Page 6 of Dessert Flirt Repeat
Me:Haha I wish
Tori:You should slide into his DMs. He lives here in Denver. Bet he’d make a hell of a rebound ;)
I zero in on Tori’s text.
You should slide into his DMs.
Maybe it’s the alcohol infiltrating my brain, but this actually seems like a good idea.
Not the rebound part. God, I could never in a million years proposition a guy for sex via DM, let alone a total stranger.
But I could ask Gage for help. Actually, guidance is a better word.
Before I know it, I’m tapping out a message to Gage. My drunken, fuzzy brain can manage a pretty quick typing speed. Wow. When I finish, I do a quick skim of my message.
Whoa. I sound so ballsy. And confident.
I send it, then hop off the couch and head to the refrigerator for more wine. I don’t bother with a glass. I just down the last half-bottle of pinot noir Tori left me in a few long gulps. And then I pass out.
Chapter3
Gage
Isquint at the message in my DMs. Is this serious?
I read it again.
Gage Grant! Hello! Okay so you probably don’t know me, actually what am I saying, you definitely don’t know me hahahahj, you’re a TikTok celebrity and I’m a regular person, but I have a question for you! You’re a social media/TikTok genius with your millions of followers and I need your help to go viral! See, I own an ice cream shop in Denver (it’s called Sweet Cheeks—isn’t that so cool? Like the hashtag you posted on your latest video! OMG it’s like fate hahahahhh), I’m screwed financially because my cheating ex-boyfriend stole money from me and the quickest way I can think to earn more money is to go viral on TikTok by making sexy TikToks. Like you!! I have a TikTok for my ice cream shop, it’s @sweetcheekscreamery and it does okay, I mean, the content is pretty tame, just cute shots of ice cream scoops and sundaes and malts and shakes and sometimes I’ll be in a video. But I need to be sexy to go viral and be successful! Like you! And someday I want to see my ice cream in restaurants and stores yaaay wouldn’t that be so cool? So can you please help me? Like, teach me how to make sexy TikTok videos that go viral? Pretty please?? I’ll love you forever! And I’ll give you a lifetime of free ice cream too! But hey, do you even eat ice cream? I’ve always been curious if you eat the food you cook because it’s so rich and high calorie, but you’re absolutely ripped, like you’ve got the body of a freaking Roman god who goes to the gym all the time. Do you go to the gym all the time? Okay so let me know thank youuuu
This time I laugh after reading it. I get a lot of random DMs mostly from companies who want to pay me to use their products in my videos since I’ve got a large following. I’m used to it by now; it’s how I make a living, after all. Given the overt sexual vibes of my videos, though, some of those random DMs are wild. I get everything from marriage proposals to nude pics to messages that say, “DTF. You?” But this is the first time I’ve ever gotten…this. A rambling, semi-coherent paragraph of borderline nonsense.
Someone’s gotta be fucking with me. I try and think of which one of my friends would have made a fake account to DM me. Henry or Manny? Probably not. Maybe Micah, if he was high. Definitely not Tyler. He’s not clever enough to create an entire fake account just to DM me. My older brother is more of the “I’ll make fun of you to your face” type.
I tap the name of the account. Sure enough, it’s an actual account. Okay, so maybe someone associated with Sweet Cheeks Creamery’s TikTok account messaged me as a joke? Or when they were drunk? I read it again. Okay, yeah, the more I look this over, the more this feels like a drunk DM.
I see that Sweet Cheeks is here in Denver, near downtown where I live. I do a quick skim of the few dozen videos on their account, most of which are videos of ice cream being scooped and prepared, overlaid to pop music. This all looks legit.
I Google Map it. This place is just a few miles from my apartment. Huh.
I go back to their TikTok account and scroll through the videos again. It’s really wholesome stuff. There are videos advertising free scoops for kids on their birthdays and offering senior citizen discounts. I smile to myself as I watch a video of the ice cream shop hosting a fundraiser for the local humane society. Even the aesthetic of this ice cream shop screams cute and sweet: pastel pink walls, a neon pink sign that says “ice ice baby” in cursive writing behind the counter, and a greenery backdrop that makes up the entire wall on the far side of the shop.
I stop scrolling when I see a cute blonde beaming in the preview of one video. I tap on it and watch a quick video of a woman in wire-rimmed glasses, her long golden hair in a braid. She grins, flashes a thumbs-up, and scoops three scoops of ice cream into a waffle cone before handing it to a customer. I read the caption.
It’s Triple Scoop Tuesday! Yay! How many scoops can you handle?
I watch the video a couple more times. That can’t be the woman who messaged me…can it? She seems so wholesome, from her giddy smile to her ski-slope nose to her bright blue eyes. Christ, even the messy braid she’s sporting. She looks like the girl next door who spends her time giving out free ice cream to kids or reading to elderly people or rescuing stray animals, not getting shit-faced and sending rambling DMs.Shewants to learn how to be sexy in her TikTok videos?
I mean, if she wanted to come off as sexy, she totally could. She’s got that cute-beautiful vibe down pat. All she’d need to do is give a sultry expression or show some cleavage. Bam, sexy as fuck.
The reminder on my phone goes off.
Meet Tyler at the gym
Crap. Is it three o’clock already? That’s when I realize I’ve spent an hour trying to solve this mystery.
I lean back against my couch and tug a hand through my hair. Damn, I really lost myself in this. Normally I do a quick skim of DMs to make sure I don’t miss any messages from companies, then delete the sexy ones. But something about this message got to me.
I watch the video with the blonde scooping ice cream one more time.
