"Oh? Who are you dating then?" Her mother finally stopped. She waited…… even her breathing was quieter.

  "Cage Cavanaugh."

  Howls of laughter. Katherine wanted to slap her forehead. "Oh, that was so funny," her mother said in between rounds of laughter. "No, tell me the truth. Who is it?"

  Katherine made a face. Yeah, it was hard to believe that she was dating Cage Cavanaugh. "I really am dating Cage Cavanaugh."

  Silence.

  Clearing of the throat.

  "I'll humor you for a minute. How did you meet Cage Cavanaugh? Have you been camping outside shooting sites and waiting for him to come out because you have a lot of work apart from fangirling." Well, at least her mother admitted that fangirling was a side hustle for her. What else could a fan ask for from their parents?

  She wasn't going to believe Katherine. At least she wasn't going to get yelled at like her dad would if he found out.

  "No, I don't have the time to follow him around. I met him on a game online."

  "Honey?" She heard her mother scream. She pulled the phone away from her ear, trying to protect it from the damage her mother was about to cause. "Katherine wants to tell you something."

  Wait wait wait. Was she calling dad to let him know what had transpired? He would kill her. Katherine had hoped that she would run everything past her mother and her mother would be the one to tell her father, thus softening the blow.

  That was the plan. Why were the circ.u.mstances now deviating from it?

  "Mom, please don't do it." She wanted to sob. She also wanted to hang up the phone but if she did that her parents would book plane tickets and fly to her to kick her ass.

  "I'm putting you on speakerphone," Katherine's mom said, sounding uncaring. Katherine sucked in a breath and waited. "Yeah, so Katherine is dating someone famous. Katherine, tell your father who it is." Katherine was silent. She could feel that her mother was ridiculing her.

  "I am in a relationship with Cage Cavanaugh." She could hear her father ask her mother who that was. Blasphemy. "He's a superstar and known for his action movies."

  "Haven't hear of him before. Must not be as good." Katherine was offended. The diehard fangirl in her wanted to scream.

  "Dad, you watch South Indian movies where the hero splits a bullet into half…… a bullet that was shot at him." This was saying that her father had no taste in movies and was not the connoisseur he believed himself to be.

  "Movies are supposed to transcend reality. Why would I watch a stick figure fight?" her father brooded. The conversation was quickly turning into a fight about action movies.

  "You two, stop. Katherine, tell us how you met him."

  "I met him online while I was playing a game."

  "I thought you were a smart woman," her father commented. "You'd know better than to believe that some chit behind the screen is a hotshot actor. They don't have time to play online games. Also, I had warned you not to play games online and talk to strangers but you do it time and time again. You'll get into serious trouble someday. People on the internet don't portray themselves in the right light and you can definitely not trust them."

  "Dad, this isn't about that."

  "I hope you didn't give him any personal information or send him pictures that he can use against you." Katherine wanted to bang her head into the wall. She could hear her mother gasp at the implication. Now she felt a little stupid, too. But her story had a happy ending so she could forget she was stupid and believe it was destiny.

  "Mom, dad. Rest easy. He is real. I have met him. He was at my house until this morning."

  "Katherine!" her mother gasped. What? She was a grown woman. She lived in her own apartment and could bring any guy over. If they still behaved this way, she would really have to become a nun and pledge her life to Jesus. Wanting your daughter married and also not wanting her to associate with men were conflicting ideas. They don't go together in this day and age.

  "You had him in your house?" her father asked. His voice was low and angry. "Your house has three rooms and you have two other roommates. Where did this boy stay?" Did he really want to know the answer?

  "I'll just go back to the beginning." She was going to forego answering that question altogether. "I was done working one evening and went over to my PC to play some games and relieve stress. You know how good I am, so I was particularly surprised when someone was beating me at the missions. I started a conversation with him and we subsequently started to email and call each other." She paused and waited for it.

  "Don't sound so happy that you play well. If you had paid more attention at school, you'd get better grades," her father grumbled. She wanted to remind him that she had stellar grades and wanted to have a life outside of studying. "Also, you gave him your number? How many times have I told you how crazy the world is? You could have been talking with a serial killer. You can't give your phone number to any guy. Even if he is a celebrity."

  "I didn't know he was a celebrity."

  'Way to make it worse, Katherine.'

  "We live in an age where we date people online. It's no big deal. With great inventions come other resources to protect people. Have some faith in your daughter."

  He muttered something about Katherine being exactly that stupid. "The ending was happy. It was Cage Cavanaugh and I am dating him."

  "And what about the fight you had with him?" her mother interjected. Katherine again felt like telling her mother anything about the situation was a huge mistake. She seemed to be on a warpath to make Katherine suffer.