Chapter Seven
Samiah slipped off her sunglasses and tucked them in her purse as she hustled toward the peach-and-turquoise door of the Tex-Mex restaurant in Austin’s Market District. She was the one who’d suggested this place for tapas and margaritas, yet she was the one running late.
After giving a brief description of Taylor and London to the hostess, she was led to the bar area. She spotted London’s bouncy coils first, then saw Taylor, who’d taken out her braids and now wore her hair in a sleek bob, the tips a dark magenta.
“Sorry I’m late,” Samiah said, climbing onto one of two unoccupied stools at the pub table. She nodded her thanks to the hostess and accepted a menu. “I rarely lose track of time, but today has been one of those days. I can use this drink.” She looked up at the hostess. “A watermelon margarita, please.”
“I’ll let your waiter know,” she said before taking off in the direction of the entrance.
“Forgive us for starting without you.” London gestured to the frothy concoction in front of her. “I was ready for my celebratory drink the moment I got here.”
“You forgot to mention what we’re celebrating,” Taylor said, holding up her cup of water with lemon for a toast. Samiah picked up the glass of water that had been waiting for her on the table and raised it.
“I performed a successful Meckel diverticulum resection today,” London said, clinking her margarita glass to their water glasses. “And the baby boy’s very grateful grandmother has promised me homemade banana bread for the rest of my life. Shower me with applause and I may send you both a slice every now and then.”
Samiah tapped the side of her water glass with her fork. “Congratulations on your Meckel…thing. And I’m not saying that only because I want banana bread, which I do.”
“I want banana bread too, but you still deserve props,” Taylor said. She clinked London’s glass again. “That’s for saving a life today. You are one of the good ones, Doctor Kelley.”
Samiah nodded her agreement as she dunked a chip into a bowl of salsa that had been placed in the center of the table. How had she considered giving this up? Meeting these two was the only positive thing to come out of last weekend’s debacle.
“It’s good to hear this mess with Craig wasn’t able to suck all the joy out of this week,” she said to London. “Other than the successful surgery, how’d the rest of your week go?”
London relayed how her coworkers, like Samiah’s, had been all over the viral video, but that things had slowly started to die down later in the week.
“Of course, all it will take is some fool with five million Twitter followers retweeting it and it’ll go viral again.” London shrugged her slim shoulders. “That’s just how these things work.”
“Okay,” Taylor said, a pensive look on her face. “I know what went down last weekend was supposed to be a bad thing, but this week has been sick!” She turned to London. “Sick in the other way, not in an ‘I need a doctor’ way.”
“I know what the other sick means,” London said. She looked over at Samiah and mouthed,I don’t know what she means.
Samiah swallowed her chuckle. “What made this week so sick?” she asked Taylor.
“Okay, so ever since that video went viral, I’ve had so many people contact me that I can’t keep up with them. There’s no way I can take them all on as clients, which is crazy, because Ineedclients. But most of the people who have contacted me aren’t interested in having a full-time nutrition and exercise coach.”
“You ever thought about offering classes?” Samiah asked.
She shrugged. “I posted the YouTube videos for that. If all people are looking for is a fitness class, they can just watch one of my videos.”
“It isn’t the same as being part of a live class,” Samiah pointed out.
“Teach the classes,” London stated in that direct way Samiah was coming to learn was just London. “It’s a no-brainer. Not everyone can afford a personal trainer, and not everyone wants to belong to a gym or work out at home alone. You can provide an alternative.”
The waiter arrived with Samiah’s drink and took their order of three sharable appetizers. When he left, Samiah placed her forearms on the table and said, “So, other than the news station, have either of you been contacted by anyone else in the media?”
London shook her head.
“No, but I did find a couple of bullshit hot takes,” Taylor said, picking up her phone and swiping her fingers across it. She held it face out. “This one believes the three of us can benefit from a life coach who can help us build up our self-esteem, because the only way a woman would allow herself to be taken in by a guy like Craig is if she secretly hates herself.”
“The fuck?” London said, grabbing the phone from Taylor. “Who in the hell is Andrea Krammer, and who in the hell asked her opinion?”
“She’s not the only ‘lifestyle blogger’ with an opinion about us,” Taylor said.
“That pisses me off so much.” Samiah pitched the tortilla chip she’d just grabbed back into the bowl. “Everyone has a platform to spew nonsense these days. They make assumptions based on what theythinkthey know about a certain situation without knowing jack shit about what’s really going on. And you know the worst part? People believe them! Just because this Andrea person has made a name for herself online, she’s considered an expert by random people who will now judge all three of us.”
“Forget her,” London spat. “Why should we care what this Andrea person or anyone else has to say?”
Samiah nodded her agreement. She shouldn’t care. Sheknewthis.
