Page 81 of Tour Wars
“What?” TJ gnawed on his lip, suddenly worried Davis was having second thoughts. Without the video, their plan wouldn’t have the same impact.
Davis twisted the stem of his cocktail glass between his fingers. “I wish I had a bigger platform. My views have been increasing steadily, but not as fast as I’d like. I want everyone to hear this. If I had more connections, then—”
“Hang on,” TJ said. “My friend Olivia has a younger sister who’s a big travel influencer. I met her in Cyprus a couple of years ago. Her name’s Sofia Sanchez, but she goes by SoFood SoFia, and she’s got a ton of subscribers.”
Davis’ eyes widened. “Whoa. You know her personally? I’m a major fan of her work.”
“You think she’d be willing to help?” Cesca said. “This is a big ask.”
“I can try.” For once, TJ couldn’t resist using one of his stepdad’s motivational quotes. “You know what they say—you miss one hundred percent of the shots you don’t take.”
CHAPTERTHIRTY-TWO
With a yawn, Emilia grabbed the coffeepot from the warmer and topped up her cup. She passed the pot to Olivia, who sat beside her at the breakfast bar. Relaxing on a weekend morning was a rare occurrence for Emilia. Usually, she tried to stay busy by going on long runs or spending hours in the garden. Since today’s forecast called for heavy rains, she hadn’t bothered to change out of her pajamas.
Rick sat on the couch with his head bent over his laptop. Though he claimed he was drafting a report for work, Emilia knew the truth. He was scouring travel sites for a weekend getaway with Olivia. He’d wanted to take her somewhere romantic for her birthday in October, but they’d both been too busy. Emilia had encouraged him to go for it because she suspected he was planning to propose. Even if she lacked any semblance of a love life, she wanted her friends to be happy.
When Olivia’s phone rang, she picked it up with a huff of annoyance. “Sofia. Does she not realize it’s barely seven?”
Emilia laughed. Even if Olivia’s younger sister was crap at paying attention to time zones, she was always so bubbly and upbeat it was hard to stay mad at her. “Aren’t you going to answer it?”
“Nah. It’s too early. If it’s important, she’ll call back.”
“Do you want me to make more coffee?” Emilia asked. “My head’s still fuzzy from last night.”
“Yes, please,” Olivia said. “I totally regret opening that second bottle of wine with dinner. It didn’t help that Calcite woke us up so early this morning.”
Rick patted the tabby cat sleeping next to him. “Hey, the little guy caught a mouse. I don’t blame him for being excited about it.”
“I guess, but I would have preferred a few more hours of sleep.” When Olivia’s phone started up again, she groaned. “Now she’s calling me on FaceTime. I hate it when she does that first thing in the morning. She knows what my hair looks like.” She pushed her messy curls away from her face, swiped the screen, and put the call on speaker. “Hey, Sof. What’s so urgent you had to call me at seven in the morning?”
“Good morning, Liv!” Sofia’s perky voice came through clearly. “It’s seven there? Wow. So early. It’s already nine in Chicago.”
“Yes, that’s how time zones work,” Olivia muttered. “What’s up?”
“Is Emilia around? I have big news for her.”
Emilia went to stand next to Olivia and waved at the screen. “I’m here. How’s it going?”
“It’s going great! Like,fantastic. Did either of you catch my latest video? Well, it wasn’tmyvideo, but the one I shared on my YouTube channel on Tuesday?”
“Sorry,” Olivia said. “I’ve been busy with a ton of grading. I’ll watch it later today.”
“You need to watch it now!” Sofia demanded. “It’s aboutyou, Emilia.”
“What?” Emilia downed the rest of her coffee, hoping the jolt of caffeine would jump-start her foggy morning brain. “You made a video about me?”
“I told you,Ididn’t make it. Your friend did. Davis. The guy you met in Italy? He made a video about your tour and how those fuckers at Buon Viaggio screwed you over. Then he asked me to share it—well,hedidn’t ask me, but TJ did. And I still remember good old Teej from Cyprus, so I said yes. And it gotsomany views. Like, even more than my last video, when I taste-tested five kinds of Chicago-style deep-dish pizza—which was a total masterpiece if I do say so myself.”
Emilia’s head swam with confusion. Why would Davis post a video about her? And whynow?
“Hang on, Sof,” Olivia said. “Are you saying Davis created a new video about the Buon Viaggio tour, and then TJ asked you to share it?”
“Did you not hear me?” Sofia sputtered. “You’re a little slow on the uptake this morning. I shared it four days ago, but you haven’t commented on it, so I had to make sure you saw it.”
“Thanks,” Emilia said. “I’ll check it out. I’m sure Davis appreciated the boost. You probably have a lot more subscribers than he does.”
Sofia laughed. “That’s putting it mildly, but it was no problem. I’m always happy to take down the patriarchy, one asshole at a time. Or three assholes, in the case of the Robertis. I’ve gotta go because Javier’s taking me out for waffles, but you need to watch it ASAP. Catch you later.”
