energy.”
“It’s the meth.”
My eyes pop open before I can stop them.
She laughs. “I’m kidding. My only addiction is caffeine.” She arches a brow. “You?”
I shake my head. “I might be addicted to caffeine too, but I don’t drink coffee.”
“What?” She stared at me like I just said I like to kick dogs. “How can you not drink coffee?”
I shrug. “Just never liked it. I drink a couple of Cokes every morning.”
“Coca-Cola.”
I grin. “Yeah.”
“That’s bad for you.”
“It probably is.”
The waitress comes by and Sara orders her coffee. I just stick with water.
“So why’d you only get a few hours of sleep last night?” I expect to hear she was out partying at some hot New York club.
“Oh, I was up late editing a video for YouTube.” She rolls her eyes. “It takes me so long to do it, but I have to get it perfect. I may not be perfect.” She acknowledges this with a smile. “But my videos have to be edited perfectly. It’s hard to explain, but I have a…style, I guess.”
“Huh. I guess I need to watch them.”
Her confidence does a vanishing act. She drops her gaze to the table and moves cutlery around. “I don’t know if you’d be interested,” she mumbles. “Most of my fans are girls.” Then she regains her self-assurance, looks up at me, and straightens her shoulders. “I talk about stuff like clothes…makeup…taste testing burritos…”
“I love burritos.”
Her smile is witchy. “I knew I liked you.”
“What else do you talk about?”
“Sometimes I cook. Sometimes I go shopping.”
I don’t say it out loud, but this doesn’t sound all that exciting. And yet, apparently she’s hugely famous. She has an undeniable appeal—her animated way of talking, her honesty, her infectious smile. Maybe she can talk about drinking water and make it interesting, I don’t know.
I study Sara as the waitress sets a cup of coffee in front of her. Her long brown hair is wavy and wild, parted in the middle. Her eyes are amazing…a clear, light greenish blue with a thick fringe of long, dark eyelashes. She’s wearing jeans, as I am, and a big green chunky knit sweater that appears to swamp her small frame. She thanks the waitress with a smile and my gaze wanders to her hands as she pours cream into the cup and adds a couple of spoons of sugar. Her right hand has gold rings on the three middle fingers…two of them sparkly stars and stacked thin bands on the middle finger.
I nod at her coffee. “I don’t think that’s much healthier than a Coke.”
She lifts her head and grins. “True. I’ve been trying out different kinds of milk, but I don’t think they have soy or almond milk here.”
“I’m kidding. You do you.”
When the waitress returns, we both order burgers and fries. Wagyu beef, no less.
“How long have you been doing…this?” I ask.
“This?” She smiles again. “The videos, the podcasts…?”
“Yeah.”
“I started doing videos when I was in high school. They were just stupid little videos I did for fun with my friends. But in my freshman year at college, I was having a hard time adjusting…and I got depressed.”
She says this matter-of-factly, which makes me think she’s probably talked about it a lot.
“It was pretty bad, and I didn’t really get it because I wasn’t unhappy. So I decided to take up making videos again and started a YouTube channel. My best friend helped me with them and I actually got excited about something, so I kept going. I had no idea it was going to turn into…this.” She waves a hand. “At first I was putting on makeup and doing my hair and making sure everything was perfect and then…I got exhausted. I was uploading so many videos and I didn’t have time for all that bullshit, so I just started being myself.”
“That’s pretty awesome.”
“I love doing it. But it also kills me, you know?” She tips her head to one side. “You’re a famous athlete. We talked about pressure earlier. So you must get it.”
“I guess. Do your fans pressure you?”
“My fans are great, mostly. But of course there are haters. Social media can be really fucking hard sometimes. People send me nasty tweets and leave terrible comments on my videos.” She makes a face. “It can really fuck you up.”
“Yeah. I’ve seen a few guys get themselves in trouble on social media.”
“Right?” Her eyes widen. “It’s wonderful but it’s awful too. Luckily, my skin has gotten thicker over the years. For a