What she admired most was that, despite the hard work he’d put in to building Trendsetters, Barrington was the first to acknowledge that his privileged background had given him a leg up and eagerly sought to help those less privileged.

Her thought reminded her, she needed to talk to him about donating old computer equipment to the senior center on Lamar. Barrington championed any philanthropic project Samiah brought to his attention. It was mutually beneficial: Trendsetters received great press and deserving local organizations received much-needed help.

He stood before the conference room, a goofy smile on his face. “Who’s ready to spoil their lunch?” Barrington asked before stepping out of the way and leading them inside.

Samiah stopped short. Had she missed the word heaven etched across the glass door? Because that’s where she was right now. Hands down, this was her vision of heaven on earth.

The table that stretched across the length of the room was laden with all the makings of the perfect ice cream sundae. The line started at the left side, with an array of glass sundae and banana split bowls waiting to be filled. Next were square platters that held bananas, mixed berries, brownies, and blondies, followed by six large cylinders of various ice cream flavors, including a nondairy vegan vanilla. She whisked past that one and heaped two scoops of buttered pecan ice cream into her sundae glass.

She sprinkled on candied pecans and butterscotch chips from the two dozen toppings offered, then drizzled on warm caramel. She’d skipped her half-hour gym appointment for the past three days, but there was no way she could justify missing it today. She added another drizzle of caramel and some whipped cream. Better make it worth her while.

“How amazing is this, huh?” Keighleigh asked as she approached Samiah with a cup of plain vanilla ice cream, no doubt the vegan one. She probably wasn’t even vegan. Just wanted to be seen as different. “Better than the massage the team from Software won, if you asked me.”

I don’t know about that.

She’d trade this sundae in a heartbeat for another hand massage from Daniel.

“Implementation is finally starting to get the recognition it deserves,” Keighleigh continued. “You think Barrington is taking notice? He has to, right? This is the second flash competition we’ve won since the summer.”

It was on the tip of Samiah’s tongue to point out that she’d done the lion’s share of the work for both the flash competitions they’d won. But she wanted to be a team player, so she nodded and stuffed another spoonful of ice cream into her mouth. She’d decided that when it came to Keighleigh Miller, keeping her mouth shut was her best tactic. If she didn’t share anything with her, she wouldn’t be able to glom onto Samiah’s work and claim it as her own.