“It was warranted.” London settled back on the sofa, crossing one long, slim leg over the other. “If you can’t get drunk after finding out your boyfriend has been cheating on you with who knows how many other women, when can you get drunk?” She turned to Samiah. “By the way, I figured out this morning that you were the first to date him, at least among the three of us. You went out with him on the Friday of the Fourth of July holiday weekend, and my first date with him was that Sunday night.”

“He told me he had to go to Dallas that weekend. Things were just sooo busy at his job that he couldn’t take the holiday off.” Samiah snorted out a humorless laugh. “I swear I thought I was smarter than this.”

“Hey, I’m no dummy, and he fooled the hell out of me too.” London shrugged. “He ran a good game. I’m just happy I never slept with him.”

“I didn’t either!” Samiah said. “It’s as if our instincts knew better.”

They high-fived each other.

Taylor pouted. “I’m kinda bummed I found out he was a dog before I got the chance to sleep with him.”

“What?” Samiah and London’s simultaneous screeches echoed off the condo’s high ceilings.

“What?” she asked with an incredulous shrug. “It’s been a minute, okay? I swear I saw cobwebs the last time I looked down there.”

Samiah burst out laughing then regretted it. The hammering that had all but subsided returned to her skull with a vengeance. She drew her feet up on the sofa and tucked them underneath her.

“You can do better than Craig Walters’s lying ass,” she told Taylor.

“I thought his name was Craig Johnson?” London said.

“He told me his name was Craig Milton,” Taylor said. “And if I could do better, I would have been out with better last night. I don’t know about you, but this dating shit has been brutal for me since I moved to Austin.”

Samiah was still reeling from the revelation that Craig’s cheating behind had given them all different last names. She’d looked him up on social media. Everything had seemed legit. She wondered if he’d set up profiles for all his different names. How much time and energy had that leech put into this little scheme of his?

“I hear you on the dating front,” Samiah said. “Craig was the first guy in six months who’d made it past a second date.”

“Look, I’m from this area and it’s been brutal for me too,” London added. “I guess that’s how he was able to dupe the three of us. There’s slim pickings out there.” She drained her coffee mug and set it on the sofa table. “And now I have to find someone else to take to my damn class reunion. Shit.”