My Roommate Catfished a Billionaire With My Photos

My roommate spent a full year catfishing a man with my photos. The man she reeled in was a billionaire heir with a control problem.

The day they were finally supposed to meet in person, she cried and begged me to go in her place. Then I saw his face, and every reason to say no walked straight out of my head.

I was reaching for the roses when the comments started scrolling past. Nobody else could see them. Only me. [The nerve on this girl.

Lying to the male lead.] [She has no idea what he's like in private. Three days tied to a bed and she'd get very honest.] [He doesn't want the side character.

She's a pretty nothing. He wants the female lead's soul.] [Wait till he finds out.

She'll lose everything, and then let's see her smile.] I bit the inside of my lip. "I'm not the one you've been talking to." The smile left Damien Crowe's face and did not come back.

Chapter 1 Saying it out loud felt like setting down something heavy. I didn't have the nerve to check his expression. So I looked at the flowers instead. Ecuadorian roses, flown in.

They matched my dress perfectly. If I had taken them thirty seconds ago, I'd be holding them right now, getting the best photo of my life.

I was born without a panic button, I don't chase things, and if someone asks me to do something I usually just do it, which is why finding out that my roommate Stella had been using my photos to date a man online for a year did not make me anywhere near as angry as it should have.

I just told her to go clear it up. She swore she would. "June, please. Just meet him once for me." "Meet him, then break up with him." "I'll never use your photos again.

I swear." She cried until her face was a mess, tears and everything else running together. Mostly I was worried she'd reach out and get it on my dress. "Stop crying.

I'll go." I took one very small step back. Then I actually saw Damien Crowe. Sharp jaw. Clean lines. Dark eyes, straight nose. Wow. That face was a problem.

I'm hopeless about a good face, and for about four seconds I fully lost my mind. I nearly said yes to being his girlfriend on the spot.

Thank God the comments showed up first. "So what you're telling me," he said, "is that your roommate used your photos to talk to me for a year." His brow pulled together.

Even the frown worked on him. I made myself stop looking. I nodded.

Then I pointed at the corner, where Stella was watching us from a safe distance. "She's right there." Damien turned to follow my hand.

Stella saw both our heads swing toward her, and she bolted. He looked back at me. Held it.

Whatever was moving behind his eyes, I did not want any part of it. "I really didn't know," I said. Twice.

All he said was, "This isn't going to be that easy." Then he went after her. Watching him walk away cost me a small, stupid pang. That face was built exactly to my taste.

But the comments had done their job, and I was rattled. What did they mean, [the male lead is strong.

He can pick the side character up onehanded.] [Honestly, with a control streak like his, how was he ever going to let somebody lie to him.] [Three days straight isn't even his limit.] I pulled my shoulders in a little.

Good. That whole walking situation was somebody else's now. After that day, Damien caught up with Stella. And it went exactly the way the comments said it would.

He wanted her soul, the tough, unbreakable one. Not my empty pretty face. The jaw impressed me. That was the entire extent of my heartbreak. But something in our dorm suite shifted.

Stella started acting like a different person. She was a scholarship kid. Every free hour used to go to parttime jobs. That night I got back and opened the closet.

The dresses hanging in Stella's section. Same colors. Same cuts. Identical to mine. Chapter 2 She used to go out barefaced in whatever was clean. Long bangs, eyes half hidden.

Now she spent an hour or two on her makeup before she left the building.

And she came back later and later. "June, is it just me, or has Stella been really weird since she got a boyfriend?" Camille's face did something complicated.

I looked up from my game. "Huh? Has she?" Our other roommate, Blair, nodded hard. "Who even is this guy? Why is it such a big mystery?" "No idea what he looks like.

But he's rich, that part's obvious." Everything Stella wore now, everything she carried, came from Damien. Chanel dress. Louis Vuitton bag. All of it the real thing.

Camille glanced at me. "Do you know what her boyfriend looks like?" I shook my head. "Not really." I'd promised Stella I would keep her secret, so I never told anyone she had taken my photos, not even the two people sleeping across the room from me. "I just hope she didn't get played by some guy off the internet," Blair said.

She actually sounded worried. "She got out of the Blue Ridge on a full ride to New York. That's not nothing." "Wait, have you two seriously not noticed?

Stella's been dressing more and more like June." Camille pointed at the dresses hanging above us. I glanced up. I didn't need to. Same as the ones in my half of the closet.

Down to the cut. [Come on, when our girl Stella was talking to him online, every photo she sent had a dress in it.] [Stella just doesn't feel like she's enough.

Half the hobbies she told the male lead about belong to the side character.] [A sensitive girlie needs exactly that kind of firm, takecharge man to steady her.] "My boyfriend wants to take everyone in our suite out to dinner." Stella came in and announced it like a headline. "ThreeMichelinstar place.

Four figures a head." She leaned on the number. "You normally have to book weeks out. Everyone come.

Don't worry about saving my boyfriend money." Blair and Camille looked at each other. Neither one of them hid it well. It wasn't like they couldn't afford that restaurant.

Then Stella's eyes landed on me. "Especially you. June, you have to come." I wavered. Their desserts really are that good.

I went and photographed the whole tray last Christmas. "We're all taken now. You're the only one left." Stella smiled. "And my boyfriend's childhood best friend is single.

Very goodlooking." "He's picky, though. No idea if he'd go for someone like June." Something moved under her expression, and I didn't have a word for it.

Before I could catch up, Blair nudged my arm. "June. Just go." Camille backed her up. "Look at her.

Who exactly is she not landing?" [Ooh, the second male lead is coming out to play.] [Say what you want, his face is criminal.

Body too.] [If his family wasn't loaded he could model fulltime and eat just fine.] [Shame this isn't a poly route. Stella could've kept them both.] [Nah, skip it.

Augustin Rey is a player. He looks at a dog like he's in love with it.] [True.

Our girl Stella deserves the best one anyway.] While I was still staring into space, Stella spoke up again. "June, you're not worried it'll be awkward, are you?" "It's fine.

All that stuff is ancient history." Both of my other roommates turned to look at me. "What stuff?" "Nothing," Stella said lightly. "Just something between me and June." Ah.

That's a female lead for you. So gracious. But the look she gave me when she turned around. Not gracious at all. Chapter 3 Well, if she said it was fine, then it was fine by me.

I'd told the male lead the truth. That part was done. Before we left, Stella made a point of asking me something. "How's my dress?" I blinked at her.

I assumed she wanted an actual answer. "The pink washes you out a little." Her mouth flattened out. She bit down on her lip. "June, I spent forever picking this dress out.

You're not saying that because you want to be the one in a dress, are you?" [Side character, what is your problem.

Stella finally worked up the nerve to wear something new.] [Yeah her skin's not pale, that's from working outside back home, honest work is honorable.] [Seriously.

No idea what real life costs.] [She's putting on a show. She wants to be the one who walks in and stuns the male lead.] God as my witness.

I'm not about to get on a female lead's bad side. Fine. No dress. Problem solved. I grabbed a plain shirt and pants instead.

At the restaurant, the three of them peeled off for the bathroom and told me to go up to the private room first. The room was empty. I put my earbuds in and started a game.

I never heard anyone come up behind me. He leaned down over the back of my chair, easy about it, like he'd done it a hundred times, and folded me into him.

His breath was warm against my ear. "Missed you, baby." Damien's voice was low enough to feel in my ribs. He tipped my chin up. The kiss was already coming down.

I shoved him off. "You've got the wrong person