Max's jaw dropped to the ground the day Lexi showed up at the front door of the Wilder Ones mansion. She didn't look anything like the Lexi of his memory. Gone were her chubby cheeks, pudgy rolls, and wholesome girl-next-door vibe. Her dirty blonde hair seemed to be the only thing that hadn't changed.

Max couldn't stop gawking. This Lexi was unrecognizable. This Lexi was wearing makeup now. A lot of makeup. Her hair was curled to perfection, and she was dressed in a tube top and short skirt. She also looked like she had lost over thirty pounds. She looked skinny to Max.

A little too skinny, maybe?

Without meaning to sound so harsh, he exclaimed, "Dude, what happened to you, Lex? You, um, look so different now!"

She cast him a dirty look. "Not that it's any of your business, Max, but I happen to like the way I look now."

He held up his hands in surrender. "No, no, that's not what I meant at all! You look great. I'm just... surprised... is all. I mean, we haven't seen each other in what? Three? Four years?"

Lexi rolled her eyes. "Try five."

"Right, right." Max nodded sheepishly. "Sorry, I forgot."

"I figured," Lexi said with a sigh. "Anyway, can I come in?"

"Yeah, of course!"

Max rushed over to help her with her bags. She brought three carry-ons, one duffel bag, and a backpack.

A satisfied smirk spread across Lexi's face as she watched Max scramble and stumble into the house with her belongings. They would be living under the same roof for the foreseeable future. As Max's personal assistant, one of the perks outlined in Lexi's employment was that she would be allowed to rent out one of the spare guestrooms at the Wilders Ones house.

Lexi made herself at home right away, and, once they got the ball rolling on their new employer-employee relationship, Max couldn't help feeling a twinge of regret for hiring someone he knew over a more qualified stranger. Lexi wasn't terrible at her job, but she wasn't exactly great at it, either. She tended to mix up important dates and names on his calendar schedule and seemed more interested in hanging out by the pool with the other influencers rather than working alongside Max during the day.

Whenever Max tried to address his concerns with her, Lexi would flip out and berate him for something unrelated, like, how critical and negative he was being. Then, she would start coaching him on the most effective methods to communicate with her. It drove Max nuts.

In fact, the only time Lexi got her ass in gear was when Max let her come on camera during his vlogs. She was never more agreeable or smiley than when that little red light started blinking. This behavior, in particular, left Max with an uneasy feeling.

After working with countless influencers over the past couple of years, he could smell clout-chasers and users from a mile away. But Max didn't want to label his childhood best friend in the same category. Max wanted to trust Lexi. Not to mention, he still felt kind of guilty about the shitty way they broke up back in high school.

In a way, he owed her, right?

Three months later, Lexi set up her own IG account. She started posting tons of sun-kissed bikini photos by the pool, and, little by little, she built a respectable following for herself. Many of Max's subs and followers jumped onto her account once they found it. His fans ate up their playful banter on his YouTube videos. Many of them started shipping him and Lexi as a couple. Max always shot down the rumors and tried to make it clear that they were "just friends" off-camera, but Lexi seemed to enjoy feeding into the speculation.

To Max's dismay, over the next few weeks, she started amping up her touchy-feely demeanor with him on camera.

A year later, Lexi launched her own YouTube channel, focusing mainly on healthy living, beauty, and fashion. Everly reached out to her. The two of them started collaborating almost every week. Max hated it, but there was nothing he could do or say to Lexi without coming off like an asshole. As Lexi's popularity grew, so did her disregard for her actual job as his assistant. This was when Max decided to fire her. He simply didn't want to put up with her attitude on and off camera anymore. That weekend, he pulled her aside to a quiet part of the house. Max tried to let Lexi down privately, gently, but she wasn't having it.

Within hours, Lexi posted a video that turned Max into the most hated influencer on the internet. By the time the damage was done, Max didn't know how to recover from such a blow. In just 17 minutes and 54 seconds, she managed to pit the majority of Max's fans against him, and he was effectively "canceled" by the majority of the females in their industry.

The title of her video was "We Broke Up."