Page 60 of Salty, Spiced, and a Little Bit Nice

Still, that didn’t stop me from liking all his pictures and downloading a few good ones. If anyone asked, I’d be able to show a picture of me and my fake boyfriend.

Oh, who am I kidding?He was signing his deal soon, and the work on the store was nearly completed. In a few weeks, these photos would be my only memories of him.

Even though it was late, I started scrolling through his older posts. One photo became two, then five, and then I moved on to his other social media accounts, and went down the dark, deep rabbit hole of scrolling through all his pictures. There were lots of him with his mother and younger sisters, from when they visited him in Port Benedict. Shots of him and Rob with their group of friends. There were even a few funny throwback photos with Eric in them, and I chuckled at how young and innocent they looked. An hour later, I’d gone back and liked his very first post from many, many years ago. My excuse was that it would show Jacqui—or anyone else who bothered to check—that we really did have a genuine relationship from way back when.

Yep, I took everything in life seriously, including my fake girlfriend role.

Speaking of girlfriends… I scrolled back up to his latest posts. Maybe I could find this so-called potential girlfriend that he’d been so secretive about. There were several recent pictures of him at a group lunch with Rob and a few other people. Alec sat next to a cute, petite brunette, and could be seen chatting and laughing with her in the background in a few other photos, looking very cozy together. She was tagged in one of the pictures, so I clicked on her profile and saw that Alec had liked every single one of her posts from two months ago.

This had to be her. The potential girlfriend he was taking things slow with.

Or she could be anyone, my brain argued.She could just be a very good friend.

I huffed out a frustrated breath, pushing thoughts of himand herout of my mind. Whatever, not my business, because I shouldn’t be thinking about and obsessing over Alec.

Finally turning off the lights, I snuggled deeper under my blanket and tossed my phone on the bedside table when it pinged, alerting me to a WhatsApp message. It was past one in the morning, so I ignored it, only for it to ping again.

Did you just do a deep dive into my Insta and Facebook accounts?

You did. All the way to the first photo I’ve ever posted.

Sighing, I typed back a reply.

It’s one in the morning, Alec.

I’m sleeping.

The two blue check marks immediately appeared, followed by his response.

You just spent the last hour liking all my photos.

Are you okay?

Stop exaggerating. I only liked a few.

A FEW?

Sending cold hard evidence now.

I snorted when his photos popped up—screenshots of rows and rows of notifications that I’d liked photos after photos, all within seconds of each other.

Busted.

Okay fine, more than a few. Happy?! But it was an hour well spent.

I’d forgotten about your rockstar wannabe period. That pic of u and Eric with the matching bandannas was sooooo cute!

Not me. Must’ve mistaken me with someone else

My cheeks were hurting because I was grinning from ear to ear.

Thanks again for today though.

One of the best bday dinners I’ve ever had.

Not THE best?

Okay, challenge accepted.

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