“I’m sorry,” she said. “That was not my intention at all. I love vegetables. I would never knowingly violate them.”
“If you say so,” he returned. He flashed her a sly grin to make sure she knew he was joking. He was beyond relieved that he’d managed to defuse the weird tension he’d caused. “So, am I done picking out vegetables?” he asked.
She nodded. “Yeah, I think we’re good here. Time to move to another section.” She tucked the basket’s handle in the crook of her elbow and gestured with her head for him to follow her. She looked back over her shoulder. “You get a B minus on veggies. Now let’s see how well you handle your meat.”
Jamar dropped his chin to his chest.
She was going to kill him.
CHAPTER TWELVE
Taylor yanked on the bright purple metal door to Booze N’ Brush, the art studio housed in a converted warehouse on the city’s south side. Samiah had chosen it for this Friday’s girls’ night out. Taylor walked inside and spotted Samiah standing near the entrance.
“Hey, lady! Cute shoes,” Taylor greeted, pointing to her friend’s ballerina flats. They were bright red and covered with artful paint splotches.
“They go with tonight’s theme,” Samiah said, cocking her leg back like a 1950s pinup girl.
The door creaked open again, and London walked inside.
“So whose idea was it to come to this place?” she asked. Her bold yellow jumpsuit perfectly suited both London’s deep brown skin tone and her in-your-face personality. “We could have just had drinks and skipped the painting.”
“No!” Samiah and Taylor said in unison.
“Our mission is to find you a hobby, remember?” Samiah said. “Don’t knock it till you try it. You may discover a hidden talent.”
“My talent is saving lives. Isn’t that enough?”
“There’s nothing wrong with being multitalented,” Samiah threw over her shoulder as she started for the reception desk.
“You know there’s a sip-and-paint place not too far from your condo, right?” Taylor asked.
“They weren’t interested in beta-testing my Just Friends app. The owner of this place is at least willing to discuss it.”
That explained why Samiah had insisted they drive so far out of the way. Just Friends was designed to help people find platonic friends by matching users’ interests. Then businesses could curate one-of-a-kind experiences based on some kind of algorithm Samiah’s brilliant, tech wizard brain had developed.
“So this isn’t about finding me a hobby at all,” London surmised. “It’s about business.”
“Two birds, one stone. And don’t pretend you wouldn’t be complaining no matter what hobby we were trying out tonight.”
Samiah gave her name to the greeter at the desk and the three of them were shown to their section of the cavernous studio. Each station was comprised of a medium-size canvas on a short easel, a paint palette, several brushes of various sizes, along with wineglasses and small plates of cheese, crackers, and fresh fruit.
“Hmm,” London murmured as she picked up a strawberry. “This doesn’t look so bad. I didn’t realize it was a paint by numbers kind of thing. I can do this.”
“Places like this are more about the booze and the socializing than the actual painting,” Taylor pointed out. “But like Samiah said, maybe you’ll discover that you actually like it.” She took her seat at the easel to London’s right. “Remember,you’rethe one who wanted to find a hobby.”
“Yeah, well, I may need to put the hobby search on the back burner for a while,” London said. “When we came up with our projects, I didn’t realize I would be dealing with a DEFCON 1–level crisis at the hospital. I don’t have the brain power to devote to a hobby.” She turned to Taylor. “Speaking of our projects, how are things going with—”
“Good evening.” A middle-aged woman with frizzy red hair and more freckles than Taylor could count walked up to their work area. “I’m so excited for you all to join us. Now, which of you lovely ladies is Samiah Brooks?”
“That’s me,” Samiah said, reaching out her hand. “Are you Peggy?”
“Yes, I am. I’ll be back to talk once we’re done with the class. The app you discussed sounds right up my alley. Why don’t you all enjoy your wine and snacks, and we’ll get started on our portraits in just a few minutes.”
“Psst,” London whispered once the woman left. “I say we finish off the wine and snacks and then get out of here.”
“Will you at least give it a chance?” Samiah said. “Sit your cute ass in that chair, pick up a paintbrush, and have some fun, dammit!”
“All right, all right.” London put her hands up. “You know, you’re way too mean for someone who’s getting regular sex.”
