In Bad Date: A Short Story by Ellery Lloyd, Fay Roper, a divorced single mother and internationally famous actress, struggles with love and betrayal. Though she’s beloved by fans, she seems cursed in relationships: every non-stalker boyfriend disappears without explanation. With her steadfast friend and assistant Poppy, Fay adopts a false identity on a new exclusive dating app hoping to gain some control, only for her scheme to draw in a subscriber named Oliver, who is not quite what he seems.

As Ellery Lloyd unravels this tense drama, Fay discovers that online deception runs deeper than flirtation. Meanwhile her teenage son becomes ensnared in a troubling connection via a gaming app, and the boundaries between truth and pretence blur. In the end, Fay must confront the sinister underbelly of fame and social identity, where trust is elusive and only one of them can come out on top¹.