“This is the video from yesterday.” My stomach did a weird thing at the sight of him, and the sight of me crawling on all fours toward him, and what came after. I blinked away from the replay, before the part where I’d forgotten we were being filmed. “Why would I be mad at you about this? I knew you were filming.”
“Look harder.”
My forehead wrinkled, giving my attention back to her phone. I didn’t know what she wanted me to see, but now the video was repeating and—
“OH MY GOD!” I grabbed the phone. “This—this is—”
“Shh! Yes.” Now Amelia looked around, presumably to make certain none of the Seattleites surrounding us felt a disturbance in the politeness force. “Yes. I recorded it live. I’m so, so, so sorry.”
I leaned forward. “So that means it’s been—”
“Posted since last night. That’s right.” She covered her face again, groaning. “I’m so sorry.”
My eyes caught on the number of views, and I stood from the table, my chair scraping noisily on the linoleum. “ONE MILLION VIEWS?”
“Sorry!” she whispered loudly to someone at a nearby table. “We’ll just—we’re leaving.” Amelia grabbed my laptop and notebook and tilted her head toward the exit. “Time to go, and it was one point three the last time I checked. Now get your bag.”
Numbly, I lowered her phone and grabbed for my backpack and coat, fumbling with the strap. My fingers didn’t seem to work. She walked around the table and placed a hand on my back, helping to usher me out of the quiet area and waiting until we were standing in the hall to say, “I’m so sorry. It was an accident.”
“I can’t . . .” I couldn’t do anything. I couldn’t think, I couldn’t move, I couldn’t speak. One point three million views. What must Byron think? “Oh crap,” I whispered, my gaze swinging around the interior of the library, unable to settle. “What about Byron? Does he know? How is he going to feel about this?”
“I don’t know if he knows. I’ve been trying to call him all morning. He won’t pick up his phone, and I’m frankly a little scared to leave a voice mail. Since he’s not on social media, he might not know.” Stuffing my laptop and notebook into my backpack, Amelia put the strap on my shoulder and took her cell phone from where I still gripped it.
I immediately covered my face like I could hide from this. My cheeks were hot. As much time as I’d spent this morning coming to terms with Jeff’s decisions last night, I’d spent ZERO seconds thinking about my ridiculous reaction to Byron’s performance. I wouldn’t allow myself to think about it. What was the point? He’d been pretending, acting, playing a part, and—as per usual—I’d left the interaction feeling like a fool.
“We have to delete it,” I rasped, my mouth dry, my brain on fire. “Before he sees it and finds out, we have to delete it.”
“No! No. Don’t do that.” She pressed the phone to her chest.
“What? Why not?”
“Think for a second.” She pushed me toward the elevator. “If you delete it, it might become a whole thing. He’s a famous guy who millions of people are starving to know more about. He has no social media and suddenly he’s on TikTok with you? And this isn’t like your lab video from Friday, this is you two together, acting like you’re close friends crushing on each other. We need to call him—together—and tell him. But first we need him to answer his damn phone.” Amelia nodded at her own assertion while stabbing the elevator call button with her index finger.
“Call him? You want to call him together?” Oh God. I didn’t want to call him. I never wanted to talk to him again. “You don’t think he’ll want us to take it down ASAP? Like you said, millions of people want to know about him. Don’t you think he’ll view this as an invasion of privacy?”
“Maybe.”
“Maybe?” I flinched back. “I think you mean, most certainly yes.”
“No.” She pulled me by the arm into the elevator and pressed all the right buttons. “We should call him, leave a voice mail together where we tell him exactly what happened, and ask what he wants to do about it. If you take it down, it might create more difficulty for him than if you left it up and let it run its course.”
I covered my face again, leaning against the wall for support. “I can’t believe this is happening.”
“Hey, on the bright side, you have over ten thousand new followers. That’s . . . something.”
I groaned. I would’ve given up every single one of my new followers if it would’ve somehow undone the posting of that video. What a nightmare.
Winnifred Gobaldi and Byron Visser are not best friends.
Yes, they’ve known each other for years, but they’re not even friendly. Winnie considers them more like casual, distant acquaintances who find each other barely tolerable, especially when he's being condescending (which is all the time).
The truth is, they have nothing in common. She’s a public school science teacher with stars in her eyes, and he’s a pretentious, joyless double PhD turned world-famous bestselling fiction author. She loves sharing her passion for promulgating women in STEM careers and building community via social media, and he eschews all socialization, virtual or otherwise. She’s looking for a side hustle to help pay down a mountain of student debt, and his financial portfolio is the stuff of fiduciary wet dreams. So why are they faking a #bestfriend relationship for millions of online spectators?
When a simple case of tit-for-tat trends between nonfriends leads to a wholly unexpected kind of pretend, nothing is simple. Sometimes, it takes a public audience to reveal the truth of private feelings, and rarely—very rarely—you should believe what you see online.
Ten Trends to Seduce Your Bestfriend is a full-length, complete standalone, adult contemporary romantic comedy.
Fall in love today!
To celebrate the release of Ten Trends to Seduce Your Bestfriend, Penny has an incredible GIVEAWAY!
Enter now for a chance to win a bundle of incredible signed books>>> https://bit.ly/3kcOUqP
Penny Reid is the New York Times, Wall Street Journal, and USA Today bestselling author of the Winston Brothers and Knitting in the City series. She used to spend her days writing federal grant proposals as a biomedical researcher, but now she writes kissing books. Penny is an obsessive knitter and manages the #OwnVoices-focused mentorship incubator / publishing imprint, Smartypants Romance. She lives in Seattle Washington with her husband, three kids, and dog named Hazel.
Seeing so many stars for this book everywhere. Reid's books are always fun and smart, and it sounds like this is another winner.
ReplyDeletegrump vs sunshine romance. i love the way you put that and by looking at the cover it looks like a fun one
ReplyDeletesherry @ fundinmental
There is something fun about the grumpy hero and the perky heroine. This book sounds like one I would really like. :)
ReplyDeleteI have read several of her books in the past and now I have to read more! She's so good.
ReplyDeleteThis sounds like such an entertaining read! I love a good grumpy sunshine and this is still an author that I need to try out and soon.
ReplyDeleteI love Penny Reid and I bought this book but haven't read it yet. I always love her work. Somehow I fell off her blogger list.
ReplyDeleteAnne - Books of My Heart
Omigosh. I haven't read a Penny Reid novel in a long time! I have a lot of catching up to do! And this latest sounds like your run of the mill, wonderful Penny Reid novel. Great review, Rachel!
ReplyDeleteI’d love to read her books. Thank you for sharing.
ReplyDeletewww.rsrue.blogspot.com
This sounds sooo good!! I'm adding it to my list!
ReplyDeleteOhh Penny Reid. I would read this
ReplyDeleteFor some reason I've never been drawn to Reid's books before, despite all the rave reviews. But this one sounds like so much fun. I love a good grumpy-sunshine romance.
ReplyDelete