Chapter 1
The day before Bianca was supposed to meet a guy she’d been talking to on a dating app for six months, she found out he weighed over three hundred pounds.
She cried about it for almost an hour.
Then she looked at me and said, “You have to go instead.”
I stared at her.
“Excuse me?”
“I used your pictures and your name. He already thinks I’m you.”
“And somehow that’s my problem?”
“Emily, please.”
“No.”
“If you don’t go, I’ll post the screenshots on social media and tell everyone you’ve been lying to him.”
I just looked at her.
Then she added, “And I still have those pictures from last semester.”
My stomach dropped.
She meant the pictures she’d taken while I was changing in our dorm.
The ones she swore she deleted.
“You’re seriously using those to make me do this?”
“It’s one dinner. Meet him, tell him you’re not interested, and leave.”
I held out my hand.
“Give me the account.”
Her face brightened. “So you’ll do it?”
“Just give it to me.”
Bianca and I only ended up roommates because she’d asked for a single and housing didn’t have any left.
She complained about it constantly.
I didn’t. My financial aid covered the room, so I was just happy I had somewhere to live.
Bianca had used my identity on the dating app because she didn’t want guys knowing who she really was.
Ethan Ashford had become her favorite because he was sweet, clingy, and ridiculously generous.
Then she found his real social media account.
The pictures he’d sent weren’t fake. They were just old.
He’d gained a lot of weight since then.
That was enough for Bianca.
The next afternoon, I met him at a restaurant downtown.
“Emily?”
Ethan stood up when he saw me and immediately looked nervous.
“Hey. I’m Ethan.”
“I figured.”
He laughed under his breath.
“Sorry. I’m kind of freaking out.”
I already knew what he looked like, but seeing him in person still caught me off guard.
He was much bigger than he’d been in the old pictures.
Still, the way he kept glancing at me and looking away was kind of cute.
I sat down.
“Ethan, I actually need to tell you something.”
“Oh, wait.”
He pushed a small box toward me.
“I got you something.”
I opened it and froze.
The necklace inside was from a designer brand I knew very well.
“Ethan, this is way too expensive.”
His face fell. “You don’t like it?”
“No, I like it. I just—”
“Right. Sorry. I forgot you like cash better.”
“What?”
My phone buzzed.
$12,000 received.
I stared at the screen.
Twelve thousand dollars was more than I made in a year at my campus jobs.
“Emily?”
I looked up.
Ethan was watching me nervously.
“You got really quiet.”
“I’m just surprised.”
His eyes dropped to the table.
“Is it because I’m fat?”
I didn’t answer fast enough.
“The pictures I sent you were really me,” he said. “They’re just old. I gained a lot of weight after I started taking medication.”
“I know.”
He looked up. “You do?”
“Yeah.”
“I’m trying to lose it. I should’ve told you before we met. I just thought if you knew, you wouldn’t come.”
His eyes turned red.
Then a tear rolled down his cheek.
“Please don’t leave.”
I looked at him, then at the twelve thousand dollars on my phone.
The speech I’d prepared about Bianca suddenly became a lot harder to give.
I reached across the table and took his hand.
“Hey. Don’t cry.”
“You’re staying?”
I hesitated.
“Yeah.”
“Really?”
“Really.”
He smiled.
“And if you still want to lose weight, I’ll help you.”
“You mean that?”
“Yeah.”
His smile got even bigger.
“Thanks.”
I squeezed his hand.
“Don’t make me regret it.”