“You’re very talented,” he eventually offered.
“I could make you so happy. I already know everything about you, Dash. Where you get take-out food, your favorite candy store, the type of clay you work with. We could be together.” The hopeful expression on her face almost made him want to hug her. Then she pointedly tapped the doll’s chest. “All three of us.”
As much as he didn’t want Cindy in his life—and now she was really starting to freak him out—he also didn’t want her to suffer. Unrequited love could burn a hole through your core and not stop until you were ash. He didn’t want that for this person, and he could see what looked like real loneliness, not malice, in Cindy’s eyes.
“Cindy, if you know all of this, then it’s clear you’ve been following me around in real life, which I’m not okay with. If I find out you’re continuing to track my movements, I’ll need to get the authorities involved, which I don’t want to do. And more importantly, I want to be clear when I say this: I will never love you. My heart is with someone else.” He looked directly at her then, so she’d know he was serious. And, he realized with some dread, he was. His feelings were only for Sophie, and that fact was almost as scary as the reality in front of him. “And I know that might hurt to hear, but it’s the truth. I hope you find everything you’re looking for, but it will never be with me.”
He didn’t want to wait for her reaction as there was nothing more to say. She’d denied going to the press, and she was sticking to that version of reality. He’d said his piece and asked her not to continue to feed them stories, which was all he could do. But she wasn’t going to apologize or tell the truth, so the sooner he left the better it would be for her and him. He quickly stood and placed enough money on the table to cover their orders, tip, and extra if she needed some for the ride home.
“Wait, Dash.” Cindy pushed herself up from the table, her phone pointed at him and the Dash doll clutched to her chest. “Can we all take a selfie? Just for my own memories?”
His brows must have gone all the way up his forehead. He was not about to take a selfie with his stalker and her stuffed doll. The thought of that was not only unsettling, but borderline absurd. He had to leave. Without saying another word, he turned and walked back toward the entrance to where Chris waited with a getaway car.
“How did it go?” Chris asked as Dash opened the car door. He locked it behind him.
“Drive before she runs out here and writes down your plate.” He buckled his seat belt and checked for her in the side mirror.
“Oh, shit. That well, huh?”
Dash finally looked at him. “I’m not kidding. She knit a doll version of me.”
Chris’s eyes widened. “Was it at least a good replica?”
“Yes. The thing was me. Now can we please go?” Dash waved at the road in front of them.
“You should’ve at least taken a picture.”
“She would’ve loved that.” Dash glanced behind them again as Chris pulled out of the driveway of the hotel and turned right onto Sunset Boulevard. They drove past a billboard for Reece’s movie, Final Judgment Day. There was Reece in a leather jacket, with buzzed hair, and a cut on his lip. He gave Dash a look that suggested a final judgment had come, and it was that Dash had totally fucked up.
“She said she didn’t tell anyone about my sobriety.” The thought that maybe she was telling the truth kept worming its way around his head and made him question coming in the first place.
“Yikes, so she didn’t own up to it?”
“That’s just it, I kind of believed her.” Dash shook his head at how hurt she’d seemed at the very suggestion that she’d betrayed him.
“I’m sure you’ve had stalkers do worse. Hell, even I had some rando send me panties in the mail when I played for the Dodgers.” Chris scratched his eyebrow. “They’re stalkers for a reason. Have you thought any more about telling the police?”
“She won’t come looking for me, not after what I said to her.” And he believed that to be true.
But if Cindy hadn’t told his secret, then who had? Dash gave a quick glance at Chris, who drove them back to Dash’s house. Chris wouldn’t tell someone about his sobriety, would he? Unless Chris had taken the whole idea of Dash telling his story to help other people get sober one step too far…
“You know I wouldn’t ask this normally, but you didn’t…tell anyone about me, did you?” Dash had gotten used to people he loved betraying him, and while he didn’t think Chris would, he still had to ask.
Chris looked over at him, like Dash had just asked if they could go grab raw vegan burgers for lunch. “Dude, I’m going to pretend you didn’t just ask me that.”
“Fair enough,” Dash quickly replied. The tension in the car was thick, and Dash wondered if he’d once again pushed someone away, like he always did.
SOPHIE’S TIKTOK
Ex number four
Name: The “Comedian”
Occupation: Stand-up comedy
Length of relationship: Seven months
Reason for breakup: Some bullsh*t
Weeks until book is due: Less than 3
Britney Spears’s “Toxic” plays in the background.
“My next ex, who I’m seeing tonight is…”
Sophie pointed a finger up to the corner of the screen and the words passive-aggressive appeared. She pointed slightly lower, and the words always complains popped up. Then to the bottom corner of the screen where the words doesn’t read books materialized. Sophie’s brows rose, then she leaned close to the camera and said, “Wish me luck.”
COMMENTS:
@destinedtobee has there ever been a romance book about a stand-up comedian?? I smell an enemies-to-lovers idea…！
@nobullallsheets Hello, she said he’s toxic.
@destinedtobee classic start to an E2L book, honestly
@jamesthetang to quote John Waters, “If you go home with somebody, and they don’t have books, don’t fuck ’em.”
@tokcrafty2me Just be yourself, Soph
25
SOPHIE
O’Gradys was not a bar Sophie was familiar with, but when she entered, she had to allow her eyes to adjust because…damn, the place was dark. Like, they had not paid their electric bills and just decided the glow from people’s phones would have to suffice. Still, she managed to walk forward with her hands outstretched, feeling around to make sure she didn’t bump into anything.
She spotted an open two-top table and made her way toward it. She had no idea if Kyle was even there yet. But with her luck, if she tried searching the restaurant, she’d trip and knock herself unconscious on a plate of hot wings. She sat down, took out her phone, and sent a text.
Here! At a table.
She drummed her fingers along the wooden tabletop. She wasn’t nervous to see Kyle, exactly, but she’d been a very different person when they were together. She’d allowed their relationship to be unbalanced, like how she’d gone to every one of his stand-up shows, but he’d never even offered to read the book pages she worked on.
To distract herself, she swiped open her phone and went into her messages. There was Dash’s name, but nothing new. She shouldn’t even be looking at his texts. He wasn’t an option. But then she couldn’t help wondering what dry joke he’d make about a bar like this one.