Audrey gave her a mock glare, but she couldn’t stop her own grin. In hindsight, it was funny. Things had been going well enough with Randy up until that point. He hadn’t exactly swept her off her feet, and there hadn’t been any butterflies. But he had been kind. Considerate. A gentleman. Audrey had decided he was as good a guy as any to break her dry spell.

And then, she’d walked into his bedroom, which really and truly had been made of mirror, walls and ceiling. As if that weren’t unnerving enough, then she’d seen the cameras. Plural. Along with a hidden big-screen TV built into one of the mirrors.

Not only did Randy only make love for the cameras, he enjoyed watching himself in past performances while in the midst of the current performance. He’d assured her it would be a turn-on if she’d give it a chance. She’d assured him he should lose her phone number forever.

Audrey sighed and decided it was time to get to the real reason she’d invited her friends over and was plying them with boozy beverages at 11 a.m.

“I need to tell you girls something.”

Seeing she had their attention, she got right to it. “So, I told Randy about Brayden. Not everything, but… enough. I told him I dated Brayden knowing he was married but believing him when he said he was separated and the divorce was nearly final. I told him about the shock of learning upon his death that the ‘separation’ was news to his wife. I told him about both of you,” she said, with an apologetic look at her friends.

“Okay…?” Claire prompted, frowning a little in confusion.

“I trusted him,” Audrey said quietly, reaching for her phone. “And… it turns out that trust was misplaced.”

Knowing it would be clearer to show them, rather than tell them, Audrey pulled up Instagram and slid the phone between them.

Claire’s head tilted down next to Naomi’s red one as they read the Instagram post together.

“Who’s Scandal Boy?” Claire asked.

“Knockoff of Gossip Girl,” Naomi answered for Audrey, still scanning the phone. “Some little anonymous bitch who gets his jollies spreading rumors about the Manhattan elite. I’ve been mentioned at least a dozen times, none of it good, most of it untrue.”

“Me, too,” Audrey said. “The guy’s always seemed to hate me, but it’s never been this bad.”

She nibbled nervously at the nail of her ring finger until her friends looked up. Her heart sank when she saw the furious expression on both of their faces. “I am so sorry, I had no idea Randy would betray me and tell the world about Brayden, or that Scandal Boy would hear about it.”

“Can’t you sue?” Claire demanded. “For slander, or something?”