Stars Dancing [Dreams-To-Lovers Romance]

"How about lunch?" Rhoda asked, and I nodded. The lunch buffet of the airship was close by, so we filled plates and returned to our seats.

Munching on a honey-mustard ham roll, I repeated back to Rhoda the next steps. "Okay, so we need to confirm if I've been talking to the real HC Maron or if something is impersonating him, right?"

She nodded, spooning fruit salad into her mouth. "Yeah, so, we already know he's sent you credits. That's a financial transaction, and no, we don't know with certainty that it's the actual author, but it's a good sign. Then there's the documents with Padma Simdeck's name, and she looks like a person with a cosmetics business. All of these are positives. What other facts do we have? Concrete details?"

"Hmmm. Well, there's Purple Road, which isn't Discord. It's a whole different platform. HC doesn't have a book there now, but he's been writing reviews. Oh! Coraline did too! She reviewed my poem!"

Rhoda nodded, "Exactly like I did. That could be fake. Someone could easily make fake accounts and post reviews, good or bad, so it's not a definite confirmation of identity. But to build that many layers into an NPC-type of username in Discord seems like a lot of work for little gain. What else?"

"Well, the smack_pans guy was either a creep or suspicious. He wrote reviews too."

Rhoda agreed, "Then we need to look at all the reviews and see what matches up across the two platforms. See how wide this goes and how detailed the identities are."

"This is so fucking crazy. I can't even believe we're having this conversation! I mean, who does this, Rhoda? And why? Is there a financial gain in it? How do you make money from a scheme like this?"

"Great questions, and I don't have answers Sam. You and I don't have to understand it all, we just need to figure out what's happened to you. Then we can search for the right people to tell so something gets done about it."

Right. That's what Rhoda had insisted from the get-go. It wouldn't be up to us to fix everything; just to find out how much of what had affected my personal life was invented, and how much was real.

Finishing my Caesar salad, I felt the weight of days of angst lift. Suddenly, I realized I wasn't bogged down under a job that felt like a torment with a boss who'd never be happy, and I wasn't getting confused about whether or not the Special Streams wanted me around.

"Rhoda! We're on VACATION!"

"You betcha! And Miami's got Cubanos waiting for us. Crab and girly drinks with umbrellas on the beach. You ready for it, Sam?"

"Hell yes. I feel like I can breathe for the first time in days. Gods, what was in that ham sandwich?"

Rhoda laughed, "Somethin' extra in the honey mustard? Oh hey, do you even like girly drinks with umbrellas?"

"Do they have alcohol in them?"

"Hah! Great. We're gonna have a blast. So, we ready to look at your pad yet?"

Enjoying this book? Seek out the original to ensure the author gets credit.

I nodded and pulled the damned device out of my bag. "Here's the worst of it: CoralineAsIs' preview DM with my nickname."

"Screenshot that. Now, tap it, and let's see where it goes."

When the Discord DM opened, the part with my name wasn't in a message. But a longer message from CoralineAsIs was. Rhoda looked away.

"That's personal for you, Sam."

"Read it with me, Rhoda. I still don't know if this is a real person or a trick."

She nodded.

CoralineAsIs: I never closed this. Remember your promise

Ayela: you asked for it, you got it. Link to video.

CoralineAsIs: Ayela, I watched this four times already. It took me awhile to find the song: "Somewhere Over The Rainbow." It's amazing. Thank you so much for sharing it with me. This is one of the most beautiful and precious gifts I've ever received. I wanna talk to you more. You there?

"Oh Sam."

"I know, Rhoda. I know. God, this tugs at the heart strings. If it's fake, it's the most cruel, horrid thing I've ever seen."

"What if it's not fake, Sam?"

I smiled at the pad. "Then it's too precious to lose, Rhoda. And it's worth the risk don't you think?"

"Whadaya want me to do, Sam? Give you some space?"

I shook my head. "No, I need your level-headedness. I didn't even watch that video before I sent it. I have no idea what it looked like with me hung over and miserable picking out that song one note at a time. I don't even know what to say. I mean, I wanna pick up where I left off with the hot flirting and a lot more, but I don't know what I'm dealing with. Can I somehow tell her I'm here but — gods, I don't even know how to frame it!"

"What about just a simple note that you wanna talk more but will be tied up for a couple of days with work? An I.O.U. a conversation?"

I nodded and typed a response:

Ayela: I'm glad you like it. Let's talk in a couple days when I'm back at my desk. afs for a while

CoralineAsIs: 👍

Rhoda sat back. "Well, that was so fast she was either watching her screen, or she isn't a she at all."

That thought opened a pit in my stomach, and Rhoda saw the look on my face. "Wait, you said she had a Purple Road account, right? Let's see it."

So we switched over to looking through my Reviews. Their numbers had grown, especially on the most popular poems.

"Honestly, Sam, reading Coraline's Review and her DM, they sound like the same person wrote them."

"I agree, but what about this one from smack_pans? I mean, maybe he's just a loser who got drunk and tried to bed a lesbian on stream, but, gods, this whole thing is weird."

"Wait, one of the data points we have is that things in Discord got repeated. You heard the same song in the voice chat on two different servers. So, let's see if the Reviews are repeats too!"

"How do we even do that, Rhoda?"

"Forget Purple Road, do a general stream search with the contents of the Review."

Of course, that made perfect sense. I copied smack_pans' Review into the search box, and whammo! Rhoda was right. There were seventeen poems with the exact same Review, and each entry was listed under a different username than smack_pans. None of them were users I recognized.

"Holy shit," Rhoda cursed. "Sam, this is bigger than just a Discord con. Someone's creating content on other platforms and falsifying identities. Search for HC and Coraline's Reviews."

I did, and both had only the single entries on my works. I smiled at Rhoda who was beaming back at me.

"Hot damn, Sam! This is looking good for HC and Coraline. I know we shouldn't get our hopes up yet, but this looks so fucking good."

I sobered, "It does, and I think we should be cautious in case it's meant to look that way."

She nodded agreement. "So, we know that HC is sending you money and documents. What else do we know about him?"

"Well, he was posting on Shreddit to announce his book Shapeless Poetry; the one I'm beta reading."

"Then we need to confirm that the real HC Maron is actually writing said book. That it's not an imposter creating all these false scenarios."

"Can we do any more on stream, Rhoda? How do we double check all this stuff?"

"That's where Paddy's Patch comes in. I think we've done all we can on your pad. Now it's time we make some business connections for Wyoming Wild!"

So that's exactly what we did. Oh, Rhoda'd already contacted Paddy the night before and made a good first impression. Now, it was time for phase two of her plan.