The Beautiful Truth

// 4

"You've got to be kidding me," I groaned, opening my email for the first time since our night out with Michael's Mistress.

Micki rolled over in bed and groaned, eventually mumbling something indecipherable.

"How did I get up to run this morning?" I pretended to understand her. "Easy, I didn't take shots with the drummer until I could barely walk last night."

She buried her head in her pillow, but did manage to raise her middle finger in my direction.

I ignored her gesture and continued, mostly talking to myself. "Seriously, it's less than 24 hours later and he wants to be my Facebook friend."

Micki cleared her throat, but talked into the pillow still. "Barton Black has a total crush on you."

I pressed my lips together. "Whatever."

"Oh come on," she continued to argue with her bedding. "He's totally into you. He wouldn't let you get more than five feet away from him, and if you did, he'd immediately ask me fifty questions about you."

This wasn't news to me. She'd told me all this and more while she was bombed in the back of our cab when we'd finally made our way back to Berkeley around three o'clock this morning.

"Sure, sure," I brushed her off, clicking through the rest of my unopened email. Then there was one from my Google alerts—a link to an image posted on some trashy celebrity news site.

"Oh God," I muttered, having opened the link in the email and mentally digested what I'd just seen.

"What?" Micki rolled over a few degrees to ask.

I shook my head and picked up my phone before heading back into the hallway. Noticing that it was still before noon, I did everyone else on my hall a favor a took the elevator down to the ground floor, then walked outside before dialing his number.

Talyn's cellphone rang three times before he picked it up. I didn't give him time to say so much as 'hello.'

"HADLEY CATALANO?!" I screeched into my iPhone.

Silence.

"Uh—"

Talyn laughed. "I'm here SF..."

I sighed. "Aww, Tally...she's—"

"A phony bitch?" he laughed. "I know."

I rolled my eyes. "That doesn't help."

"I take it you read something? I thought some photographer followed us last night. Damn."

He didn't need to know about my Google alerts. Is it really stalking if the person you're 'stalking' is your best friend? I couldn't think of anything to say while I turned this over in my mind.

"So, Barton Black is your Facebook friend?"

Suddenly I didn't feel so bad. "Are you stalking my Facebook now?"

Talyn laughed. "Are you Google-ing me?"

"Worse, I'm having alerts sent directly to my email when something new gets posted about you online," I quipped in my standard sarcastic tone.

"Really?" his voice rose a few octaves.

"No." He'd never know it was a lie.

He sighed. "Damn."

I laughed. "Come on. You've got the national sports media and apparently now the paparazzi following you, what do you need me to stalk you for?"

"I don't mind when you stalk me," he said honestly. "So how was the concert last night? Obviously not too bad if you're Facebook friends with the lead singer now."