“I don’t know anything about dealing with hospital bureaucracy, but if you need a shoulder to cry on or someone to just listen while you rage a bit, I’m here,” Samiah told her.
“Me too,” Taylor added. “And if you need to work out some frustration, I suggest kickboxing. I’ll even be your sparring partner.”
“Thanks,” London said with a strained smile. “Although sex would be a much better strategy for relieving my frustration.”
“Sorry, can’t help you with that one,” Taylor said. “Tried it with a girl once and it just wasn’t for me.”
She’d only known her a couple of weeks, but Samiah already knew not to be surprised by anything Taylor said.
“Well, that’s enough about the bullshit I’m dealing with at the hospital,” London said. “What about you two?” She gestured to Samiah with the eggplant she’d just picked up again. “Anything interesting happen with you this week?”
I wanted to make out with my coworker in McKinney Falls State Park.
“Same old, same old,” Samiah answered.
She was not going to feel guilty about keeping Daniel a secret. Honestly, what was there to tell? That they’d had lunch together? That she’d made him an ice cream sundae? That she’d spent every night this week dreaming about them screwing like bunny rabbits along the trails they’d hiked last weekend?
Nope. Not gonna share that.
But after much internal debate, there was something Samiah had decided to share with her two new friends.
“Actually, I do have some news,” Samiah said, dabbing her lips with a napkin. “Remember when I said I was going to find a hobby during this six-month dating hiatus? Well, I’ve decided to use my time to work on something else. It’s something I’ve been toying with off and on for a few years now.” She turned to Taylor. “And I have you to thank for bringing it back to my attention.”
“You are very welcome,” Taylor said. “Now what am I taking credit for?”
Samiah surreptitiously sucked in a breath before saying, “I’m developing a phone app to help facilitate platonic friendships for people moving to new cities.”
There. It was done. After years of keeping it to herself, she’d spoken the words out loud to other humans. There was no turning back.
“Well, not just for people moving to new cities,” she further clarified. “It’s for anyone really, but the concept first popped into my head after I moved to Austin. You mentioned how hard it has been for you to make friends since moving here, and it reminded me about this idea I’d had. I think it’s time I see it through.”
“I’d use it,” London said before popping a fried gnocchi into her mouth.
“Umm…” Taylor held up her phone, a grimace twisting her lips. “Sorry to burst your bubble, babe, but there are a bunch of apps like that already.”
Samiah shook her head. “Not like mine.”
She expounded on the commercial element her idea would bring to the friend finder app market, using Taylor’s personal fitness venture as an example.
“Holy crap, that’s phenomenal!” Taylor said. “I amsoin! I want to be your first vendor!”
“Give me a minute to actually create the app first,” Samiah said. She was damn near giddy at their enthusiasm.
Her hesitancy at sharing her idea with anyone, even her sister, was twofold. Samiah knew once she broadcasted her plans, she would feel compelled to follow through with them. Not only to follow through, but to succeed at the highest level. She would not tolerate anything less than world domination. But there was so much more to it than that.
Divulging the premise for the Just Friends app made it susceptible to being poached by anyone with a working knowledge of software design—or with enough money to hire someone with the knowledge. She’d built up a healthy measure of mistrust over the years, due in part to having her ideas usurped by coworkers like Keighleigh Miller. She counted every painful stab in the back as a hard lesson learned and had vowed never to let it happen again.
She thought about Daniel, and how she’d been so close to telling him about her app during their time at McKinney Falls. Yet, even with this budding, several-steps-past-friendship thing slowly building between them, Samiah couldn’t risk sharing her idea with him. If she gave a detailed explanation about the technology behind Just Friends at this table, Samiah would bet her beloved Mustang that Taylor and London’s eyes would start to gloss over before she even got to wireframes and back-end structure. But a software engineer with Daniel’s level of expertise? He could have the app on the market before she had a chance to present it to a single potential investor. She couldn’t take the chance.
And that’s why she needed to honor the pact she’d made with these two and put dating on the back burner. Getting involved with Daniel—with anyone—right now would only result in her not putting all her heart and soul into her app. If she was going to prove that she could do this, she couldn’t allow anything to distract her.
And daydreaming about Daniel Collins had become one helluva distraction.
Chapter Thirteen
Daniel finished off the final number string, pressedENTER, then sat back in his chair as he watched the coding he’d worked on all morning materialize into a flawlessly designed personnel management portal for one of Trendsetters’ smaller clients. Who would have thought accounting software could be so damn sexy?
The rush he experienced had become familiar in the time since he’d started this job. This was his twenty-second undercover operation with FinCEN, but it was the first that had allowed him to do the kind of work he would have been doing if he’d chosen another career path. It wasn’t too late. If he stepped away from his job with the Treasury Department, Daniel had no doubt he would have his pick of positions at some of the top firms in the country. That wasn’t cockiness, that was knowing what he brought to the table. With the experience he’d gained working for FinCEN, along with his military background, he could command a quarter million a year and potential employers would consider it a bargain.
