Page 35 of Dad Next Door

“I offered, remember?” He shot me a teasing grin. “I’m down as long as you don’t mind having me on your arm.”

“I’d love to have you on my anything!”

Quinn burst out laughing.

I laughed with him, the wine buzz making everything a bit floaty. “That didn’t come out the way I meant.”

“So, what are the details for this thing? We can do a full plan later, but I need to set my character.”

“Character?” I asked.

“Oh yeah. I’m an actor, remember? I can be whoever you want me to be. The shy nerd, a cocky playboy, maybe a confident businessman. Whatever you desire.”

“Really?”

“Yeah. Think of it like Build-A-Bear, only this is build-a-date. Set the scene for me. Tell me about the bride, the guests, and what you know about the wedding and venue.” He motioned to his house. “I have another bottle of white chilling if you want to pop it open.”

I nodded. I wouldn’t usually drink this much when I had Leo with me, but Lydia was home, and she’d already told me to have fun and not worry about anything.

Quinn jumped up and strode across the deck and into his house.

I pulled my phone out of my pocket the moment the back door closed behind him and opened my web browser to look up his stage name.

He was right. All the top hits were from porn sites. I desperately wanted to check out one of his scenes, but I scrolled down the page until I saw the link to his Instagram account.

Sneaking another glance at the house to make sure he wasn’t on his way back yet, I clicked the link.

His profile filled my screen. I almost choked when I saw his follower count. I’d assumed he’d have a decent number based on how long he’d been doing this kind of work, but I hadn’t expected to see that many.

He’d told me he was active on his socials because they were his biggest marketing tool. I quickly scrolled down to see his most recent posts.

The last one had been uploaded an hour ago and was a selfie of him smirking at the camera and lifting his shirt to show off his perfect abs. The one before that was a picture of an impressive spread of food and a caption about being blessed and having good times with his friends. The time stamp suggested it was from when he’d had his friends over.

I quickly perused his photos. Most were either workout shots or selfies where he was showing off various body parts and giving the camera a cocky and arrogant smirk-smile.

Something about that smile was off. It fit the hot guy influencer aesthetic, but it was cold and nothing like the man I knew.

Promo posts were sandwiched between thirst traps, and he’d uploaded a few heavily edited nudes that just skirted the line between explicit and implied. I checked out the comments section on one of his most liked photos, where he was stretched out on a bed with the corner of the sheets carefully arranged over his dick to cover it. The photo was arguably one of the hottest I’d ever seen, but the mass of lewd and disgusting comments made my skin crawl.

“Like what you see?”

“Jesus!” I bobbled my phone, managing to catch it on my knees before it clattered to the deck.

Quinn flopped down on the couch next to me, a shit-eating grin on his too-handsome face.

“Would you believe me if I told you I wasn’t looking you up and was checking the news?” I asked, tucking my phone away.

He poured two glasses of wine. “We can pretend if it’ll make you feel better.”

“You really don’t care that I can just look you up and see everything?”

“Nope. I wouldn’t have gone into sex work if I did.” He pushed one of the glasses toward me. “So, what did you think?”

I settled in my seat. If Quinn wasn’t going to be weird about things, then I sure as hell wasn’t either.

Knowing he’d filmed porn was a bit strange, but only because I’d never met anyone who was in the industry. The picture I’d had in my head about what sex workers were like didn’t match the Quinn sitting across from me. I hadn’t fully understood what he meant when he’d said it was an acting job, but after looking at his Instagram and seeing the kind of stuff he posted in contrast with who he was as a person, it was obvious his online persona was a role he’d created to sell his work.

“You really like to show off your abs,” I said when he sat quietly, waiting for my answer.