“Uh-oh.” Rhiannon glanced up from her plate, a sharp look in her eyes. “That doesn’t sound good.”
“I got a goody bag.”
Katrina perked up. She liked the goody reveals too. “Ooh. Have you gone through it yet? Any new brands?”
“No, I didn’t get a chance.” Jia took another bite, though she didn’t much want to eat any longer. “Something happened, and it upset me.”
Rhiannon stilled. “Something or someone?”
“Someone.”
Her roommate’s dark eyes narrowed. “A man?”
“Yeah.”
“Do you want me to take care of him?”
It was funny, Rhiannon sounded vaguely like she was threatening to put a hit on someone.
“Like, I can kill them,” Rhiannon explained.
Or not so vaguely. Jia huffed out a soft laugh. “No need for an assassin. It was a stupid thing.” She let the back of the chair mold to her spine.
“What happened?” Katrina asked.
Jia hadn’t really rehearsed what she was going to say, which was probably why she went with “I think I may have been catfished by someone pretending to be a famous Indian actor.”
There was a beat of silence, and then Rhiannon spoke. “I feel like we need something harder than orange juice for this conversation.”
Jia didn’t drink, but she couldn’t disagree. “Do you . . . do you guys remember that guy I was talking to like a year ago?”
Katrina and Rhiannon exchanged a look. “Yes,” Katrina said gently. “You said you stopped talking to him after the holidays.”
“I did. There was so much going on then, in the world, and with my family.” She had two parents, three sisters, and two brothers-in-law who were doctors, and times had been tough in the medical field around then. “I got tired of us being so far apart, and him not wanting to chat on video, and it started to feel like a lot of his messages were rehearsed. I told him we could maybe talk in the future, when we were in the same place in the world.”
“Sounds like you were listening well to your instincts.”
She had been, damn it. If only she’d continued to do so. “Except for a message when his brother died, I cut off contact.” He hadn’t responded to that, but she hadn’t expected him to. “A couple of months ago, though, when I was sick, I reached out again.”
Rhiannon let out a breath, and Jia tried not to cringe. Her friend was clearly disappointed in her. She didn’t blame Rhi. Jia soldiered through. Best to explain what a fool she was all at once. “I was in bed for so long, and I was bored, and it was like he gave me company? Especially at night, because of the time zones. He was awake across the world when everyone here was asleep.” Don’t justify your silliness.
Rhiannon put down her fork. “Oh honey.”
Jia hated the sympathy in her friend’s voice. She lowered her gaze to her plate. So much dismay and disappointment in those two words. “I was excited, because he said he was filming a show here soon. I thought we’d finally meet, but once he got to town, he kept putting off seeing me.”
“Oh honey.”
“I know.” Jia shook her head. “Looking back now, I can see it’s all from the catfisher’s handbook. I think that’s why I just decided to go to him. It didn’t take much to get invited to his cast party.” Jia dejectedly cut off a piece of potato. “I walked right up to him, and he pretended not to recognize me.”
Rhiannon drained her orange juice like it was something stronger. “Girl—”
“Please don’t tell me you told me so.” Jia’s voice was sharper than she’d intended. Rhiannon deserved to be disappointed in her, but she’d spent her whole life with people who were perpetually poised to say exactly those words, and it was exhausting.
“I would never,” Rhiannon declared, surprising her. “I understand why you did what you did.”
“You do?”
“Of course.” Katrina’s gaze was soft and understanding. “You were sick! Worried and lonely. It’s no surprise he snuck in under your guard. People who do this stuff, they know how to target vulnerable people.”
“I’m sorry it turned out like this,” Rhiannon added.
Jia let out a breath she hadn’t realized she was holding. “Thank you for not gloating.”
Katrina nodded. “We’d never gloat, love. We are very sorry.”
Some of the weight fell off Jia’s shoulders at their instant kindness. Still, she tried to absolve herself. “Before we moved to the texting app, the first messages came from his official account. He said he was shy, that’s why he didn’t want to video chat. He was so nice to me, said such beautiful things when I was sick and alone. I was so convinced that he was legit.”
“Eight people have access to Crush’s account,” Rhiannon said quietly. “If this guy is famous at all, he has assistants who have access to his social media, even if it looks like he’s the only one posting. Hell, someone may have even hacked him solely to catfish a bunch of girls.”
Jia took a shaky breath. “I suppose it doesn’t matter. Whether he pretended not to know me or whether he was someone else all along.” Foolishness on her part either way.
“Has he—or whoever he is—messaged you today?”
“I don’t know. I haven’t checked my phone today.”
Rhiannon pressed her fingers to her lips. “You must really be upset.”
“I am.”
Rhiannon pulled out her own phone. “You want to give me his name? I won’t kill him. I can maybe dig around a little.”
“Or you can not dig at all.” Katrina reached across the table and held Jia’s hand. “I think you should let this go. Delete his number and his messages, block him everywhere.”
“You’re saying this?” Rhiannon snorted. “You’re the queen of closure.”
Katrina rubbed her thumb over Jia’s. “I’m the queen of solid mental health. And as you said, there are two possibilities here. Either you were talking to someone who was using a famous man’s face, or that famous man led you on for over a year for God knows what reason and then pretended he didn’t know you last night. Neither of those things will be helped by ever seeing him or talking to him again.”
Something cracked in Jia, like a boat set loose from a dock. It was . . . loss? That was so silly. She’d never had anything to begin with, in either of those scenarios. “I feel so dumb.”
“Naïve, not dumb.”
Jia cocked her head at Rhiannon. “That’s not much better.”
Rhiannon waved her hand. “We were all naïve at one time. You haven’t had much experience with dating or love. With experience comes cynicism.”
Katrina shifted. “Not necessarily cynicism. With experience comes experience. No one has a perfect track record. Life is about making mistakes.”
“It was cynicism for me,” Rhiannon said flatly. “I do run a dating app, after all. You wouldn’t believe the trash we deal with.”
A thump came from under the table, and Katrina gave Rhiannon a warning look. “We also have tons of success stories, and lovely users, though. Jia, you’re going to find a sweet guy who spoils you, and you’re going to walk right into love, and it’s not going to feel hard, you know?”