@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.
“A woman named @craftycindy messaged me.” She held up her phone for him, and he saw the avatar of Cindy, along with a stream of messages. But Sophie pulled the phone back before he had time to read them. “Is that you? Are you @tokcrafty2me?”
He weighed his options, which weren’t many: tell Sophie the truth, or lie. “Yes, that’s me.”
Sophie cleared her throat and held the phone to her chest. Her gaze fell to the pavers at their feet, cracked from the overhead sun. Her lashes were thick and heavy against her cheek. Dash wanted so desperately to pull her to him, but he sensed she wouldn’t be open to that.
“What did she tell you?” Now he was starting to get worried.
“She told me that you’re in a relationship with her and paid her hush money not to talk about it.”
Dash guffawed and took a step closer to her, but she held up a warning hand. “She’s lying.”
“But you lied to me. You were playing me. You have this whole other life I didn’t even know about. I know you and I aren’t a thing, really. We’re just fooling around, or whatever.” She swallowed and tucked the photo of Richard Gere closer to her chest. How very unfair that he got to be pressed up against her, and not Dash. “But this makes me feel like garbage, like you don’t even care about me.”
“What? Soph, no, please. I care about you. I do care about you, very deeply.” He was about to reach for her, but a sudden jolt caused him to trip backward. Sophie took a step back, too, nearly falling.
“Was that…” She glanced around but, as she did, another ripple from the ground caused Dash to lose his balance. Then the ground began to sway. Sophie balanced from one foot, then to the next, as she crouched low and tried to stay upright.
“Earthquake!” Her voice was almost a piercing shriek.
He reached for her, and they both toppled to the grass. The earth beneath them shook, and the soil rippled like a wave. He brought her in as tightly as he could, then curled himself around her until he was a protective shield. Dash held Sophie for what felt like several minutes until the earth stopped moving.
Car alarms blared from the nearby street, and there was the distant sound of dogs barking. A siren screamed, and Sophie shook in his arms. He wrapped her up tighter against him.
“I don’t think I’ve ever felt one that big,” she said. “And don’t you dare make a dirty joke out of that right now.”
He let out a chuckle. “I usually sleep through them.”
“I spent the walk home watching your videos. Dash…”
He clenched his jaw, unable to control the fact that the way she said his name still affected him.
“You used to make some truly terrible pieces. That giraffe mug, specifically.”
And he laughed, so loudly that it hurt his chest. “I had to start somewhere, didn’t I?”
“Yes, at the bottom, apparently.” Sophie softly smiled at her own joke, which made a flutter of relief fill him. “You’ve been commenting on all of my posts.”
“I have,” he quietly said.
“And saying these very insightful, helpful, and sweet things.”
He smirked in acknowledgment. “Yes.”
“I thought it was just some very random but wise TikTok teenager living in their parents’ house,” she quickly said.
“I’m thirty-six.” Dash stood and extended a hand to her, which she took and pulled herself up. “Can we go talk?”
Sophie smoothed her dress down and looked toward her place. “I need to check on Rain Boots. He hates earthquakes.”
Dash knew when Sophie was avoiding something, and she clearly wanted to avoid this conversation. “I need to tell you about Cindy. She’s not who you think she is.”
“I’ll give you five minutes.” She put her hands on her hips and eyed him, then beckoned for Dash to follow her. He tried to fight back the urge to reach for her hand.
Rain Boots was, as Sophie had promised, a bit of a hard-ass. The fish stared indignantly back as Dash waved to him with a warm smile.
“He’s really playing hardball today.” Sophie held her hand up to the fish’s bowl, and Rain Boots seemed to touch his nose to the glass. “Or maybe he can sense my unease.”
Dash turned to face Sophie and reached for her hand. She reluctantly let him take it. He knew she was mad, but he just had to explain the situation. “I don’t know exactly what Cindy told you, but she’s got a warped perception of me, to say the least. She’s been stalking me and figured out who I was just by watching my videos.”