Page 59 of Sharing Shadow Secrets
Another text from Andrew comes in. “Fuck,” I mutter, taking in this photo. He’s sitting in a chair, leaning back with just trunks on, holding his hard dick. I groan, conflicted.
Don’t.You don't have random hookups anymore. You don't do booty calls anymore.
You are only sleeping with people who want more than sex from you.
He’s always a good time.
You are only sleeping with people who want more than sex from you.
He always leaves right after.
You are only sleeping with people who want more than sex from you!
I turn off my phone, debating whether or not I should throw it out the window. But instead, I put it in my safe, needing to get it away from me.
39
“No way,” Morgan exhales, staring at her laptop, sitting on the couch in our living room.
“What?” I ask, and Gwen looks up from swiping on her phone, curious too.
“Your vampire …” she trails off, turning her laptop toward us.
“He’s gay?” I ask, seeing a photo of him kissing a guy.
“Now I’m going full FBI-mode. I need to know the answer,” Morgan says. “This might be a headphones task … yeah.” She nods to herself and gets up. She refills her whiskey, then picks up her laptop. “Time me. I’ll be presenting my dossier in one hour.”
With that, she shuts her bedroom door. She’s such a nerd, but in moments like this, it truly is the best.
“Remember when she gave us a presentation about why cottage cheese is the nextitfood?”
“I will never get those forty-five minutes back,” Gwen muses, then looks down at her phone. “Are you going to swipe or what?”
“No.” I lean back on the couch, feeling the urge to text Brandon, but I’ve been drinking. I’m buzzed. So I can’t.Boundaries.
“Want another one?” Gwen asks, leaning to grab the whiskey bottle from the coffee table, pouring herself another drink.
“No, thanks.”
I open TikTok and scroll and scroll until Morgan skips out of her room. “Are you ready?” she asks, casting her laptop to our TV screen.
Gwen and I laugh because for Morgan to be this excited, it must be good.
“Kyle Rathbone. Stage name. Government name: Andrew Thomas.”
“That’s not that juicy. A lot of people trying to be famous have stage names.”
“Well, Andrew Thomas has quite the digital footprint.”
She shows us some photos that look like they were taken around 2010 with the way people are dressed. He has flippy hair and is skinny. Not the chiseled guy he is now.
“He graduated high school in 2009, is thirty-three, and grew up in Elkhorn, Wisconsin. How random. It’s the town next to where I grew up, which is fifteen minutes from Lake Geneva.”
“He told me where he grew up,” I share. “I think that’s why he accepted the gig.”
“He went to Columbia Chicago for college, but I think he dropped out. He and his friends were active on Tumblr, but then he stopped appearing in the photos in 2012. He’s not on LinkedIn, and there is a bit of a gap in his digital footprint, but it looks like he started the Kyle Rathbone persona in 2019.” Morgan smirks, and I know she’s excited about whatever she’s about to say. “He tried out OnlyFans in 2020 …”
“Please tell me you were able to find some of that content,” Gwen says.
