Tia looked just as terrified. “Answer it.”
“I told you, I didn’t want to do it…” Meadow fussed, pressing the green button on her phone. “Zai?—”
“Spend bigger, baby,” Zaire’s Cali accent sent bumps all over her skin. But just as fast as she swooned at the sound of his voice, he’d hung up.
“What he say?” Tia was on pins and needles.
A smile trembled over her lips and her heart was now beating at a normal pace. “Spend bigger.”
Tia jumped all over her as the two of them jumped up and down screaming like school-aged girls.
Meadow looked at the associate. “Can you bag me up?”
The sales associate bagged Meadow’s new purse. Meadow watched her with a mix of awe and nausea.
Her heart raced. Her fingers trembled. The bag looked gorgeous, but the reality of spending five thousand dollars in a single swipe lingered in her chest like static.
She held her new purchase against her chest, exhaling long. “Lord, I need counseling.”
Tia snorted. “You need to shut up and enjoy that damn bag. You deserve nice shit.”
“I also deserve a stable nervous system, and clearly I don’t have one.”
They stepped out of the boutique into the wide, high-ceiling walkway of Northstar Mall again. People walked casually with their iced coffees, their luxury bags, and their kids in strollers that cost more than Meadow’s monthly self-care maintenance. She was seeing it through a different lens now though.
Tia looped her arm through hers. “Relax, you did great and that bag is fire. Mr. Handle That said he is indeed going to handle that.”
Meadow bit her lip, still unsure, still overwhelmed, still hyped despite herself… “I don’t know how y’all be living like this. I’m over here shopping like I’m on a damn field trip and my Daddy gave me a couple extra dollars.”
“Girl, welcome to the Emerald City tax bracket. We buy things and keep it pushing.”
“Easy for you to say,” Meadow muttered. “My brain still back there fighting for its life.”
They both laughed.
Meadow took another deep breath, settling into her new reality a little more. Her new bag thumped against her thigh with each step, reminding her just how wild this moment was.
Zaire told her to spend his money.
And she did.
Her stomach fluttered at the thought. Her face warmed without permission. The echo of his “Spend bigger, baby” replayed over and over in her head, dripping with his accent, his confidence, and his claim.
Her pulse quickened every time.
Tia elbowed her teasingly, “You blushing.”
“Mind your business.”
“I am! How many times I gotta tell you that?”
Meadow tried to glare at her, but she failed. Her smile betrayed her. She felt both ridiculous for swooning over a short gallop through a fairytale she had no business being the star of.
They walked a little farther before Meadow slowed, her eyes landing on a sleek storefront she’d nearly missed - a golf specialty store. Floor-to-ceiling windows showed custom bags, golf shoes, tees embroidered with Black cultural slogans, and racks of novelty socks.
Her heartbeat spiked. “Tia…wait.”
Tia stopped mid-stride. “What?”
