Role Playing

PRAISE FOR CATHY YARDLEY Love, Comment, Subscribe “Yardley brings humor and humanity into the cutthroat world of online influencers, showing the realm’s pleasures and pressures. Both protagonists are delightfully flawed, and Yardley seamlessly weaves their backstories and details of their Asian American heritage into the fast-paced narrative. This smart, sexy tale of fame and friendship is a charmer.” —Publishers Weekly (starred review) “A fun, lively romance mines the insecurities common in people transitioning to adulthood.” —Kirkus Reviews “Cathy Yardley is the queen of modern love stories. Her books are clever and swoony and unputdownable!” —Penny Reid, New York Times bestselling author “Love, Comment, Subscribe is so. Much. Fun. Cathy Yardley wrote this modern romance with just the perfect amount of humor and heartwarming moments that I was all in for Lily and Tobin’s collab, both in business and in love.” —Tif Marcelo, USA Today bestselling author of It Takes Heart Gouda Friends “It’s palpable how much Tam and Josh care for each other . . . Yardley’s fans will gobble up this gentle but steamy romance.” —Publishers Weekly “Yardley’s prose is summery and light—you’ll get swept up as Tam and Josh breezily fall right back into place as the lovably cheesy duo known as Jam. A mouthwatering romance.” —Kirkus Reviews OTHER TITLES BY CATHY YARDLEY Ponto Beach Reunion Love, Comment, Subscribe Gouda Friends Ex Appeal Smartypants Romance Prose Before Bros, Green Valley Librarian book 3 Fandom Hearts Level Up Hooked One True Pairing Game of Hearts What Happens at Con Ms. Behave Playing Doctor Ship of Fools Stand-Alone Novels The Surfer Solution Guilty Pleasures Jack & Jilted Baby, It’s Cold Outside This is a work of fiction. Names, characters, organizations, places, events, and incidents are either products of the author’s imagination or are used fictitiously. Otherwise, any resemblance to actual persons, living or dead, is purely coincidental. Text copyright © 2023 by Cathy Wilson All rights reserved. No part of this book may be reproduced, or stored in a retrieval system, or transmitted in any form or by any means, electronic, mechanical, photocopying, recording, or otherwise, without express written permission of the publisher. Published by Montlake, Seattle www.apub.com Amazon, the Amazon logo, and Montlake are trademarks of Amazon.com, Inc., or its affiliates. ISBN-13: 9781662503979 (paperback) ISBN-13: 9781662503986 (digital) Cover design by Faceout Studio, Amanda Hudson Cover illustration by Leni Kauffman To my mother . . . I finally get it. This raising kids shit? Is hard. Thank you for not giving up. To my father . . . I miss you, and I hope you’ve found peace. And finally, to my son. You are a weird, amazing, hysterically funny, brilliant person who has flourished in spite of my awkward parenting skills. I can’t wait to see where life takes you. Contents CHAPTER 1 OBVIOUSLY NOT FINE CHAPTER 2 HEROIC SAFE MODE CHAPTER 3 PRISONS ARE A GYMNASIUM CHAPTER 4 BECAUSE DESTINY SAYS SO CHAPTER 5 THE MORE YOU KNOW CHAPTER 6 SQUEE VS. SQUICK CHAPTER 7 THAT CAME OUT WRONG CHAPTER 8 GREAT BIG LIBRARY OF EVERYTHING CHAPTER 9 YES, YES I AM CHAPTER 10 HILARITY ENSUES CHAPTER 11 TOO GOOD FOR THIS SINFUL EARTH CHAPTER 12 THE SNARK KNIGHT CHAPTER 13 BEING GOOD SUCKS CHAPTER 14 TREACHEROUS CHECKPOINT CHAPTER 15 SUSTAINED MISUNDERSTANDING CHAPTER 16 BEWARE THE QUIET ONES CHAPTER 17 PLUCKY COMIC RELIEF CHAPTER 18 TOO BLEAK, STOPPED CARING CHAPTER 19 IT’S JUST A FLESH WOUND CHAPTER 20 MUNDANE MADE AWESOME CHAPTER 21 GIVING THE SWORD TO A NOOB CHAPTER 22 YOU CAN’T FIGHT FATE CHAPTER 23 YOUR NORMAL IS OUR TABOO CHAPTER 24 OBLIVIOUS TO LOVE CHAPTER 25 PRAGMATIC ADAPTATION CHAPTER 26 ARMOR-PIERCING QUESTION CHAPTER 27 CRAPSACCHARINE WORLD CHAPTER 28 EVEN EVIL HAS STANDARDS CHAPTER 29 BEAUTIFUL ALL ALONG CHAPTER 30 I REJECT YOUR REALITY CHAPTER 31 HEART BEAT-DOWN CHAPTER 32 MOMENT OF AWESOME CHAPTER 33 LOVE EPIPHANY CHAPTER 34 I HAVE NO SON! CHAPTER 35 TRUE LOVE IS A KINK CHAPTER 36 AND I MUST SCREAM CHAPTER 37 DESPAIR EVENT HORIZON CHAPTER 38 BEWARE THE IRON WOOBIE CHAPTER 39 THE DOG WAS THE MASTERMIND CHAPTER 40 YOUR RESIGNATION IS NOT ACCEPTED CHAPTER 41 I WAS TOLD THERE WOULD BE CAKE EPILOGUE BATTLE COUPLE Acknowledgments About the Author CHAPTER 1 OBVIOUSLY NOT FINE Stay calm. It’ll all be fine. If there was one place Maggie Le did not want to be, it was pushing a wobbly shopping cart through the narrow aisles of Tasty Great, the primary supermarket in the town of Fool’s Falls, eastern Washington State, population five thousand. Unfortunately, it was the only place to get food, and after eating tuna straight out of the can with a few farting squirts of mustard from a bottle that was more air than condiment, she had finally conceded that her cupboards were truly bare. Still, it was fine. She’d get in, stock up, and get out with a minimum of interaction. Some pleasantries to the checkout lady. Comments on the weather. She could do this. Or, more to the point, her best friend, Rosita, had told her she had to do this when she’d left her a voice mail asking if flour had an expiration date. She dragged her feet, frowning at the articles on various shelves. She would admit to feeling a little off the past few weeks. She wanted to blame it on being busy. She’d just finished edits on a nonfiction book for a business publisher that was a regular client, then done some sample edits for possible future jobs. She’d done some administrative stuff—spreadsheets and money tracking—then lined up a few more projects, including editing a horror novel at the end of the month. For a freelancer, busy meant money, and that was always good, even if it meant she overbooked occasionally. Because she worked from home, she was used to setting her own schedule. In the past few weeks she’d started to abandon her circadian rhythms. She found herself working whenever she felt like it, getting up when she felt like it, sleeping