Page 47 of The Funnel to You

“I will tell Ashley to come to my apartment for the meeting.”

“Sasha, please, don’t go. What are you thinking right now?” He is broken. Not as broken as I am though.

Chapter Thirty-Four

Matt

Ithink I fucked that up.

Chapter Thirty-Five

Sasha

Toasted Marshmallow Iced Coffee

Social Post: Even for a virtual meeting, I like to get fully dressed in something I feel put together in. Yes, even down to the shoes. #sashaloveslipstick #poweroutfit #businesswoman #pinkeveryday #wfhstyle

Image Description: Mirror selfie with my outfit for today: black slacks, an oversized emerald green sweater and gold jewelry.

Twenty minutes after I leave Matt’s house, I am sitting in the middle of my bed staring at my wall. I hear a soft knock on the door and then hear footsteps. The bed moves a little next to me as Kylie sits down next to me.

“What happened? Matt is blowing up Carter’s phone and Ashley is blowing up mine. We haven’t answered yet but are getting the idea that something happened.”

“I don’t even know where to start, Kylie. I turned my phone off when I got home. I feel so overwhelmed right now. Like my entire existence is a lie. Nothing was real.”

“What are you talking about? Just start at where it makes sense. I’m here to listen. My phone is in the other room and yours is off. I’m here babe, let me in.”

The floodgates open and I relay the story to Kylie.

Earlier that morning

Matt sits down next to me and reaches for my hand. I pull it away and just glare at him.

“I need you to talk right now, Matt. No touches, no excuses. What the hell did you do?” I level my stare at him. I am starting to feel angry and I need him to know that. He can’t talk his way out of this. I need to know what happened.

“A little more than two years ago, Ashley started following you on social media. She would share your posts to her stories and would send me things when she wanted to try a new technique or a product line that you were featuring. After a few weeks, I saw you in person for the first time. You were at the coffee shop behind me talking to Kylie. You were the most beautiful person I had ever seen. Your content on social media didn’t do you justice. You took my breath away. I recognized you immediately.

“I think you had 10,000 followers at the time. You were having fun with your channels and even though you weren’t focusing on it at that time, you loved it. And it showed. And I knew I wanted to help you then. I just didn’t know how. I said hi when you grabbed your coffee next to mine and you smiled at me before walking away.”

“I don’t remember you.” I confess after taking a moment to try to remember the interaction.

“I wasn’t expecting you to. You were in the middle of a conversation and it was early in the morning. I think you were going hiking with Kylie afterwards.”

“So, then what happened?” I prompt him to continue

“I just kept watching for a while – just on social media. I never came to your house or even tried to figure out where you lived. I needed to keep that separate and didn’t want to come across as creepy.”

I have to hold back a grunt at that point. “This is feeling a little creepy, Matt,” I scoff at him.

“I know. Just, let me get this out, please. The next week I saw you again. You had been invited to participate in an event as a makeup influencer and you had declined it. You were talking to Kylie about your social anxiety and how you hated going to new places, especially if you didn’t know anyone. While you talked to her about the event and how you wish you could have made it happen, I pulled up the invite.”

“How???” I ask a little louder than is probably appropriate.

“I don’t always use fully above-board procedures for helping my clients, Sasha. I hacked into the system for the company who was hosting the event and looked at the guest list. And you were right, you didn’t know anyone that was going. I knew that if I wanted to help you, I was going to have to take a longer approach to it and make sure you met the right people in a way that you felt comfortable and then gradually go from there. Hopefully, your confidence would grow as the invites continued to come in.

“The next week, I sent a coupon for someone I knew at a local nail salon to go into Home Depot. You helped her in the aisles. You started the conversation and talked a bit about the work she does. That was all you. She came in a few more times to finish her project and you were the one she worked with. Again, that was all you. About a month later, you got an invite for a girls’ night out at her nail salon. She had been wanting to do one for a while and asked me to help with the email blast. I added a photo of her so you would know who it was coming from and made sure you were on the email list. That was the first event that I helped make sure you got to go and were comfortable saying yes to the invite.”

“The first one? How many were there?”

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