She grins. “They’re amazing. I’m so proud of you.”

And then they kiss, and I struggle and fail to keep my lip from curling. “I have to go call Becca,” I say, dismissing myself to my closet.

“Okay, but you have to tell me about your date later!” Brian calls after me.

I pause, turning to see if he’s joking. But his eyes are back on Maggie, the two of them practically sliding into each other. I roll my eyes and slip into my room, closing the door behind me.

My first order of business is answering some of the messages I’ve been ignoring. Once I’ve sent out some heartfelt apologies about not answering and how I’ll be making another statement shortly, I work up this dramatic post about how the Meet Cute Diary started as my own exploration of my first relationship, and then get into this whole thing about how some of the stories don’t add up because we changed certain details to keep people’s identities secret. Then I explain that the whole bookstore story was about Drew and post the selfie we took tonight as the final evidence.

I consider sending it to Becca first, but she’s been so busy lately. Besides, this post is supremely personal, and I don’t want to lose the nerve to post it by waiting for a response.

My hands shake as I hit post, but I’ve given it my best. Hopefully, the post will go viral in a couple of days, and not only will we stop losing followers in droves, but we’ll get a new onslaught of eager followers wanting to know about Drew and me.

Then I call Becca. She answers on the third ring, but she says, “Hey, I can’t talk long. What’s up?”

“Do you not want to hear about my date?”

Then she squeals, and I jerk my head back until she’s done.

“Okay, you have fifteen minutes, then I have homework. Go.”

So I ramble on about the fake date, starting with how he asked me out to try to save the Diary and how he’d been a huge fan for a while. I tell her about how obviously compatible we must be since he loves my writing, and how once the fake date saves the Diary, we’ll probably fall in love, since, you know, that’s how every fake dating story ends.

“Okay, but do you really think a fake date will be enough to stop this troll? I mean, after all the lengths they went to just to shit on the Diary?”

“I’ve got it covered, Becca,” I say. She hasn’t exactly been super reliable lately, so it’s probably easier for me to handle it myself anyway. “And once Drew and I fall desperately in love with each other, it won’t matter what some troll has to say about it.”

Becca lets out one of those deep God, you’re naive sighs. “Just promise me that if he steps out of line, you won’t let him walk all over you.”