Retrieving the steno pad from where she’d set it on the bench, Samiah flipped to a fresh page. “Let’s come up with a pros and cons list. It’s always the first place I start. Think about what you would be giving up if you took this job, then list the pros and cons and decide if it’s worth it.”

“Is it really that simple?”

“Sometimes,” Samiah answered. “Don’t make it any harder than it has to be.”

“You’re right,” she said, her relief evident in her voice. “And to think I almost emailed my older brother to ask his advice on this. That would have been a disaster.”

“How so?”

“You don’t want to know the details. Just trust me, it would have ended in me smashing my phone on the ground. Thank goodness I now have actual friends I can bounce ideas off of,” she said. “Okay, I’ll talk to you later. I’ve got a pros and cons list to write up.”

“Good luck,” Samiah said before ending the call.

Considering how close she’d come to ghosting them, Samiah couldn’t get over just how much she’d come to appreciate her new sisters-in-arms. It begged a question she hadn’t thought to ask, but one she couldn’t help but contemplate based on what happened yesterday. With Taylor and London in her life, did she even need Daniel Collins’s friendship?

Their morning coffee ritual had come at a time when her ego and heart needed a boost, but what had once been a pleasant diversion had become a distraction she couldn’t afford. Case in point, the twenty minutes of her lunch break she’d spent thinking about him instead of working on her app. She was falling into the same trap she’d gotten caught in before.

His rejection yesterday hurt, but she was slowly coming to realize that it was for the best. Her focus should be on her goals. She would make sure it was from here on out.

Chapter Sixteen

Chapter Sixteen

Securing his headphones over his head and pulling the drawstring of his hoodie tight, Daniel tried to block out everything and everyone around him. The atmosphere in the office today was too damn cheerful; it clashed with his shitty mood. There were office-wide high fives going around for the Sales team, who’d just landed a contract with a national coffeehouse chain, one Trendsetters had apparently been courting for months. Then there was the cake and coffee celebration for those with birthdays in September, which he should have been happy about—who in the hell didn’t like cake?—but all that did was remind him that he wouldn’t be here to share in the monthly celebration when his birthday rolled around.