I opened the message, and it said something about fraudulent activity and to call them as soon as possible to resolve it. My pulse began to beat frantically. I logged on to my banking app to see what was going on.

Zero.

My checking account had been cleared out.

CHAPTER THIRTEEN

CHAPTER THIRTEEN

I called the phone number in the text and pushed the numbers in the menu to report fraudulent activity. A woman named Karen answered and asked for my account number. I didn’t know it off the top of my head, although I probably could have gotten it from my banking app.

She asked, “Do you have your debit card? You could read that number to me.”

The last place I’d had my card was in my clutch. I dived for my purse, pulling out the candy bar, my driver’s license, my lipstick, mints, and a thing of tissues.

No debit card.

“It’s gone,” I told her.

“Do you know when you lost it?”

“I had it yesterday.” I specifically remembered putting it in my purse when I was getting ready for the Oscars, just in case I needed it for some reason. And now it was gone. I hadn’t used it in days.

It was then that I remembered the party, how my purse had fallen on the ground when I was trying to read that text from Morgan. “I think I lost it last night at the Vanity Fair party.”

There was a pause. “Did you say the Vanity Fair party? The one after the Academy Awards?”

“Yeah. I was there with Noah Douglas. It was kind of a date.”

Another pause. “Like . . . in your dreams?”

“What? No. I was there.” I realized too late how far-fetched and stupid it sounded, but it was the actual truth.

“Right. And Chase Covington and I were in his villa in Italy.”

Were customer service reps supposed to be this snarky? “He was actually there at the party with his wife. I hung out with them.”

She didn’t respond.

I was completely aware of how crazy this all sounded. “I can send you proof. I have a picture of Noah and me together.”

“Please hold.” She was probably off to have a good laugh with her fellow customer service colleagues.

Dumb elevator music came on, and I wanted to raise my fists and shake them at the world. I’d spent a fantastic evening with one of the world’s biggest movie stars at one of the biggest Hollywood parties, so of course the universe had to balance it back out by letting someone steal all my money.

I thought of the person who had taken my debit card at a party full of celebrities and wealthy people and how mad they must have been when they found out that there was so little in my account.