Plot Twist(70)

While she knew in her core that being with Dash was where she was supposed to be, she also knew that what Carla told her had a grain of truth. She was, more than likely, going to get her heart broken.

She took out her phone to distract herself as she rode the elevator down to the lobby. There were no new texts, but when she opened her TikTok app, she had a new message from a user called @craftycindy.

@craftycindy your boyfriend has been naughty...

There were screenshots of conversations between @craftycindy and another user called @tokcrafty2me. There was clearly a lot of flirtation and innuendo happening, but Sophie wasn’t sure what any of this had to do with her. Who was @tokcrafty2me or @craftycindy, for that matter?

@sophiewrites I’m so sorry, but I think you have the wrong person

Sophie was about to put her phone away, when she noticed the user she’d just messaged was typing back. She stared at the screen and waited for the response, which didn’t take long.

@craftycindy no, I don’t. ?? You’re Dash’s girlfriend.

“Uhh,” Sophie said, nearly dropping the phone. There was a woman messaging her who knew Dash and knew they were kind of together (sometimes). What was happening here? Sophie’s fingers started to tremble, and she brought them to her pacemaker to steady herself. She stepped out of the elevator, then typed.

@sophiewrites Dash?
@craftycindy omg please. He comments on all your videos, you’re one of twenty accounts he follows—and you’re his most recent add, you both uploaded vids from Ojai on the same day, and I recognized his yard from your posts. I know about Dash’s secret TikTok account. You can stop playing innocent.
@craftycindy Look, we even had lunch together last week.

There was a blurry photo of Dash standing next to a table and a wad of money in front of him. He wasn’t looking at the camera because his sunglasses were on, but it was definitely Dash.

@craftycindy he tried to give me hush money to cover our relationship up. But I didn’t want to mess with girl code. Sorry to be the one to tell you he’s cheating, but you deserve to know...

Sophie was still wrapping her head around everything this woman was telling her—that Dash was in a secret relationship and that he’d paid the woman hush money. What did all this mean? She looked at the username @tokcrafty2me and clicked into the profile. The avatar was of an oddly familiar vase.

As she stared at the vase, she realized she’d seen the same one in Dash’s room. She clicked into a video that had a thumbnail of a ceramic dish, and as she watched she covered her mouth with her own hand at the realization that this was Dash’s secret account.

She went back to her own feed and clicked into each video. He’d left a comment on every single one.

@tokcrafty2me good vibes only
@tokcrafty2me Nothing changes if nothing changes
@tokcrafty2me I’m Team Sophie
@tokcrafty2me be kind to yourself, change is hard
@tokcrafty2me you are perfect.
@tokcrafty2me just be yourself, Soph

Sophie felt sick to her stomach. She’d just been thinking that Dash was the only person she could ever really trust, but here was the other life he’d never let her into. And the other woman she’d never heard about. She’d been okay with the fact that Dash had a secret account, but she was definitely not okay with him keeping some other relationship from her.

Still, she had a gut feeling that everything she’d just seen wasn’t quite right. There was a missing piece that only Dash could put into place, and she just hoped that whatever explanation he had would prove that he hadn’t been lying to her this whole time.



30

DASH

Maybe it was the late-July heat or the fact that Dash hadn’t heard from Sophie since his sister walked in on them, but something inside him must’ve snapped.

How else to explain why he’d printed out a dozen shirtless pics of Richard Gere from American Gigolo? Perhaps more concerning was that he was squatting in the grass and gluing the photos to a metal collar around the base of the tree.

“What are you doing?”

He heard Sophie’s voice, then looked up to see her, but lost his footing completely and landed in the grass with a hell of a thump.

“Ahh,” he managed to say as a photo of Richard Gere’s abs landed on his face.

Sophie pulled the photo off and stared at it, then him. “I guess I have a few questions. For starters, why are you covering the tree with this handsome man? And why not cover my windows with him instead?”

Dash rolled his eyes as he pushed himself up to sitting. “You’re the one who got me associating the damn squirrel with Richard Gere. I put a metal collar around the base of the tree, which apparently stops them from being able to climb, but I thought if anyone can intimidate Dick the squirrel, it’s a shirtless Richard Gere. It’s like a scarecrow, but a scare-Dick, if that makes sense.”

“Sure, sure.” Sophie held out her hand, and Dash took it, pulling himself up to stand. He brushed dirt and grass off his jeans. But Sophie wasn’t smiling at him, the way she normally did. Her mouth formed a thin line as she swallowed.

She licked her lips and blew out a long breath. “Did you... Are you @tokcrafty2me?”

Dash frowned and shifted his weight from one leg to the other, the way he always did when he wasn’t sure what to do. He had not expected her to say that, and the fact that she knew his secret-account name gave him pause. “How did you...” He started to look around the lawn, as if an answer might be there.