“Ow, ow, ow! Stop!” he yelled, dramatically
clutching his ear. “Sis, perfect timing! He wants
to video chat. Can you pretend to be you? I’ll
give you all my Christmas money!”
“No way! Confess and apologize right now.”
“Sis, it’s Christmas! It’s cruel to tell him he’s
been catfished by a dude.”
I punched his arm lightly. “You’re the cruel one,
catfishing people!”
“Just a few more days! I’ll get to the top of the
leaderboard, then I’ll tell him I need to focus on
school and break up with him. I swear! This is
the last time.”
He begged and pleaded until I reluctantly
agreed to take the call.
<
“Hey, Amelia, Merry Christmas,” a deep, smooth
voice said on the other end. My heart actually
skipped a beat. Where did Ethan find a guy with
a voice like that?
“Hi…” I started to speak in a girly voice without
thinking, then cleared my throat and tried to
sound more neutral. “Hi, Merry Christmas.”
“Amelia, what do you want for Christmas?”
Ethan shot up, grabbed his iPad, and frantically
showed me a picture of a Nintendo Switch. He
winked and nudged the screen.
I nodded, pretending to understand. Then, I said
into the phone, “For Christmas, I want a
complete set of SAT prep books.”
Ethan’s jaw dropped. I could practically see his
dreams shattering. Serves him right.
“Um… why SAT prep books?” the voice on the
<
other end asked, confused.
“Because I have the SATS coming up. I need to
focus on studying. Which means I won’t be able
to play Call of Duty with you anymore.”
“Oh. Well, that makes sense. You can still ask
me if you have any questions about the
material, though.” The voice was still incredibly
kind.
“Thanks. I appreciate that.” I politely ended the
call, handed the phone back to a speechless
Ethan, and said, “I’ll be checking your progress
on those SAT prep books every month. And
transfer the money back to him for the books. If
you don’t, Dad’s gonna hear about this. Merry
Christmas, little bro.”
I walked away, leaving Ethan standing there,
dumbfounded.
Back in the living room, Sarah had messaged
<
me again: “Seriously, what is going on with your cousin?”
I typed back, gloating about my masterful plan.
“Pretty awesome, right? Totally shut him down.”
“Yeah, but your cousin managed to get a boyfriend. You haven’t,” Sarah replied.
Ouch.
Sarah and I are opposites. Her yearly summary would be: “Dated Tom, dated John, got back
together with Tom.” Mine would be: “Single.” Sarah attracts guys like magnets. Me? I’m more like a guy–repellant. I’d tried dating, but it never
really clicked. So, I’d been single through all of
college and now grad school. I figured the
romantic part of my brain had probably
shriveled up and died. Until that phone call.
There was a flicker of something… but
realistically, anyone who fell for Ethan’s clumsy
catfish attempt was probably young and naive.
<
A rich, sweet–voiced… minor.
I spent the next few days making sure Ethan
broke things off with his online boyfriend and
deleted Call of Duty. After he did, I secretly
downloaded the game myself. If Ethan could
get a boyfriend using my pictures, so could I.
Except, I spent the rest of Christmas break
playing with Sarah. She wasn’t much better
than me, but somehow she ended up dragging us both down to Gold rank. I was hopeless, running around as a knight, basically pressing
buttons at random.
By the time break was over, I hadn’t even heard a male voice in the game, let alone found a potential boyfriend. Sarah sent me a screenshot of our plummeting rank. “I’m never getting out
of Gold. Maybe I should catfish someone with your pictures too.”
I sent her a GIF: “Blocked.”
く
Back on campus, my advisor called me on the
first day back. “Amelia, Professor Hayes from
the Physics department needs to see you. It’s urgent.”
I hung up, completely baffled. Professor Adam Hayes was the youngest and, by far, the most attractive professor in the Physics department. Someone had secretly filmed him lecturing, and the video had gone viral on TikTok. There was no logical reason why he’d need to see me.
Nervous, I knocked on his office door. It swung open almost immediately. He was standing
there, in a perfectly fitted white shirt that
highlighted his athletic build. His top buttons
were undone, revealing a glimpse of his
collarbone. My eyes met his. He had the most
intense dark eyes I’d ever seen.
“Professor Hayes, you wanted to see me?” I
managed to say calmly, despite the internal
screaming.
87
<
“Yes, come in.” He stepped aside.
0206
As I walked past him, I caught a whiff of
sandalwood. My knees almost buckled.
Before I could even fully enter the room, he
said, “Why did you break up with me?”
I froze. I looked around. We were alone. He
wasn’t wearing an earpiece.
“Huh?”
He looked down at me intently. “You said if I
bought you the Nintendo Switch, you wouldn’t
break up with me.”
…
I turned into stone. “N…Nintendo Switch?”
“Yes.” He nodded. “If you wanted something
else, I would have gotten it for you. Just don’t
leave me.”
