A Spot at Starlight Beach (Spotted Cottage #3)

Eight

What did it matter if some strangers on the internet thought she was unstable?

Mackenzie didn’t care. She couldn’t care less, in fact! She was in her soldier era. She was a fighter. Shakespeare knew what she was about.

So what if people on ChatterSnap thought she was overly aggressive? So what if someone she’d never met said she had a big forehead indicative of a low IQ?

She knew it wasn’t true. She had to stop reading the comments. It would blow over in no time and, besides, she didn’t have a big forehead. It was perfectly average. She’d tried bangs and they weren’t for her. She wasn’t going back.

The tea shop was empty today. Totally dead. No one had come looking for her. That was a good thing, really. They were afraid to confront her, because they knew they were lying.

Mackenzie sat, staring at her laptop screen, wondering what shame looked like for someone like the boaters.

“Should I take your phone away?” Eliza asked.

Mackenzie shut her eyes. She didn’t realize she had it in her hand. “Maybe.”

“It’s not healthy to keep looking at that stuff.”

“I said maybe!” Mackenzie barked, gripping the phone tightly.

Without thinking, she clicked on the ChatterSnap app. It opened to the video, and she quickly closed it. She didn’t want to read any more comments today.

“I wonder if Steve will see it,” Mackenzie said.

“Your ex-boyfriend will definitely not see it. You’re only a local sensation,” Eliza said with a smile.

Mackenzie groaned. She didn’t want to be any sort of sensation. “I know it’s dumb, but I just don’t want him to see it.”

“Because you’re embarrassed?”

“I’m not embarrassed,” Mackenzie said. “But he’ll think he’s doing better than me and I can’t have that.”

“He thinks he’s better than everyone,” Eliza said.

“Yeah, well. He’s not winning the breakup. I am.” She took her phone and slapped it into Eliza’s hand.

“Winning the breakup?” Eliza laughed. “That’s not a healthy way to deal with any of this.”

“I will deal with this however I want, thank you.” She squared herself in front of the screen. She had to do the budget for the month and make sure they were on track. That was something to focus on. Not stalking the profile of the person who had called her a “Kraken Karen of the Salish Sea.”

“Could dealing with it include apple cobbler with ice cream?” Eliza asked. “I’m about to pull the cobbler out of the oven.”

Mackenzie shut her laptop. “Yes, I think that’s a good way to deal.”

Eliza laughed. “Great.”

Mackenzie would get through this. Russell was to blame, really. She’d give him a call soon.