Her sister gave her the stink eye. “You know Twitter doesn’t tell the whole story.”
It had been a week since federal agents stormed the offices of Trendsetters. Samiah had gone upstairs by the time the local reporters from several news stations arrived, but there had been ample activity for them to capture and upload to their Twitter feeds.
She’d managed to fend off Denise’s incessant questions by telling her that employees had been asked not to discuss it, but Samiah knew that excuse would eventually crumble under the pressure of her nosy sister’s badgering.
“Fine.” She rolled her eyes. “What do you want to know?”
“Everything. I want to know all the dirt.”
“No, you don’t.”
Dammit, she’d come here to escape thoughts of what happened last week.
“Everything,” Denise reiterated. “And I’ll know if you’re leaving anything out.”
Samiah dropped her head back and released an exaggerated sigh. Yet once she began her narrative, she found herself sharing everything, including the romance she’d started with Daniel.
“Are you shitting me?”
“Hey, watch that language in front of my niece.”
Denise covered the baby’s ear. “I can’t believe you were dating a hot federal agent and you didn’t tell me!” she hissed. “How could you keep that from me?”
“I didn’t tell anyone,” Samiah said with a shrug. “Well, except for Taylor and London, but only because I felt guilty about reneging on the boyfriend project thing we have going on.”
Denise flapped her fingers toward the credenza that held the flowers and balloon bouquets. “Grab my phone.”
Samiah retrieved the phone and settled back on the side of the bed. Still cradling the baby, Denise one-handedly scrolled. After a minute she turned the screen to face Samiah.
“Which one is he?”
Samiah stared at the cadre of men and women gathered together, all with determined looks on their faces. She winced at the stab of pain that pierced her chest at the sight of Daniel.
“The one not wearing a blue jacket,” she said.
“I was hoping you would say that. He issooodamn fine. What is he? Black and what?”
“Korean,” Samiah said.
“I seriously cannot believe you didn’t tell me about him, especially after how worried I’ve been about you after that mess with that Craig character.”
“I’m sorry,” she said. “It’s probably because of what happened with Craig that kept me quiet when it came to Daniel.” She shrugged. “Doesn’t matter anymore. He’s no longer in Austin. I guess he’s off saving the world.”
She was about to add “like he did when he was a Marine,” but she had no idea if Daniel had even been in the military or if it was part of the persona that had been created for him. Was the adorable story about how his parents met true, or had he made that up? She found herself questioning every single thing he’d ever told her. Not knowing if it had all been a lie was the most difficult part in all of this.
And yet she no longer blamed him.
Did his betrayal still hurt? Of course it did.
Was she still angry? Hell yes, she was still angry.
But this past week had given her time to work through all that had happened, and after considering things from his perspective, she found she could no longer fault him for simply doing his job. She argued with herself that he never should have allowed their relationship to flourish, but hehadtried to put the brakes on it.
She remembered how he’d pulled away after that very first kiss. But then he’d come back to her, almost apologetically, as if it pained him to do so, as if he knew they shouldn’t be together, but he couldn’t help himself. Hadn’t she felt the same way? Hadn’t she tried to fight her feelings for him because she didn’t want anything—not even a relationship—to get in the way of her finally achieving her goals when it came to her app? And hadn’t she failed miserably?
How could she fault Daniel for not being able to pull away when she hadn’t been able to do so either?
No, she no longer blamed him for the sore heart she’d been tending to this week. Eventually, once she had a bit more distance from the raw pain that thoughts of his betrayal continued to heap upon her, she might find a way to even forgive him.
