Page 48 of The Wild Card
Collin lifts his head, narrowing his blue eyes at me. They’re very nice eyes—the vivid blue of a cloudless summer day.
Not that I should be thinking about his eyes right now.
“Who said anything about ending it?” he asks.
I blink at him. “Me. Right now.”
“I thought we were going to discuss this.”
“We’re discussing. I’ve had time to think, and I don’t want to ask you to lie for me.” I look at Thayden. “We’re not going to keep pretending to date.”
“I don’t agree,” Collin says, and I can’t imagine why he’s being so bullish about this.
But it makes me want to be stubborn right back. “I don’t need you to agree.”
“Don’t you? Even a fake relationship involves input from two people.” Collin’s lips curve up into a smile I’d like to wipe right off his face.
“And if one person doesn’t want to be in the relationship, it isn’t a relationship.”
Collin turns to Thayden. “Obviously, we haven’t decided anything.”
The lawyer looks between us, clearly amused. “Obviously. Might I make a proposal?”
Though Collin still looks irritated with Thayden, he waves a hand. “Like I could stop you from doing anything. Interrupting breakfasts, making terrible suggestions, and so forth.”
Thayden continues as though Collin hasn’t said anything. “What I’d like to suggest is this: you both continue this ruse for the time being. You”—he points to me—“apparently need a boyfriend for some kind of job. Which, by the way, isn’t legal in case you want to pursue action. For my purposes today, though, I’m happy to go with it. And you”—he points to Collin—“need some positive social media to balance out the negative stories.”
“What negative stories?” I ask just as Collin says, “How would Molly help with social media?”
Thayden glances between us, grinning. “Ah. So, you two haven’t discussed Collin’s ex’s negative social media campaignorthe fact that Molly has over a million followers.”
Collin glances at me, obviously startled. “What now?”
I guess me being an influencer is a factoid Chase hasn’t shared with Collin. I certainly didn’t talk about it with him. It’s refreshing, honestly. But I don’t like what I’m hearing about his ex trashing him. I haven’t seen anything about Collin online, and I don’t even think he has public profiles.
“What did your ex do?”
Collin glares at Thayden. “Nothing.” His gaze returns to me. “You have over a million followers?”
Thayden responds before I can. “On multiple platforms. Combined, it’s almost two million.”
A flush rises up my neck to my cheeks. Though I’ve been dreaming about quitting, I am proud of what I built, and it’s nice to hear the appreciation in Thayden’s voice. Sometimes people who have regular jobs diminish what I do.
Yes, sure—it’s fluffy and not on the same level as lawyering.
And no—it’s not always consistent income and has a lot of ugly side effects like mean comments and sometimesoverzealous fans. It also is something I’m thinking more and more about walking away from altogether.
But I worked hard and built something big that allowed me to pay off my student debt. Hopefully, it will build back up soon enough so I’m not feeling the financial strain while waiting for work with Brightmark to start. Then I can decide if I want to even keep creating content or actually want to shut it all down.
“I didn’t know that,” Collin says. I clock his expression, which seems to be impressed. The heat in my cheeks deepens.
I shrug. “We still don’t know a lot of things about each other.”
“This is adorable and all, but let’s get back to the matter at hand,” Thayden says. “You two sticking together is good for you both. A few appearances together on Molly’s feed would go a long way to do damage control with Liza’s campaign to smear your name.”
“What has your ex been doing?” I ask. “Sorry, I’m still a little lost.”
Collin rubs his eyes, sliding down in the booth like he wants to disappear underneath the table. “Thanks for airing out my dirty laundry and bringing up my ex, Thayden. Can I please retract this breakfast from your workable billing hours?”
