Page 31 of Kiss Me, Maybe

“Six months late, remember?” She shakes her head. “This one’s on me.”

Finally, Natalia turns to face me. “If Stephanie is to be believed, I guess this belongs to you, then.” Her hand dips back into the filing cabinet before she hands me a print, the same size as Krystal’s. It’s an exact rendering of the mural that waswashed away, only in clearer, more vivid detail.The Woman in Wanting, the title above it reads.

“You’re giving this to me?” I ask, even as my fingers clutch it tighter. I may not know why she’s giving me the print so easily, but there’s no way she’s getting it back from my greedy hands if she changes her mind. “I don’t understand.”

“You were right,” she says, but not to me. “It wasn’t yours after all.”

“That’s the one she gave me originally.” Krystal nods to the print in my hand. “She gave meThe Woman in Wanting.”

“Shedid?” I glance down at the print in my hand, then back at her. “That’s why you recognized the mural. I wasn’t sure, but I thought…” I shake my head. “Why didn’t you tell me?”

“You told me how much that mural meant to you,” she explains. “It didn’t feel right to tell you about the way I grimaced when Natalia first showed it to me. It’s not that I hated it or anything, just that it… didn’t resonate with me.”

Meanwhile, it resonated with me so strongly it led me all the way to Natalia’s apartment.

“I don’t usually allow for do-overs, especially not for that particular round of commissions,” Natalia says.

“TheAll the Ways to Be Queerseries?” I ask. Both Krystal and Natalia nod. “I heard about it, months after the fact, but still. People submitted a paragraph detailing their experience to queerness, and then got a specialized art piece. I read about how one person even got a blown glass frog. I would’ve loved to commission something from that series.”

“Well, congratulations.” Natalia smiles dryly as she takes her seat again.

“The mural might’ve been washed off, but I thought you should still have a piece ofThe Woman in Wanting,” Stephanie says. “Not that it’s any consolation prize, but—”

“No, it’sbetter,” I protest, looking between them before landing on the artist in question. “I can’t even begin to thank you.”

“I’m happy you like it,” Stephanie says. “Natalia—”

“Let’s cut to the chase, then,” Natalia interrupts. “I know why you’re here. You’re the content creator who thinks it’s a good idea for some godforsaken reason to date the entire internet.”

“That’s one way to put it.” I let out a nervous laugh. “But I’m concentrating more on the scavenger hunt right now. I thought it might be a great way to meet other queer people in town and ultimately have my first kiss. You know how much your art means to me.”

“So I’ve been told.” She glances at Stephanie and a look crosses between the two that I can’t decipher. “She’s been talking about you all week.”

“Because it’s the perfect way to get you out of your rut,” Stephanie says. “I thought if you could just hear her out—”

“Don’t get me wrong, your story is very compelling,” Natalia says over her friend, turning back to me. On Krystal’s other side, Stephanie crosses her arms over her chest and mumbles something I can’t hear. “It would have to be for you to have amassed the kind of following in the amount of time you have.”

“Thank you?” I exchange a look with Krystal, confused about where this is going, but the pit forming in the base of my stomach knows the truth before I do.

“I’m afraid Stephanie invited you here under false pretenses,” Natalia says. “I can’t help you.”

“If you would just listen to what they have to say—”

“You know how this story goes just as well as I do,” Natalia tells Stephanie, shaking her head slightly before turning back to me. “I can’t help you with the scavenger hunt, but I can give you some advice. I’m sure you’ve heard all about what happened to me by now.”

“I’ve only read articles about you alluding to… what happened, but I don’t know the full story,” I tell her. “I get it, though. People are so miserable that when they see you thriving and happy online, they have to take you down. I get messages like that all the time.”

“Youdon’tget it.” She rises from her seat. “What you’re experiencing now is only a taste of what’s coming the second you stop giving your audience what they want. Quit before they tear you apart. That’s my advice.”

“You want me to quit?” I burst from my seat, and then we’re eye to eye. “I can’t do that. I’m sorry about what happened to you, but that’s not—”

“Not going to happen to you?” She huffs a laugh even as her eyes narrow. “If you really believe that, you’re a fool. The signs are already there. There are rumors circulating online about your past.”

“Rumors about my…” I take a step back from her, stunned. “What?”

“Men who you’ve supposedly dated and flirted with and ghosted, claiming the story you’ve created online is all a fabrication. Oh, you didn’t know about that?” She raises a brow.“Then there’s the woman you brought with you. I don’t believe you’ve mentioned Krystal at any point in your videos.”

There are no words to explain how completely bizarre it is to hear about my history of flirting with men and infatuation with Krystal from a perfect stranger. She’s not totally wrong, except for the fact that there was only one guy I ever dated, not that I count it as “dating” at all.

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