Page 14 of Worth the Risk

I smile in surprise at her request, lifting my head just as Taylor drops her phone down toward her lap with a guilty look on her face, her wide eyes darting around wildly to avoid mine.

“Did you just—” I tilt my head, confused by what I thought was the shutter sound. “…take a picture of me?”

“No,” she says quickly… too quickly. “I was just putting my phone in my purse, thinking I’ll head out a little early thisweekend for once.” She reaches for her purse, slinging it over her shoulder after shooting upward out of her chair.

“I heard the shutter sound.”

“No, you didn’t. Or if you did, it must have been on your phone.”

I don’t know why she’s lying, but I know damn well when she is and especially when she’s trying to hide something.

“What the hell is with you?” I stand when she walks around her desk and hold my arm out to block her. “Are you planning a birthday party or something? Need my picture for the cake?” I flash her a smile. “At least let me pose. Come on now.” She clutches the straps of her purse, rolling her eyes.

“Fine, yes, I’m planning a party for you.” She reaches into her purse and brings out her phone again, then opens the camera and holds it up. “Pose.” Before I can, she snaps the photo and drops her hands. “Perfect.”

“Hey, let me see it.” I hold out my hand, but she pulls the phone away to step around me. “Fine.” I reach around her, snatching it out of her hand and clicking on the photo she just took that is not only blurry but only has a fraction of my face actually in it. I lift my thumb to swipe across the photo when she darts her hand out.

“Don’t!” I stare at the panicked expression on her face, then back down at the phone.

“Well, now I gotta.” I smile wildly, swiping my thumb to bring up the next photo which is, in fact, another photo of me from just a moment ago when I was sitting on the couch. I scroll again. This time it’s a video of me on the couch, my head down when I was texting Mia. “What is this?”

I turn to face her, her cheeks flaming as she drops her gaze to the floor for a second. “Nothing, it’s nothing.”

“Nothing?” I crook my brow. “Are you making me a dating profile?”

“What? No,” she says in honest shock. “I just—you have great style, you know that; everyone knows that. I thought the internet might think so too and they do.”

“So you posted a picture of me to?—”

“Here.” She holds out her hand. “Let me just show you. It’s easier than explaining it.”

I hand her phone back to her and she switches over to another app. She taps the screen a few times and spins the phone around to face me. I squint, trying to understand what I’m staring at when I see a few other photos and videos of me clearly posted on a social media app.

“I think I still need an explanation.”

“So you know this app, everyone’s been posting videos on it and going viral?”

“Yeah, everyone uses it.”

“Except you,” she corrects. “So yeah, anyway, I got bored one night after scrolling on there and I decided to post a picture of you because—ugh, this is so embarrassing and hard to explain but there’s this thing called BookTok.”

“BookTok?”

She walks over to the love seat and takes a seat, patting the other cushion. “This might take a few minutes.”

After she finishes explaining it and lets me scroll through some of the comments, my cheeks hurt from smiling so much.

“So you’re not mad? I know it was stupid. I was just—lonely and bored like I said.”

“Nah, I’m not mad at all. I think it’s hilarious.” I click back to the profile, only four different posts on the account so far.

“You dress so well, you know that,” she says, gesturing toward me. “I thought women and even guys would love your outfits, but it seems they like a lot more than just that. And I certainly never expected your first video to go viral, but after that, I felt like I couldn’t stop and let everyone down.” We bothlaugh, her shoulder bumping into mine. “But I’m done with it; it was fun for a second but I’m over it now.”

“Over it? Looks like I’m just getting popular,” I tease, handing her back her phone. “And that last picture you took of me was decent so you can’t let it go to waste.”

She shakes her head, laughing. “I knew it would give you a big head. I promise to post the picture, give the people one last hoorah.”

Neither of us get up; we just stay seated, smiling and chuckling at each other. A pit forms in my stomach when I look over at her, that smile making me want to lean in and kiss her and tell her I don’t give a fuck what anyone else thinks about me but her.

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