Page 16 of What the Cowboy Wants
Rose was still trying to find the words to tell Arlene she hadn’t invited Cooper when her other friends also arrived.Swallowing the groan, she welcomed them.Minutes later, Willow, Ellie and Laura also knocked on the door.
Eyes twinkling, they kept giving Rose knowing looks.It wasn’t hard to guess they’d all heard about the kiss.They’d also seen Cooper’s truck parked in front of her house as the rest of Marietta would have done.
“It was just a kiss, it didn’t mean anything,” Rose said quickly.“Come on in.”
“It’s neverjusta kiss with a Weston.”Laura grinned as she hugged Rose.
“I have to agree with Laura,” Ellie added.
Vivian and Annie O’Sullivan, their sister-in-law, Riley and the O’Sullivan’s aunt and teacher at the local school, Janice, also arrived.They too, were in the yarn shop on the night Rose stumbled in.
As they all made their way toward the living room, Rose closed the front door behind her.Taking deep breaths, she tried to calm her galloping heart.How did she get rid of Cooper?
He appeared in the door and with his eyes never leaving hers, he stepped closer.“If you don’t want me here, I’ll go.”
“I don’t know why you’d want to stay.”
With a soft smile, he touched her arm.“You know why.It’s not something I was looking for, but there is something here, Rose, whether you want to accept it or not.I’d like to stay.I’d like to hear your story firsthand.”
Rolling her eyes, she brushed past him.
“And Rose?”
She glanced back at him over her shoulder.
“It wasn’tjusta kiss,” he said.
She didn’t react before quickly entering the living room, his soft words following her.
*
Cooper kept hiseyes on Rose.She was uncomfortable but fiercely determined to get whatever had happened to her off her chest.Fussing, she made sure everyone had something to eat and drink.He hadn’t planned on staying, but now that he was here, waiting for Rose to tell her story, he knew this was where he was supposed to be.
Eating was the last thing on his mind, but the snacks looked so inviting, he couldn’t resist.After the first bite, he nearly groaned out loud.Everything was delicious, Rose clearly was an excellent cook.
She made sure everyone was happy before she took a seat on one of the chairs.
“Just spit it out,” Willow smiled.“Nothing you tell us will make us like you less, we’re all here for you.”
Sighing, Rose combed her hair from her face.“I’m not so sure about the not-linking-me-part.And really, it isn’t that big of a deal anyway.The reason my life had spun out of control was that I’d been so full of myself, so determined to be someone I’m not.Nothing that happened was anyone else’s fault but mine.”
Inhaling deeply, her eyes on her hands, she began to talk.
“I was an interior designer in Seattle, working from home.After a suggestion from a client, I began to post what I do on social media.I shared my initial sketches of the work I was planning to do as well as before-and-after pictures of the projects once I was finished with it.Initially, my posts were mainly viewed by my mom and dad, other family members, and a few friends.Then one day—I’m still not sure why—one of the posts went viral.My phone blew up.The post racked up nearly forty thousand views in the first few hours after posting.”
Everyone was on the edge of their chairs, all eyes on Rose.
“I went from having only a few followers to more than a thousand very quickly.I was so excited.So many people liked my work, commented on it, telling me how much they admired what I do.I started posting more.I did more sketches of my projects, I learned all sorts of video tricks, spent hours deciding what captions to use and tried to be witty in the process.I thought I was doing what I loved, and I liked the adulation.It felt nice.”
Cooper couldn’t take his eyes off of Rose.Four months ago, she wouldn’t even leave the house, let alone invite people to her house, now she was prepared to share what had happened to her.
“Because I was posting more,” she continued, “I pleased the algorithm—whatever that is—and I got even more followers.Soon I had eight thousand, but that meant I was still a nano-influencer and I wanted to hit ten thousand so that I can call myself a micro-influencer.I did everything I could and the numbers kept rising, way beyond ten thousand.”
With her eyes on her hands the whole time, she told them about the first brand inquiries in her inbox, how excited she’d been, and about discovering not every message was legit.Soon she’d been receiving products for free, products she had to advertise even though much of the stuff had nothing to do with her interior decorating business.The bigger she grew, the more trolls and bots appeared and soon after, many nasty commentaries started appearing on her feed, criticizing everything from her hair color to the clothes she wore.
“While this was going on, a cousin of mine, Charlotte, introduced me to Duncan Young.He’s a lawyer, good looking, and he had a huge following on social media and wanted to collaborate with me.He asked me out a couple of times and soon we were more than friends.We did videos for our platforms together, talking about our jobs and our relationship which attracted even more followers, more attention.Soon there wasn’t time for my actual job.I was online all the time.I was at the point where I was going for fifty thousand followers and I relentlessly opened my app several times a day to comment, to engage with my followers and advertisers.I couldn’t help myself.During that time, my parents retired and moved to San Diego.I never visited them once; I was too busy to answer phone calls and texts.I also ignored calls and texts from my few close friends, and soon they stopped contacting me.”
Rubbing her forehead, Rose sighed.“It was at this point that the algorithm lost interest in what I was doing—as it apparently does.Horrified, I saw the pace at which I was getting new followers slowed down, the likes and comments stalled.”
