Page 11 of The Thanksgiving Hookup

That was when it hit me.

I did a quick search, typing in a hashtag and watching one quick clip to confirm my suspicions before saying anything.

“Oh my God, you’re Ice Cream Chad, aren’t you?”

Now that I’d placed his face with the once-trending hashtag from years ago, I couldn’t unsee it. I knew I was right whether or not he admitted it. The proof was literally in my hand, on my phone screen.

“He’s what?” River asked, his eyes pulled together with his confusion.

I bet he hated feeling left out. River was probably always included in everything. Poor baby.

“Ice Cream Chad. It is you, isn’t it? I knew you looked familiar, but I couldn’t figure out from where.” I couldn’t stop myself from talking, laughter creeping out with my words, while Chad looked downright horrified, most likely wishing that I would shut up.

“What the hell are you talking about? Are you drunk?” River questioned, his tone dripping with utter annoyance.

“No, I’m not drunk,” I snapped.

“I’m a little lost myself.” Carmella held her wineglass in the air before taking another drink of it and almost finishing it off.

I shook my head before blowing out an annoyed breath. “It’s a TikTok thing,” I said, as if that explained everything.

Although to most people, it would have. Apparently, River wasn’t most people.

“You have TikTok?” River asked, his tone beyond rude. Like my having that particular app made me less respectable somehow.

“Everyone has TikTok,” I said, sounding just as judgmental in return.

“I don’t,” he said.

“How shocking.” The sarcasm dripped from my lips. “It’s because you’re no fun.”

“I’m fun,” he argued.

“Clearly.”

“You’re telling me that TikTok is fun? I thought it was all drama and angry people yelling about politics.”

“What?” A laugh escaped me. “I’ve never even seen a single political video,” I said before adding, “I have a carefully curated feed that only brings me joy.”

It was true. I was extremely intentional with the videos I liked or commented on. That way, the app kept delivering more of what made me happy and less of the drama that tended to fill everyone else’s pages. All it had taken was one “like” on an Ice Cream Chad post, and I had gone down the rabbit hole, getting updates and opinions each time I logged in.

“You have a… carefully curated…what?” River coughed as he shook his head.

He was completely lost, and I had to admit that it made me happy to know that he was this clueless about something so popular and well known. The guy seemed to know something about every topic and was always spouting off his knowledge about it whenever he had the chance.

“Someone please tell me what Ice Cream Chad is because it sounds yummy,” Carmella said, and I let out another quick laugh.

Chad’s cheeks were red, and it stopped me from spilling the details before I even got started. This was something that had trended online years ago, but it had been a huge deal back then. The story had made the news and gossip outlets. If I remembered correctly, multiple women had spoken up, and even though they had identified Chad and pinpointed exactly who he was, he’d never made a statement.

“It’s okay. You can tell them. They’re just going to look it up online at this point if you don’t,” Chad said before finishing off his vodka and signaling Raul for a third.

“He’s not wrong,” River said because he was obviously going to do just that if I didn’t.

I probably would have done the same thing.

Now, I felt a little bad for putting the pieces together and placing Chad’s face in front of everyone. I was sure this wasn’t something he was proud of and that he’d hoped he could finally leave it all behind at some point, but online fame followed people in weird ways. It was never really gone; it only snoozed silently in the archives, waiting to be dug up and brought to life again.

“I feel bad,” I said, looking only at Chad. “I shouldn’t have said anything.”

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