Page 18 of Hot Mess

“You’re kidding me, right?”

I raised my brows and shook my head. I didn’t know what he was going on about.

“After everything you do, part of my job is to scour the socials to see what got picked up. I need to make sure you don’t have an ex out there who has just announced she is naming her baby after you and hinting you might be the father, even if you haven’t seen her in two years.”

“Okay.” I started looking through the pictures.

“You were at a costume party with industry and industry leeches. I’ve been collecting pictures for days. Anything and everything to see what they caught of you.”

Shit. “Fuck.” I spit out under my breath. I tried to remember everything about my time with Kayla. I couldn’t recall cameras, or flashes. My memory’s vision was clouded over with nothing but her body. It wasn’t a bad memory, I really enjoyed being able to close my eyes and see her but right now I needed to not be focused on those perfect breasts.

Had anyone been there with a camera? I didn’t think so. We had been pretty well secluded.

I flipped through the stack of pictures.

“What are you looking for?”

“Any images of Kayla?”

“Oh, her name is Kayla? How was she dressed?”

She wasn’t and that was the problem. “Ishtaria.”

“You’re shitting me, right? Nick, you did not hook up with some chic dressed as Ishtaria while you were Mithrandes. Please tell me she at least knew who you were?”

“I think she was the only person to have recognized me. And what’s ironic, she didn’t even watch the show. She was in the costume because someone gave it to her.’

I pulled out the printout of the picture with me and one of the other Mithrandes. The guy had posted it with the caption, “Mithrandes represent. Rumor was Nick S. was at the same party but never saw him.”

I scanned over the comments. People were not kind. It cracked me up, there I was in costume looking the exact same way as I did on screen and people were still dogging me saying I didn’t look a thing like the character or the actor.

“Did you have to print out the comments too?” I asked.

I tossed the picture onto Isaac’s desk. He picked it up and chuckled before putting it back.

“Please, those comments are gold. I wonder at what point will any of them realize you were you?”

I sat back in the chair across from his desk and propped my feet up as I continued to look at pictures. I pulled out all the Ishtarias and Mithrandes ones I could find. Either Isaac hadn’t found the picture yet, or the girls I had posed with hadn’t posted it.

I did find one picture of a few Ishtarias posed together. “Do you need this?”

Isaac shook his head, not looking up from his computer.

I folded the image for later and put it in my pocket. I continued to sort through pictures. I wasn’t seeing anything. No other pictures of me, and none of Kayla. I wasn’t sure how I felt about that. I mean I was glad the accident hadn’t been captured on film. But there was nothing for me to look at, nothing to remind me of how sweet and beautiful her face was.

I put the stack back on Isaac’s desk. Shifted the Mithrandes and Mithrandes image to the top and sat back.

“Anything else pop up from that party?” I asked.

“Other than this mystery date of yours, no.” Isaac looked up at me. “Shouldn’t you be getting ready?’

I shrugged. “She hasn’t texted back yet,” I admitted.

“What’s wrong with her?”

“What’s that supposed to mean? Nothing is wrong with her. She’s beautiful. She’s—”

“Not calling you back. You are a hot commodity right now Nick, even if no one can recognize you in your Mithrandes costumes. If you had walked into the party wearing a Captain Wonder shirt everyone would have been trying to get a piece of your action. Hell, Marci would have plastered herself to your side and called it true love.”

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