Page 55 of Role Play
But I’m not fine. Especially not when readers in Tila’s line start using my table as a convenient place to set down their belongings while they wait for their photo op.
“Do you mind if I leave my purse here?” a woman asks, already dropping her designer bag on top of my carefully arranged books. “I’ll just be a minute.”
“Actually—” I begin, but she’s already walked away.
Another woman places her stack of Tila’s books on my table. “Thanks, hon. Could you watch these for me? I want to get a picture before she signs these.”
Before I can answer, Forrest interjects smoothly. “I’m afraid the author needs her space. You understand.”
The woman looks startled, as if noticing me for the first time. “Oh, sorry. I didn’t realize… Are you an author too?”
The “too” is what does it—the casual assumption that I’m an afterthought, a nobody compared to the celebrity next door.
“Yes,” I manage. “I am.”
She glances at my display without interest. “Cool. Well, good luck with that!”
I sink back into my chair, mortification burning through me. This is worse than being invisible—it’s being seen and dismissed.
Daphne’s expression has morphed from concern to barely contained rage. “This is such bullshit,” she hisses. “After what she did to you, I want to line her thongs with fire ants?—”
“It’s ancient history,” I mutter, though the reopened wound feels fresh as ever.
Forrest glances between us, clearly trying to piece together the story, but before he can ask, I overhear a snippet of chitchat from Tila’s table that turns my blood cold.
“…so excited about my new agent. He’s incredible.” Tila’s voice carries, loudly enough for me to hear. “Dane Spellman himself cold-called me to offer representation. Said my work was exactly what he’s looking for.”
Dane Spellman.The agent who said I was a “dime a dozen.” The agent who only wanted me for access to my father, and who now apparently thinks Tila Valentina—a woman who built her career mocking authors like me—is worthy of his elite roster.
Something inside me splinters.
I stand abruptly, my chair scraping against the floor. “I need some air.”
“Sora—” Forrest reaches for me, but I’m already moving, pushing past bewildered attendees, ignoring Daphne’s call behind me.
I make it to the hallway before the tears start, hot and humiliating. A sob builds in my chest, but I swallow it down, ducking into the nearest restroom.
The woman in the mirror looks so pathetic—red-eyed, mascara beginning to smudge, her carefully applied lipstick bitten away. This is what rock bottom looks like: crying in a public bathroom while the woman who tried to destroy your career celebrates her success twenty feet away.
Maybe my dad was right. Maybe I should quit while I still have a shred of dignity left.
chapter 14
Forrest
“What the hell just happened?” I stare at the exit Sora disappeared through, torn between following her and giving her space. The pain on her face had been so raw, so visceral, it felt like a physical blow.
Daphne grabs my arm, her fingers digging into my bicep. “That,” she says through gritted teeth, “was the aftermath of Tila-fucking-Valentina.”
“I gathered that much. But why did Sora look like she’d seen a ghost?”
Daphne releases my arm to aggressively arrange and rearrange the stacks of Sora’s books. Her movements are sharp, angry.
“Because Tila is the closest thing the romance community has to a professional hit woman.” She lowers her voice, throwing a venomous glance toward the adjacent table where Tila is holding court, her crimson hair like fire under the ballroom lights. “Two years ago, when Sora really needed marketing help, she paid Tila to promote her book.”
“Paid her?” I echo, my eyes following a young woman who casually drops her purse on our table without so much as a glance in my direction.
“Yeah, a paid collaboration. It’s like Nike paying LeBron James to show off their shoes. Tila was this rising BookTok influencer with a massive following. She’d feature indie books for a fee—supposedly to help authors get exposure.” Daphne shoves the woman’s purse back at her with a fake smile that doesn’t reach her eyes. “Except with Sora, Tila decided to pivot her brand. Instead of promotion, she posted this vicious takedown video that went viral.”
