Page 60 of Not Your Basic Love Story

“Remember how I told you Dev had only dated one person before me? Well, I guess she’s the person his family set him up with in hopes they’d get married. I think I saw a picture of her on the wall at their house. And—”

Miranda picked up her phone. “What’s her name?”

My shoulders slumped. “Don’t do it.”

“Do what?”

“The creepy thing where you track someone down and stalk them on the internet.”

She ignored me. “Sonja? Right? Let me see...”

I shook my head and leaned back in my chair. She was like a bloodhound on the trail of an escaped inmate. Now that she had the scent, I had to wait it out.

“Aha!” Miranda exclaimed a minute later. Her expression switched from excitement from the thrill of the hunt to doom, her eyebrows worrying.

“What?”

“Nothing.” She tried to tuck her phone away, but I snatched it from her grasp.

I scrolled through the Instagram feed, full of perfectly curated snapshots of Sonja’s life. Generally, I avoided Instagram. It gave me anxiety, and this was no different. First of all, she was fucking gorgeous. Second, there was a whole block of her and Dev together. Both of them had the same radiant white smiles. Oh my god, they looked perfect together.

And here was one of him kissing her cheek!

Squinting, I tried to zoom in and expand on the picture, but a little white heart popped up.

“Fuck...” I whispered, eyes widening.

“What?” Miranda said, snatching the phone back. She gasped. “Youlikedit?! Becky! She’ll know I’ve been spying on her!”

I panicked for a moment but swallowed it down. “It’s fine, right? She doesn’t know you, right?”

Miranda raised an eyebrow. “I’m sure she can figure it out.”

“But she has like, what, a hundred followers?”

Miranda’s lips twitched in a bemused smile. “Try a couple thousand. This girl is like, Influencer status.”

I crossed my arms. “I’m sure lots of people go back and... like pictures from... years ago...?”

Miranda laughed. “Only new girlfriends checking out ex-girlfriends do that. Trust me, you’re on her radar now.”

I groaned. “You’re not making me feel any better.”

She tucked her phone away. “Sorry, you’re right. It’s probably fine. You don’t have Instagram, maybe she won’t cross-reference with Facebook, and even if she did your account is private. And, I un-liked the picture right away. Maybe she won’t see the notification.”

Shaking my head, I tried not to imagine Sonja laughing about me creeping her Instagram account with my best friend.

Miranda took a big bite of her food. “Okay, so, you were saying you recorded their argument, which is super creepy, by the way.”

“I know,” I groaned. “I had to get it translated. Basically, they said they would disown him if he moved in with me.”

Miranda sat back in her chair, abandoning her burger for the moment. “That’s seriously fucked up.”

“It’s nothing against me, personally. He has responsibilities to his family. You know? Like, he’ll be giving up the job his dad worked his whole life to guarantee for him. And their home, they have older grandparents who need care, and that’s on Dev to look after.”

She nodded. “I guess it makes sense. But it sucks.”

“You can say that again.”

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