Page 21 of It Started With a Scarf

I squinted at the ball. It was in a glass case that the dentist proudly displayed, and all because one guy had taken a marker and put his signature on it. There was a picture and a plaque, it was all professionally displayed and looked like he had paid a lot of money for it. I checked it out for a long minute before I relaxed in my chair again. It was crazy that I had met that guy's son.

There were three other people in the waiting room with me, and all of them were looking at their phones. I sat there for a minute in silence before I caved. I pulled my phone out of my purse and the first thing I did when I found it was open Instagram and start typing…

D-O-M-I-N-I-C-D-E—the account came up long before I finished typing the letters, but I didn't notice it at first.

I clicked on the account that showed a photograph of the guy I had met at the restaurant. He had over ninety thousand followers and it was his personal account. He had a link to his business account, but I didn't click on it. I went to the first picture, which was him with his brother. No beating around the bush, they were straight hunks. They looked so similar. They were twins, after all—not identical, but close. I smiled absentmindedly, remembering the conversation I had with the one on the right.

I began to scroll.

There was a group shot, and someone was next to him that I didn't think was his mom or his sister. She seemed to be next to him in a way that made me feel disappointed and jealous. Ridiculous.

I kept scrolling.

His account was a mix of interesting things, some personal stuff, motivational quotes, light workout advice, and some cool shots of random life. There were a lot of beautiful photographs with no one in them, and it seemed like Dominic was quite the photographer. Some of his posts had multiple pictures, and I looked at them all. He was an interesting guy.

I had been looking for a few minutes or so when I stopped scrolling and the blood left my head.

My eyes stung with tears.

I saw my scarf in one of his pictures. It was a cool sequence of photos of the scarf in a closet with a dark coat. You could see them hanging in a closet with an open door. There were three pictures and each of them progressively closer to the scarf.

It was from months ago—late November. I thought about the timing of when I had lost the scarf and it would have been out of my possession by then.

There was no caption, but the first comment said, 'Who's scarf?' and Dominic replied to it with, 'Just holding it for a friend.'

My heart pounded when I read it.

I read it again.

"Who's the friend?" I meant to think it, but I must've whispered out loud because a lady in the waiting room looked at me. I stared at my screen, and after a second, she looked away again. I couldn’t take my eyes off the picture. It looked so much like my scarf. It had to be it. I felt dazed and stunned—completely confused.

I blinked, looking at the color combination.

I had never seen anything so audacious, and the color pattern was unmistakable. There was one little area where there were five stripes of straight black and white. Then light pink, yellow, blue was after that… I had the sequence memorized. This was my scarf. I felt a heat flash, and I could hardly catch my breath. I pulled my shirt from my chest several times, fanning myself and not caring that I was in a waiting room.

I had to respond to this.

I was shaken as I went to his DM's.

I began typing.

My name is Marley Mathews, and I recognize a scarf on your feed. I would like to inquire about it.

I stared at the words I had already typed, and I realized I couldn't send it. This photo was way back on his feed. It would be obvious that I had been stalking his page.

I didn't care.

I was going to send it anyway.

First, I had to help my own page, which was sort of a joke with no good pictures of me. I had to change that. My name was @MarSoFar, and there was no way to know me from the photos on my page. I added my name 'Marley Matthews' to the description, and I changed my profile pic to one that showed my face. It wasn't super close up, but at least he might make the connection about my account. I changed those things before I sent the comment.

It was about thirty minutes later, and I was still in the dentist's office waiting for Joan when I heard back from him. I got a DM. It turned out to be not directly from him but from someone running his personal account.

My name is Blake Cooper and I am Dominic Decker's assistant. I'm handling his accounts and posting his pics. I told him about your comment, and he said if you're the girl he thinks you are, you'll be able to say what you were doing at that restaurant the night you met. If you reply with the correct answer to that question, I will forward you Dominic's phone number since he would love to reach you.

Thanks, Blake Cooper

I typed back instantly.

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