Choose Me

Chapter 35

"Reyna, what the fuck is all this?" Dex asks angrily as he storms into my room, waking me from the best dream.

"What are you talking about? It is way too early for this," I complain as I sit up in bed and wipe the sleep out of my eyes.

"Look at your phone," he demands, tossing it on my bed and I sigh out understanding what he's going on about but do as he says.

I pick up my phone off the bed where he threw it and feel my stomach turn when I see all the dating apps and a bunch of the profiles I created for my clients open on my phone. How did he find this? And most importantly, how did he get a hold of my phone? I always keep it at my side and then it dawns on me, I never unplugged it from my charger in the kitchen last night when I went to bed. Fuck.

He must have grabbed it when he went to go make himself a cup of coffee, and since I recently made the stupid mistake of giving him my pin so he could fix something on my phone, he didn't have any problem unlocking it. Double fuck. I should have known better than to trust him with the pin to my phone. But it's too late for laments now. He knows the truth and now, there's no turning back. I have to face him whether I like it or not. This is not going to be good.

I get up out of bed so I can face him on equal footing, refusing to let him look down on me like he's better than me. "You had no right going through my phone!" I yell at him and jab him in the chest with my finger but he doesn't back down and steps closer to me, making me feel small with how imposing he looks, standing over me. But I'm not afraid of him and hold my head high as I gaze into his eyes. I can see that he's furious. His nostrils are flaring and his shoulders are rising and falling with every breath he takes.

"So this is why you're always on your phone? You're catfishing people?" he accuses me, automatically thinking the worst. "Really, Reyna? I thought you were better than this," he says sounding disappointed in me and my heart just plummets.

I always knew this day would come. I could only keep my work hush, hush for so long before he found out, and now that the day is here, I feel like absolute shit. Out of all the conclusions he could have come to, why did he have to come to the worst one? I guess it makes sense since I have a bunch of random profiles but it still hurts that he thinks I would catfish people. I would never do that.

"Do you really think that little of me?" I ask him, feeling hurt by his accusation. "I am many things but I'm not a catfish. I don't make people fall for me to lead them on or take their money. I would never do that," I say, feeling my anger rise by the second.

"Well, what am I supposed to think when you have dating profiles under other people's names and pictures?" he says furious and I get why he's mad, but I did what I had to survive and help my parents who always struggled to make ends meet. It may not be decent what I do but it pays my bills and leaves me more than enough to help my parents.

"It's not like that."

"Then tell me. Why do you have all these profiles?" he says, pointing to my phone in my hand.

"It's none of your business."

"You're right. It's not. But I care about you and want to know what you're doing with your life. Please tell me you're not catfishing people and taking their hard-earned money," he practically accuses me and I scoff.

"I already told you I don't do that and would never think to do it and the fact that you think I would hurts. You know me better than that," I say, feeling upset.

"Then tell me. Why do you have all those profiles?" he demands frustrated.

"It's my job!" I yell at him. "I create online dating profiles for people and talk to people for them. I weed out people I don't feel would be compatible with them and respond to people I think will be a good fit for them. And when things are going well, I hand them back their profile, and it's up to them whether they go on a date or not."