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I arched my brow.
She rolled her eyes. “When I got to the orchard, Rach was so excited to see me, it didn’t come up. And besides, I hadn’t been to the cabin yet. Not that you can call it a cabin, it’s a freaking mansion.” At my flat stare, she sighed. “Sorry. It didn’t get weird until we got back from the bar and I found another box addressed to me at Rachel’s and Clay’s place.”
My instincts locked my muscles down. “Was it another one of your type of gifts?”
“Same company. No note. Not even a packing slip inside. This one was more personal. Not something for the kitchen.” Her fingers trembled before she clenched them together. “How would anyone know I would be there?”
“You weren’t supposed to be here for a few weeks, right?”
“Exactly.” She fussed with the sleeve of her dress. “I’ve mentioned my sister’s wedding. People like to know stuff about me. And I knew my videos would be different while I was away. I was trying to pre-film to put them up while I was busy with Rach.”
“Makes sense.”
“But I don’t understand why he—they—whoever, would send me these things. How do they know I wanted them?”
“Is this the first time you’ve gotten gifts?”
“Unsolicited? Yeah. Sometimes I do collaborations with other influencers, but again, I always use my PO Box.”
“Always?”
Her hazel eyes flashed. “I told you I’m not stupid.”
“Didn’t say you were, but did you ever use your home address before the… What do I even call your thing? A business?”
“Before I went viral? Yes, I’ve had the box for years even before I started making videos.” She paused, looking down at her feet. Then she looked up. “I’m careful.”
“Okay. Fair.” There seemed to be more to that one. The space between my shoulder blades was damn near on fire.
“My name only blew up in the last two years. My content is pretty narrowly focused on food.”
“Maybe this person picked up some clues from videos. I’ve only seen a few of your posts.”
“You saw my stuff?” Her eyes softened.
I cleared my throat. “Rachel’s pretty proud of you.”
Her eyes went from soft to shiny and my hackles rose. Dude, no tears. “Have you made any off the cuff videos? Something that would give someone a clue as to who you are? Your bedroom, living room? Anything that would give something about you away.”
“I shot videos at the Christmas Tree Farm, so I guess they could figure out that at least. Make inferences to Clay and find his address maybe?”
“It’s a leap to go from gifts to something more sinister.”
Her spine snapped straight, changing her defensive pose to offensive. I preferred it to the wounded bird. And there I saw the flicker of fear again.
“Are you not telling me something?”
She reached for the wine. “There are a few people who make some comments that make me uncomfortable. There’s a block function in the app so they can’t see my content or comment. But it doesn’t stop them from making another account.” She tipped her head back. “God, I sound insane.”
“What did I say about paranoia?”
“It’s just instinct.”
“Right.”
She was trying to make excuses for shitty behavior. And while there was no reason to think this person was being anything other than inappropriate, it was enough to makemeunsettled, let alone a woman.
“Stalking laws haven’t caught up to the internet.”
