And even if shedidhave time for new friends, she wasn’t sure inviting London and Taylor into her life was the best move. The two were irrevocably intertwined with this Craig debacle, and Samiah wanted to distance herself from that entire episode.
It was a task she was beginning to think would be impossible. Case in point: She’d dipped into the cute shop across the street that sold gourmet olive oils and vinegars to pick up a gift for her high school librarian who she still sent a birthday gift to every year. When another shopper recognized her from the video, Samiah had nearly dropped the bottle of white grape balsamic she’d been holding.
If a random stranger could identify her in her work attire, how much more of a spectacle would she, London, and Taylor be out together on a Friday night?
She’d contemplated ghosting them more than once in the five days since they’d met. It would be easy enough to do. She could make up an excuse for skipping their get-together this coming Friday, and simply start ignoring their texts. They were both smart women. They would take the hint once she started to pull away.
Yet every time she considered it, a surprising realization stopped her. She wasn’t ready to give them up.
The intuition she tenaciously relied on warned her that she didn’t have space for Taylor and London in her life, but something equally powerful told her that she needed them. She didn’t have any close female friends. She didn’t have any close friends. Period. Her existence consisted of her work with a few hours dedicated each week to checking off the final item on her current checklist. If not for Denise and Bradley, she wouldn’t have meaningful contact with anyone outside of her office.
But her sister and brother-in-law were about to be swept up in the trappings of new parenthood. Samiah had shied away from thinking about the adverse changes that would result from the blessing of her future niece’s arrival.
She would be alone.
Having friends she could turn to, vent to, friends to just be there for her because they understood what she was going through—was that something she wanted to just toss away? No one else could relate to the week she’d had the way those two could.
More than that, shelikedthem. She adored Taylor’s quirky sense of humor and London’s wry wit. It had been so long since she’d had true girlfriends—not since high school—that she’d forgotten just how cathartic it could be. Although the thought of veering away from her well-laid plans gave her heart palpitations, maybe she could try to be at least alittleflexible.
Maybe it was time she revisit her master plan, toss aside those items that seemed hell-bent on giving her angina, and replace them with something that would make her the talk of the Internet for a different reason.
Like my app.
“Give it a rest,” Samiah told herself with an exasperated sigh.
Ever since Taylor had put the question to her on Sunday, asking whether there was something she’d always wanted to do that she hadn’t done yet, thoughts of the app she began developing soon after she moved to Austin niggled at her conscience like an annoying, persistent gnat. It wasn’t the first time the idea had tried to worm its way onto her checklist, but Samiah was determined to keep it on the back burner until she checked off the items on her initial plan.
Except now she wasn’t so sure she wanted to stick with that plan. There was something about having her most humiliating experience broadcasted for the world to see that made her want to rethink everything.
What if she’d devoted some of the time she’d wasted swiping through profiles of guys who never seemed to live up to their online personas to working on her app? Where would things stand right now? Would people be using her app at this very moment, making connections with other like-minded people in cities all around the country? Around the globe?
How much of her own potential had she sabotaged by sticking so doggedly to her master plan? She was halfway through her checklist; what did she have to show for it? Sitting at her desk in a deserted office building, eating a granola bar for dinner as she worked on a project that listed her as one on a team of six?
Becoming one of those workaholics who threw everything into her job while the best years of her life flew by hadneverbeen a part of the plan. So why was she here?
Samiah shut down her computer, locked her desk, and left the office. An hour later, she was showered and dressed in dark blue jeans, an off-the-shoulder mohair sweater, and boots. A half hour after that, she was sitting at a small round table, listening to the first set of the blues band that was playing at the club where she and Craig were supposed to have their date this past weekend.
Maybe it was time she accepted that plans changed. And sometimes they changed for the better.
Chapter Six
Claude Sanderson. Forty-eight. Divorced. Father of three. Still pissed over leaving his former business partner just before the software they created together hit big. Was a member of the initial WiMax rollout team.
Mia Palmer. Twenty-four. Mensa member. Top of her class at MIT. Clinically on the autism spectrum but does an excellent job of utilizing social tools. Played a key role in setting up Trendsetters’ security system. Definitely knows all the ways to bypass it. Doesn’t seem to have a sinister bone in her body.
Jake Gorge. Thirty. Cheated his way through college. A classic bullshitter who pretends to work. Probably scared as hell that he’ll one day get found out. Would likely sell out his own grandmother to get ahead if the opportunity arose. Definitely someone to keep an eye on.
As he stood against the glass-paneled wall, Daniel mentally cataloged the people around him. They had all been called to the Collaboration Room. Unlike a normal conference room, there was no long table surrounded by a dozen rolling desk chairs. Instead, the room was interspersed with numerous beanbags and gaming rockers that sat low to the floor. A cluster of rolling standing desks occupied one side and three state-of-the-art treadmill desks dominated the other. On his initial tour of the office, Owen explained that the setup fostered an atmosphere of synergy and engagement, but Daniel wasn’t sold on that yet.
The room was filled to capacity for the multidepartment meeting. It was only his fourth day on the job, and he still wasn’t sure why he’d been asked to attend or what was expected of him. But it did give him the opportunity to be a fly on the wall and observe several of his new coworkers.
From the corner of his eye he caught sight of luminous brown skin and shiny, chin-length hair approaching the room.
Samiah Brooks. Thirty. Undergraduate studies at Rice University. University of Texas for grad school. Made a name for herself when she found a bug in a new software program, saving the company’s reputation. Had rocketed up Trendsetters’ ladder of success in the three years since she was hired.
The very definition of gorgeous.
Prior to Monday, Daniel hadn’t paid much attention to the dossier on Samiah Brooks. He’d noted that she’d amassed an impressive reputation for getting the job done, but she was considered an ancillary subject to his current project. The only significant detail regarding her was that, at one time, two years ago, she’d worked in Trendsetters’ Cybersecurity Department. But her tenure had ended well before the suspicious activity surrounding Hughes Hospitality had surfaced.
