HI FRIENDS

I'll save my apologies and explanations for the end. I hope you like our first peek into the InstaMan's mind :)

As always, thank you to Fran for beta-ing and Mariel for prereading. I don't necessarily take all their suggestions though, so mistakes are on me!

I almost own a bachelors degree, but I don't own Twilight.

Prologue:

SwanSong liked your photo.

I was a little surprised by the notification. Aside from my family, all my followers were strangers but I'd learned the handles of the people who usually liked things on my anonymous Instagram.

I liked the anonymity of MasenAroundTheWorld. It gave me a chance to just take nice photographs and follow people whose photos I liked, without worrying about the publicity of using action movie star Edward Cullen's verified account to interact with someone. There was so much drama and politics in public celebrity social media, and while I had some social media accounts that were just locked down and private, I enjoyed having one chance for some anonymity and normalcy. Thus, my Masen alter-ego was born.

My photos were pretty high quality, and I probably took a thousand pictures each time I traveled to shoot a movie or for a press tour. I usually mixed up whether I posted new photos or old saved pictures and often didn't specify when any photo was taken. In the unlikely event someone started comparing my filming dates with my Instagram posts, I didn't want the timelines to match.

As it was, I mostly had follows from other travel or photography accounts. I followed mostly bakeries. I tended to sit on set and watch cookie and cake decorating videos. They were mesmerizing!

So who was SwanSong? I didn't recognize the name, so I knew they didn't follow me. I supposed they probably were looking through tags or something. The notification was a day or two old. I'd been on a brutal travel day from LA to London and had just slept when I got to London. Thank goodness I had time to rest before starting what felt like endless talk show appearances and press conferences. I liked filming and meeting fans and I even liked sitting down with talk show hosts to talk about my movies, but the whirlwind speed of press tours was exhausting, with never enough time for sleep.

I clicked over to SwanSong's profile.

Painter. Baker. Not a bird.

I chuckled. That must have been a reference to the "swan" in the handle. I pondered why before beginning to scroll through the photos. The most recent was a picture of a snow-covered courtyard, immaculately blanketed with no imperfections or foot prints. "A lot of snow to close out a Seattle year!" the caption read. The next was a phenomenal-looking chocolate cake. The top had elegant swirls and there were professional-looking puffs of frosting around the edges and the base. Nestled against one side was a grouping of pink and purple roses. The caption said, "Made a cake for the best roommate ever. Happy birthday to my darling Rose!" followed by two pairs of cake and present emojis.

After the cake was a painting of a vine-covered stone house nestled in a clump of brightly colored trees. It must have been fall. The style was a little bit impressionist with a lot of something else—the artist's personal style, I guess. It was a beautiful painting. I considered briefly finding out who the artist was and seeing if I could buy or commission something for my house. My condo in LA never felt like home, but art like this would make it a little comfier, a little cozier, a little more right.

I was about to keep scrolling but I froze. Gazing up at me from my screen was the most beautiful girl I'd ever seen. She was full-figured with soft brown hair pulled back haphazardly, with tendrils curling around her neck and wisps framing her heart-shaped face. Her eyes were chocolatey and happy. Her lips were full and a lovely pink, tilted up in a laughing smile, and I instantly wanted to kiss them. Where did that come from? I shook myself to move on and focus on the gorgeous woman. Her skin was pale with a light flush, and she was wearing a paint-splattered sweatshirt. "Tried to teach RoseInThorns some painting tricks. Didn't go well and made a mess but it was fun!"

Hold on. Was the beautiful girl SwanSong or RoseInThorns? The two of them must be roommates. Ah, there are comments.

Gorgeous as ever.~BlackAsAWolf

Who the fuck was BlackAsAWolf and why was it bothering me that he was telling the brunette beauty that she was gorgeous? He was right, but it still bugged me. I didn't know this girl; this wolf guy could be her boyfriend. Why was I so sure it was a guy anyway? Wolf person could be her significant other no matter who they were. Please let her be single. And into men.

Okay, seriously, what was up with me?

Look at you, laughing your ass off! I toldja it'd be fun to paint together!~RoseInThorns

Finally! Some useful information! The girl in the picture must be SwanSong.

I ran my finger along her creamy skin, wishing it was the real thing and not my phone screen. And double-tapped the picture.

"Fuck!" Now she'd get a notification. "Crazy stalker travel profile likes your five-day-old selfie!" Okay, well, as my mother would say, might as well be hanged for a sheep as a lamb.

"You're so beautiful," I typed.

I nodded. I wasn't going to keep scrolling and risk liking older pictures, but I could go big or go home. I liked the other three shots I'd looked at and commented on all of them. There were other comments on the cake and painting telling her she was talented. I added to them. I noticed the wolf person commented a lot. "Will you make me a cake for my birthday?" was on the cake post. "Hey Jake, I don't really have time for a lot of fun baking the next few weeks but if you call the bakery and order something, I can make you a birthday cake!"

Okay. That gave me a lot of info. BlackAsAWolf was definitely Wolf Guy. I was pretty sure he was into her, and if he had to ask and she was willing to say no, and tell him to pay for a cake, that meant they couldn't be dating. She'd made her roommate a cake and gushed about her being awesome. Even if she was incredibly busy, she didn't seem like the type to skip a boyfriend's birthday. I didn't know why I was so sure of that, but I was.

Also, she worked in a bakery.

Finally back at the top of her feed I looked at her profile. The little icon was a painting in the same style as the little house that had me so enthralled, but this one was a portrait of a pale brunette goddess … the same angel I'd seen in the other photo. I didn't know why, but I was sure I wanted to keep this girl in my life, or at least on my Instagram feed. I clicked follow.

Sitting in the green room at the Graham Norton Show a few hours later, I checked Instagram. I couldn't get SwanSong out of my head.

The notice sat prominently in my notifications …

SwanSong started following you.

Yes!

I am SO SORRY. I have an outline for a bunch more of InstaPals: the Painter (please note the updated title since I'm getting the EPOV started!) but it's not behaving. Plus, my depression and executive disfunction are kicking my tuchus and I'm trying to apply to grad school. So basically, it's a wonder I'm managing to shower and do my homework, let alone write for fun.

I can't promise when more will be up, but I can tell you that I've made a couple of changes to my routine recently that have a really strong likelihood to help me accomplish things. I don't have a much EPOV written, so I also can't promise an update schedule on that. But I'm hoping that maybe you all will love getting in Edward's head and your encouragement will help me write.

In the meantime, what do you think?