia tried not to cringe. Her friend was clearly disappointed in her. She didn’t blame Rhi. Jia soldiered through. Best to explain what a fool she was all at once. “I was in bed for so long, and I was bored,and it was like he gave me company? Especially at night, because of the time zones. He was awake across the world when everyone here was asleep.”Don’t justify your silliness.
Rhiannon put down her fork. “Oh honey.”
Jia hated the sympathy in her friend’s voice. She lowered her gaze to her plate. So much dismay and disappointment in those two words. “I was excited, because he said he was filming a show here soon. I thought we’d finally meet, but once he got to town, he kept putting off seeing me.”
“Ohhoney.”
“I know.” Jia shook her head. “Looking back now, I can see it’s all from the catfisher’s handbook. I think that’s why I just decided to go to him. It didn’t take much to get invited to his cast party.” Jia dejectedly cut off a piece of potato. “I walked right up to him, and he pretended not to recognize me.”
Rhiannon drained her orange juice like it was something stronger. “Girl—”
“Please don’t tell me you told me so.” Jia’s voice was sharper than she’d intended. Rhiannon deserved to be disappointed in her, but she’d spent her whole life with people who were perpetually poised to say exactly those words, and it was exhausting.
“I would never,” Rhiannon declared, surprising her. “I understand why you did what you did.”
“You do?”
“Of course.” Katrina’s gaze was soft and understanding. “You were sick! Worried and lonely. It’s no surprise he snuck in under your guard. People who do this stuff, they knowhow to target vulnerable people.”
“I’m sorry it turned out like this,” Rhiannon added.
Jia let out a breath she hadn’t realized she was holding. “Thank you for not gloating.”
Katrina nodded. “We’d never gloat, love. We are very sorry.”
Some of the weight fell off Jia’s shoulders at their instant kindness. Still, she tried to absolve herself. “Before we moved to the texting app, the first messages came from his official account. He said he was shy, that’s why he didn’t want to video chat. He was so nice to me, said such beautiful things when I was sick and alone. I was so convinced that he was legit.”
“Eight people have access to Crush’s account,” Rhiannon said quietly. “If this guy is famous at all, he has assistants who have access to his social media, even if it looks like he’s the only one posting. Hell, someone may have even hacked him solely to catfish a bunch of girls.”
Jia took a shaky breath. “I suppose it doesn’t matter. Whether he pretended not to know me or whether he was someone else all along.” Foolishness on her part either way.
“Has he—or whoever he is—messaged you today?”
“I don’t know. I haven’t checked my phone today.”
Rhiannon pressed her fingers to her lips. “You must really be upset.”
“I am.”
Rhiannon pulled out her own phone. “You want to give me his name? I won’t kill him. I can maybe dig around a little.”
“Or you can not dig at all.” Katrina reached across the table and held Jia’s hand. “I think you should let this go. Delete his number and his messages, block him everywhere.”
“You’re saying this?” Rhiannon snorted. “You’re the queen of closure.”
Katrina rubbed her thumb over Jia’s. “I’m the queen of solid mental health. And as you said, there are two possibilities here. Either you were talking to someone who was using a famous man’s face, or that famous man led you on for over a year for God knows what reason and then pretended he didn’t know you last night. Neither of those things will be helped by ever seeing him or talking to him again.”
Something cracked in Jia, like a boat set loose from a dock. It was... loss? That was so silly. She’d never had anything to begin with, in either of those scenarios. “I feel so dumb.”
“Naïve, not dumb.”
Jia cocked her head at Rhiannon. “That’s not much better.”
Rhiannon waved her hand. “We were all naïve at one time. You haven’t had much experience with dating or love. With experience comes cynicism.”
