Ethan Grant had a certain image to maintain.
He was the kind of man who ran a billion-dollar tech empire, made decisions based on data, and had a reputation for being emotionally... unavailable. His world was structured, predictable. No one had ever accused him of lacking control.
Which was exactly why, when his best friend Charlie tossed him his phone and suggested he download TikTok, Ethan's first instinct was to laugh.
"You're going to love it, trust us," Charlie, his best friend and co-founder, said with that knowing smile he wore whenever he had an idea that was destined to be brilliant. "TikTok is, like, the app right now. It's... transformative."
"Transformative?" Ethan stared at him over his glass of whiskey. "It's for teenagers, Charlie. Teenagers and people with no attention span."
Charlie and the rest of their group of friends—who, in true tech-fashion, were all absurdly successful, impossibly good-looking, and completely insufferable—laughed like he'd just told a joke. But Ethan wasn't joking. He didn't get TikTok. Or Instagram. Or any of it.
"I'm not 16, Charlie," he scoffed, staring at the device like it was a gadget straight out of The Jetsons. "That's an app for children and people who think Vine was a cultural revolution. I don't have time for this nonsense."
"Exactly," Charlie grinned, "and that's why you're so grumpy. You're not engaged with the culture, Ethan! You're... out of the loop." He shoved a phone at him. "Just download it. One scroll. You'll see."
"I don't need to download an app to feel young," he muttered, half to himself.
Ethan took a reluctant swig from his glass, then reached for the phone. It was sleek and shiny, like a high-tech toy from the future. He scrolled.
A girl with brightly colored hair was jumping around in her kitchen, holding up a plate of spaghetti like it was a weapon.
"Uh... Okay." He stared at the screen in disbelief. "What am I supposed to do with this? Is she selling pasta?"
Charlie didn't miss a beat. "No, that's just the way it is now. People make content."
"Content?" Ethan repeated. "This is content? A girl throwing spaghetti in the air?"
"It's an art form, Ethan." Charlie's tone was unreasonably serious. "Just trust me. Watch another one."
He rolled his eyes. This was even worse than he'd imagined.
And so, Ethan, a man who had once successfully brokered multi-million-dollar deals over lunch, found himself scrolling through TikTok like a teenager with no homework to do.
The next video was of a woman standing in her living room, speaking to the camera with a smirk. "So, if you're still wearing jeans that don't fit, it's time to reconsider your life choices. The world is changing. Your pants should be too."
Ethan raised an eyebrow. The sarcasm was... almost comforting. At least it wasn't all just people dancing.
He watched. And then he watched another. And another.
At some point, the hours drifted away as his thumb clicked endlessly through videos of sarcastic monologues, awkward dance moves, and over-the-top pranks. But there was one account that caught his attention.
Her name? TheWittyOne88.
Her face was never visible. Instead, she always posted from a cleverly angled shot—her body out of frame or her face obscured by oversized sunglasses. Her voice was always dripping with sarcasm, her commentary sharp and unapologetic. The first video he saw from her was about "the top five ways to waste your life in your thirties." He laughed out loud. Not a chuckle, but a full-on belly laugh.
"Honestly, if you haven't spent at least three months binge-watching a show you'll never admit you liked, did you even live?" She paused dramatically. "And if you're still trying to read actual books? It's 2025, Karen. Give it up."
He didn't know why, but he found himself scrolling through every single video she'd ever posted. Each one hit a little too close to home. It was like she was speaking directly to him—his life, his overachieving, slightly miserable existence that had become more about accumulating things than actually living.
He didn't realize he was smiling until the video ended. Then he blinked and cursed under his breath.
He was... entertained. He wasn't supposed to be entertained by this. He was a billionaire businessman. He spent his days making decisions that impacted thousands of people. He should be reading The Wall Street Journal, not watching people mock "adulting."
But there it was. He was hooked. And the more he scrolled, the more her voice and attitude seemed to seep into his thoughts. There was something about her, something real that pulled at something inside him that he hadn't noticed in a long time.
Ethan scrolled through her videos like a man possessed. One after another, he was pulled into the vortex. Each video made him laugh more than the last, and there was this… this thing about her. He didn't even know what it was. Her humor, the way she delivered her lines, the fact that she was so brutally honest about how ridiculous life was, while making sure you laughed about it. It wasn't like anything else he had ever seen.
Her name was TheWittyOne88.
Ethan didn't know what it was about that name that intrigued him. It was so… generic? But also a little mysterious. And the fact that he didn't know anything about her made it feel even more fascinating. Why did he care so much? She was just some random woman on the internet.
But still, Ethan found himself clicking follow before he even realized what he was doing.
Charlie, who had been waiting with an overly smug grin, tilted his head. "You're hooked, aren't you?"
Ethan didn't even try to hide it. "I'm just... I'm just seeing what the hype is about." He waved his hand dismissively, but he was already scrolling through her profile, watching video after video. TheWittyOne88 was clearly doing something that no one else had managed to do for a long time: make him laugh without trying to sell him anything. She was simply... herself.
As the evening wore on, Ethan couldn't tear himself away from her posts. He wasn't sure why, but there was something undeniably... comforting about her videos. Her wit was a reminder that life didn't have to be so serious all the time. There was a sense of freedom in her approach, something he hadn't allowed himself in years. The more he watched, the more he realized how much he missed genuine laughter.
His phone buzzed, pulling him out of his trance. He glanced at it. It was a text from Charlie: "So, when are you going to message her?"
Ethan stared at the screen for a long moment. Message her?
That was the thing, wasn't it? He was never the type of guy who sent random DMs to people. Especially not to women. He had a whole strategy for relationships. It was based on control. And he liked it that way.
But here he was, considering it. He was thinking about messaging some woman he didn't know, just because she made him laugh.
God, this was ridiculous.