#Sweet Sophie

“For God’s sake, Sophie, what were you thinking?” T.J yelled, his voice hysterical and high pitched.

“I wasn’t thinking anything,” Sophie Beckett replied, her enormous blue eyes welling with emotion. “I was eating an ice-cream!”

“Look! Just look at this,” T.J turned his phone screen towards her. “Does this look like someone eating ice cream?”

The image was grainy and zoomed in close, but it was unmistakably Sophie, her eyes closed, long lashes curving against her cheekbones, in an expression of forbidden bliss as she licked the melting ice-cream.

“This picture is everywhere.” T.J ran his hand through his non-existent hair. “It’s trending on every social media platform.” He clicked the apps as Sophie’s face filled the screen again and again. “There’s even a Reddit devoted to speculating about your sexual exploits! This is bad. Do you realise you have put your contract in jeopardy? The movie studio won’t want the face of their newest princess associated with some sordid sexual images.”

“I was eating an ice-cream, for crying out loud, T.J! I did nothing wrong.”

“A picture is worth a thousand words, and these words are spelling the end of your acting career before it’s even had a chance.” T.J slammed his phone on the table. “No one will touch you now, not if the studio announces that you’ve broken your contract. You’re damaged goods.”

“I haven’t broken the contract. I ate an ice-cream. I haven’t participated in any seedy porn, my social media is clean, I’ve not even dated anyone since I signed on. You’re blowing this out of proportion. ”

“I’ve been in the industry longer than you’ve been alive. If I say this is damaging, then it’s damaging.”

“Can’t you do something?”

“Damage control isn’t cheap, Sophie. It’s easier if you stay clean.”

Damage control. Sophie was heartily sick of those words. She’d done nothing to damage her reputation, except be photographed at the wrong time, in the wrong place and from the wrong angle. Now she had to pay most of her signing bonus to get T.J to mitigate the damage. If only she could find the original photo, then she could zoom out, and prove the object she was so decadently licking was indeed an ice-cream cone. Context is so important.

With her sunglasses over her eyes and floppy hat pulled low against the glare of the sun and protection against the curious stares of people on the boardwalk, Sophie traced her steps back to the ice-cream vendor. Someone took that photo and she wanted to know who it was.

“Hello, good morning,” she said brightly to the harassed young man behind the counter. “May I speak with your manager?”

The boy blinked blankly, “I haven’t done anything wrong?!” Sophie couldn’t tell from his high-pitched wail, whether he was posing a question or making a statement.

“No, I just have a few questions to ask. I’m not looking to get anyone in trouble.” Sophie smiled as sweetly as she could, considering the tension she was feeling. Her head thumped and the whole side of her face was throbbing, but she pressed a sweet expression on her lips and prayed that it didn’t look like a grimace.

“Kyle,” the boy called over his shoulder. “There’s someone who wants to talk to you.”

The man who stepped through the door looked to be barely older than Sophie herself, and she wondered how much managers of ice-cream shops were paid. If she couldn’t sort this photo problem out, then her career was over. Maybe she would need to work in the food service industry.

“My name is Kyle. How may I help you?” he asked politely, his face a mask of polite indifference that only just managed to disguise his irritation.

“I really am sorry to interrupt you, Kyle, but I was wondering if you could tell me if there are any security cameras recording the plaza outside your shop?”

The manager’s eyebrow shot to his hairline. Clearly, he hadn’t expected the question.

“There are, but you’d need to ask security to access them, and only if you can give them a reason, like for a crime investigation or something. And they won’t just release the footage to a civilian, you’d need a warrant.”

“I see. I don’t have a warrant, and the police can’t do anything, but someone has breached my privacy. They have taken a photo without my permission and published it online. I need to see who took it.”

Kyle’s eyes widened. “You’re Sophie Beckett.”

“Yes, and I’m sure you’ve seen the photo I’m talking about.” Kyle’s blush spoke volumes. “It’s not what it looks like. I was here on Thursday and I ate an ice-cream. It was ice-cream! You know how good the ice-cream is here. But someone has zoomed in and cut the cone part out and the picture is ruining me!”

“I suppose I could ring Stuart in security. He might be able to look at the video feed on the quiet and let you know if he can see anything. I’d need a date and time, though. There are hours of footage to go through.”

Sophie opened her banking app to check her transaction history. “I purchased it on Thursday last at 2.45pm.”

Kyle made the call as Sophie nibbled at her fingernail. T.J would hate that. Princesses didn’t chew their nails, they were always immaculately presented.

“He said he’d try, but can’t promise anything. The camera may not have even been pointing in your direction at the time,” Kyle said as he ended the call.

Sophie slumped against the counter. “I know, but it’s the only hope I’ve got of getting my reputation back.”

“I’m at USC studying a Master of Science in Cybersecurity Engineering. It’s possible that we could do a reverse image search and see where it has originated from.”

“You can do that?”

“It might be possible to find out where the pic was initially shared. That might give us a starting point.”

“You said ‘us’. Are you going to help me?”

“It seems like I am.” Kyle appeared as surprised by the statement as Sophie was.

“If you can do this, I promise to offer you the position as head of my nonexistent digital security team. If you can’t, then my career is over, and I might have to hit you up for training and a job serving ice-cream.”

It was a nervous two days that Sophie spent locked behind closed doors. T.J insisted that she stay out of the spotlight. His strategy was to lie low and wait for a new scandal to take the heat off the photo. Two days was an eternity in LA and fifty of so celebrities would have committed a social and/or political faux pas in that time. Sophie wasn’t sure what she was paying T.J the extra money for, if all he was advising her to do was wait.

An SMS alert pinged.

-Kyle :Hey Sophie. I’ve got something. Do you want to get an ice cream🍦?:

-Me :Sure🙂 u free now?:

Sophie hurried into the ice-cream shop, her eyes shielded behind dark sunglasses and her face hidden beneath the shadow of a deep-brimmed floppy hat. Kyle, waiting anxiously, swiftly whisked her away to the back storeroom, shielding her from prying eyes.

“Here,” he muttered, handing her a device, “this is the first share of the image. It took me a while because I had to… well, I had to do quite a bit of cross-matching, considering the original image is not zoomed in and cropped.”

The image was a lot clearer, having lost the pixilated blurriness from the zoomed in crop. There she was, enjoying the melting ice-cream on a hot day as it dripped down her fingers.

“Who took the photo?” Sophie’s voice trembled.

“Well, we can only assume it was the original poster, one Samuel Richardson,” Kyle explained, his tone heavy with disgust. “He shared it with a Theo Partridge on Thursday evening. Theo cropped it and shared it back. From there, it was forwarded to several sites and shared with the tag, #sexy Sophie.”

Sophie gasped, her disbelief turning into a bitter realization. “Theo? Theo Partridge? Not T.J! He’s my manager.”

“I hate to break it to you, but it seems he’s not exactly in your corner,” Kyle muttered, his voice heavy with sympathy.

Sophie’s legs gave way beneath her, and she collapsed onto a nearby packing box, the betrayal hitting her hard. “Why would he want to destroy my career?”

“I can’t say, but I can help mitigate the damage. We can post the original with a new hashtag. Something like #sexy Sophie enjoys ice-cream.”

“Not sexy… I’m not a sex symbol. I’m a person,” Sophie protested, her voice tinged with frustration.

“Sex sells. It’s what gets traction,” Kyle countered, his gaze unwavering as he met her eyes.

“I don’t want traction. I want vindication.”

“How about #sweet Sophie enjoys frozen treat?” His warm brown eyes, like melted chocolate, captured her. “Or just #sweet Sophie.”

She felt a rush of warmth flood her veins, her breath caught momentarily in her throat. The small office seemed to suddenly lose all its air, as she gasped, “#Sweet Sophie… I like it.”

As Kyle uploaded the unedited image with its new hashtag, Sophie’s heart raced with anticipation.

“I can’t promise it will get rid of the suggestive images, but perhaps it will prove your innocence.” He said as the upload finished and swung his chair around to face her. “We could also threaten your manager with legal action over the manipulation and sharing of the image. You could sue him for defamation, and for breaching his contractual obligations to you.”

Sophie’s pulse quickened.

“You keep saying ‘we’,” she observed, her voice barely above a whisper, her heart pounding.

“You did promise me a position as head of your non-existent Cyber-security team,” Kyle reminded her, his tone tinged with a hint of playfulness. “Are you going back on your word?”

Sophie shook her head, a smile tugging at her lips. “No, but I have nothing to pay you with until I begin filming,” she admitted.

“That’s OK. I won’t quit my day job just yet.”

With a flirtatious grin, Sophie met his gaze. “You lured me here with the promise of ice-cream. Is that still on the table?” she asked.

“Absolutely, but maybe this time, we’ll stick to cups,” Kyle suggested, leaning in closer, his breath warm against her ear. “Cones might send the wrong message.”

She felt her cheeks heat and her heart hammered against her ribs as her mouth dried up. There was a pause, heavy with promise and potential, and Sophie was barely able to breathe, barely able to move or think.

Kyle took a deep breath and, stepping back, he opened the storeroom door. “Come, let me buy you that cup of ice-cream.” He grinned, eyes twinkling. “I know the manager and can get us a staff discount.”

Sophie, able to breathe once more, asked as she passed him, “Like a date?”

Her comment caused him to pause before replying, “Would you like it to be?”

Sophie’s cheeks flushed at his teasing, her heart racing with anticipation as she looked back over her shoulder. “I think I’d like that,” she confessed, a shy flirtatious smile playing on her lips.

“Oh, sweet Sophie… you’re addictive.” Kyle groaned as he followed her into the ice-cream shop.