Page 19 of Fool Me

“It is! It is her!” squealed the shorter one.

Sadie recoiled as if slapped. She hunched her shoulders and slid her entire body under the table, landing cross-legged on the cold linoleum. After the first date, she’d been a mystery girl in cute pics with a B-lister. Now that the second date went even more viral, internet sleuths were homing in on her. They didn't yet know where she lived, but they’d discovered her name. Now, total strangers in Rick’s Diner recognized her!

“Okay, girls, head on back to your own table,” she heard a friendly but firm Rick say to the teens. “Your iced lattes are melting and no sending your fries back because they’ve gotten cold.”

Rick squatted down to Sadie’s level. “You can come out now, sweetheart,” he said. His voice held sympathy, but barely repressed laughter crinkled the corners of his deep brown eyes.

“No, thanks,” Sadie said. “I’ll take my breakfast down here if you don’t mind.” The view from beneath the booth wasn’t half bad, actually—some old green gum stuck to the bottom of the tabletop and a panoramic view of the latest shoe fashions of Hollywood’s diner elites. Maybe Rick would let her camp out under this booth for the next year? In time, and with a little luck, she’d become like the green gum—a forgotten bit of refuse.

“C’mon, Sade,” Ginny said, sliding down next to Sadie in her under-table refuge. “Whatever happened to wanting to be a celebrity? You made it! Enjoy it!”

“Enjoy being made a fool of by Grant Mason?” Sadie said in a whisper scream.

“No one else knows he’s making a fool of you—they’re all convinced you’re the cutest little#MudPuppiesinLove.”

“And all publicity is good publicity, right?” Rick added, still crouching low by their table.

Ginny nodded vigorously. “It is. In fact, let’s get some T-shirts that say, “Keep Calm and Mud On” with her face on the back and sell them here at the diner!”

Sadie opened her mouth, ready to command them both to vacate her safe space, when she received a sharp kick from Monique. Ginny must have received an identical and simultaneous missive, because she popped back up to the surface at the exact same time as Sadie, both rubbing the future bruise their respective shins would soon be showing off.

“Ow,” they said in unison.

“Oh, I’m sorry, did I interrupt your important meeting?” Monique said, sounding not one bit sorry.

Feeling on display again, Sadie attempted several complicated and disjointed maneuvers with her hands and shirt collar to try to hide her face and hair.

“What are you doing now?” Monique asked.

“I don’t want to be recognized by anyone else.”

After an impressive eyeroll, Monique whipped off the navy baseball cap she’d been wearing and tossed it across the table toward Sadie. “Here. Wear it low and stuff your mop top into it.”

Rick, standing now too, let out a belly laugh. “I knew this spinster pact would get interesting!” Sadie could hear his continued laughter as he sauntered back to the kitchen.

“What’s the plan for date three?” Monique asked. Her voice dropped an octave. “And it better be good.”

Sadie’s shoulders slumped till her chin practically disappeared into her neck. “I…don’t have one yet.”

Monique rubbed her forehead with one finger as if she were developing a headache. “Maybe it’s time to call your old roommates. Since theyactuallydated him, they probably know thine enemybetter than you.”

“Maybe,” Sadie said, but she didn’t want to. None of her roommates had stayed in the LA area, but she texted or chatted with one or another of them every couple of months, keeping in touch. At least once a year, they did a group call, and it had been nearly a year since their last one. She didn’t want to call them now because it would be so much more fun to talk to themaftershe had exacted revenge on their behalf. “I’m sure I’ll come up with something. Honestly, I figured after this second date the whole thing would be over. J would keep her contract with B, I would get my bit part in her next movie, and Grant would…Grant would…”

“Be screwed,” Ginny said lightly.

“Well…” Sadie said.

“Persona non grata,” Ginny continued, “a Hollywood untouchable, yesterday’s beefcake, the last of the Cutehecans, sitting atop the trash heap of?—”

“STOP!” Sadie yelled, bringing half the diner to a standstill.

Ginny looked at her, wide-eyed. “What? That’s what you want, isn’t it? To destroy him?”

Sadie pulled Monique’s cap a little lower on her head, saying nothing.

“Itiswhat you want though, right?” Monique said, her tone more Spanish Inquisition than sisterly question.

Sadie stared into the spinning cream in her coffee, wishing she could make her mind a whirling black cloud, impenetrable even to her. Lingering on the details of the evening before would only cause more confusion.

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