“Ally, how many times do I have to tell you to stay out of my inbox?” Desmond asked, leaning on the doorpost. At first, her obsession with checking the comments on his social media posts had been amusing. He’d since crossed over to concerned, leaving amused so far behind he couldn’t see it.
She ignored him, her eyes riveted on his phone. He walked to the couch and grabbed the phone. She reached for it, but he raised it above his head, laughing as she gave up. She barely came up to his shoulder. No way she was reaching it.
Ally pouted and then dropped herself on the couch. “There are literal nudes in there. More than I can count.”
He sat next to her, drawing her into his arms, her back to his front. “I know. That’s why I keep telling you not to check my messages or comments. If we ignore them, they will go.”
“It’s been months. They’re not going. If anything, they’re increasing.”
He leaned down and kissed her neck. “We stay on course. Eventually, they’ll realise I’m not biting, and they’ll stop.”
“That’s easy for you to say. You’re the one prating about with models and women so hot even I am tempted.”
Desmond handed her the phone comically fast. “Show me the ones who do it for you.”
She pushed his hand away. “I’m serious, Des.”
This was the first time she was expressing doubts about her appearance, her full-figured body. “I love you. I love your body. I want you, only you.” He burrowed his neck in the space between her neck and shoulder, rubbing his beard on her the way she liked. “No matter where I go, I’m coming home to you.”
He sang the last line, dancing with her body, trying to be cute.
Alyssa pulled away from him, pushing herself to the opposite end of the couch. “That’s not nearly as sweet or reassuring as you think it is.”
“What do you want me to do, Alyssa? I can’t stop being famous.” He was so tired of this conversation, this fight they kept having. He’d been in the public eye for two years but had exploded recently, and his social media pages reflected it. “Everyone knows I’m in a relationship with you.”
“They don’t think it’s real or serious because you have your arms around all these girls. Is it too much to ask that you not touch them?”
“I take my cues from them,” he shrugged. “Fine. No more physical contact. Can that please be the end of this?”
“Whatever,” she sighed, getting up.
He stood up after her. “Babe, at some point, you’re going to run out of things to make me do or not do, you realise that, right? I’m not going to stop being famous, so you have to deal with this yourself. You have to find a way to co-exist with it.”
She resumed her walk into her bedroom and closed the door behind her. That meant he was spending the night at his place. Great. He’d come hoping to spend the night. He’d been on the road touring and had missed her terribly. That was that.
Desmond cleared the table, setting things back the way she liked them. He washed the dishes they’d used for dinner, then let himself out.
Two months later
Desmond turned to Alyssa, eyes wide open, mouth agape. “Holy shit, did you hear that?”
Alyssa nodded, speechless, her heart beating so fast she could hear it in her ears.
He hugged her and kissed her cheek. “Holy fuck, baby, this is huge.”
She held him tighter when he attempted to pull away, and he kept his arms around her as they watched the live show. She needed his anchoring presence as they sat on his couch watching her life change. The biggest artist in the country had just given her a shout-out and laid the success of his current record at her feet, praising her songwriting.
The messages started coming in immediately. Suddenly, she had thousands of new followers on all her social media pages.
The gossip rags started printing her pictures, accompanied by mostly made-up stories. Crucially, the men started. Their messages came in like a biblical flood. Someone leaked her phone number, and she started getting money. Money. Men who didn’t know her from Eve were sending her money, large sums of money.
At first, Desmond ignored it, trying to take his advice. The only problem was that everyone else around him didn’t get that message. The gossip rags printed the varied propositions Alyssa daily got in her comments section; his own friends made it their business to send him screenshots so scandalous he felt dirty reading them. When he finally broke and scrolled through her personal messages, he almost screamed. Men were sending her dick-pics, making incredibly indecent proposals and sending money, big money, to show their seriousness.
“What are you doing?” She asked, walking into the living room from the bathroom, her robe peeking open, the revealed skin teasing him.
He swallowed heavily and tried to remind himself she was with him, not the numerous monied men online jockeying for her attention.
“I thought we agreed, no going down the social media dm’s trap.”
“Are you seriously going to keep the money?”
She took the single seat next to the couch. “Is it legal tender? If so, then yes.”
“You know it gives them the wrong idea, right?”
“I know they’re grown men who we can reasonably assume know what they’re doing. Consider it reparations for women’s continued suffering everywhere.”
“Men are insane, Ally, you know this.”
“Yeah, that’s why all of it is going to women’s shelters.”
“They won’t know that,” he said like he was explaining it to a toddler.
“Who cares what they know?”
“The optics are bad, even you can see this.”
Alyssa leaned forward, her robe opening up further. The peeking chocolate expanse of her chest stole his attention for a second.
She raised her brows, head twisted slightly to the side. “What optics? The fact that men are giving me money when you exist?”
“What, you can have all these rules about what I can and can’t do with fans, but I can’t have thoughts about you and these men?”
“You’re the one who said that jealousy was a personal matter I would have to deal with myself. Well, get to dealing, baby.”
His mouth dropped open. “Are you serious right now? I did everything I could to make you feel better. You won’t do a single thing for me?”
Alyssa moved to join him on the couch, taking his hands in hers. “I shouldn’t have said that. I’m following the rules you’re following. I’m not chatting with them. If they ask for their money back, I tell them to initiate a reversal. Anyone who sends a dickpick, they get blocked. I’m following the rules.”
He leaned down and kissed her hands, loving how soft they were. “Okay.”
“You’re freaking out.” She said, clasping their hands together.
“The men in your mentions are big men.”
She laughed, “Woah, Des, were you looking at the dickpics?”
“You know what I mean,” he laughed. “What kind of person just sends you 200k like that?”
Sha laughed. “A big, likely gullible one.”
He sighed like he had the weight of the world on his shoulders. “How do you deal with it?”
“With the daily AI-generated images of you in flagrante with women and the novel-length, highly explicit fanfiction accompanying them?”
He dropped his head on her shoulder, inexplicably embarrassed. “Yeah, that.”
“I listened to this talk, and the woman was like, don’t fight it, there are no bad feelings. Just find out what that feeling is trying to tell you. I think my jealousy was trying to tell me I felt physically inadequate next to the women you were taking pictures with. Knowing that, means I can deal with that specific issue.”
“You’re not inadequate, you’re hot.”
She smiled, her eyes bright with joy and wonder. “I know, the girls in my comment sections said so.”
He pulled back, meeting her gaze. “What about the guys?”
She shook her head. “Guys will say anything to get in your pants. Can’t be trusted.”
He kissed her hands again, one after the other. “I think maybe my jealousy is telling me I’m afraid of losing you to the big men.”
“I guess you know what you have to deal with.”
He caressed her cheek, his eyes boring into hers. “Promise you won’t leave me.”
“You really think that would work to make you feel better, certain?”
“I don’t know. I’m willing to try anything.”
She leaned in and kissed his Adam’s apple. “No matter where I go, I’m coming home to you.”
He groaned, his head dropping to her shoulder again. “That’s not encouraging.”
She burst out laughing. “Your words, not mine, baby.”
He leaned in, his lips hovering next to hers, their breaths mingling. “While I got you here,” he said before capturing her lips in a searing kiss. Then he was leaning over her as she stretched out on the couch, her hands sending heat waves throughout his body. He pulled the tie of her gown open, his breath catching when he saw her spread out before him.
“I love you,” he breathed, his feelings bubbling to the surface.
“I love you, too,” she said, a small smile tugging at her lips. Her hands played with the hair at the nape of his neck as she pulled him back, joining their lips.
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