A Slip of the Hand

Chapter 26

Did you see that you're famous now? I stare at the message from Oliver while drinking a steaming cup of instant coffee after a night of poor sleep. An ad-laden article opens when I tap the attached link, and I gasp as I'm greeted with a picture of us from the restaurant.

"Oliver Rose steps out with date," the caption reads, and seeing a picture of us together like that lights up my heart. Not to mention, my face is glowing with a photogenic smile. That'll be thanks to Mom always posing me for pictures to fill her scrapbooks. I hated being prodded and critiqued in her hunt for the perfect photo, but I suppose it came in handy last night.

I have to close several pop-up ads as I scroll through the brief article, which basically only says that Oliver was spotted out with an unknown woman before launching into a discussion of the delayed Thorns album. Oliver hasn't made any official statements about the album since the beginning of the tour, so every article reworks the same old material.

Before responding to Oliver, I pull up my favorite Oliver Rose and The Thorns fan forum. Sure enough, the article's been posted and has already gotten some attention. I nervously skim the comments, knowing how salty everyone gets about his dating life.

Whatever. It won't last.

Goddamn it, he needs to be finishing the album, not running around with some floozy.

Look at her fucking smile! She's just loving the attention. What a fame whore.

I swear to god, that looks like Mabbie. Check her user photo.

My stomach drops as I see my screen name mentioned, and I instantly navigate to my profile settings. I delete my profile picture and hunt through every post I've ever made for more.

A message notification from Oliver pops up: Speechless?

I take a screenshot of the forum and send it to him.

They've already found me out.

Another text notification from Oliver: So? Fuck em.

Daniel hasn't contacted me at all, and his silence feels deafening, particularly because I pumped the brakes with Oliver last night because of him. I need to know what he thinks of me as I figure out my own feelings. At the moment, I'm feeling rather dumb for staying loyal to an entanglement when Oliver fucking Rose was available for the taking.

I send the photo to Ellie as well, warning her that rabid fans might overrun her social media when they make the connection between us, which isn't hard. Plenty of folks from the forum follow Ellie's social media accounts, and as her primary model, there are more pictures of me on there than her.

You do look good tho, she replies. Time to start your art account already and let the publicity roll in.