Back in August, someone recorded the confrontation they’d had with Craig, and the video had gone viral. Taylor thought she’d finally hit gold. It wasn’t the most ideal way to get her business on the map, but beggars couldn’t be choosers and all that.

Alas, her fifteen minutes of fame had barely lasted the full fifteen minutes. After coming out of that viral video debacle with only a handful of new clients, she’d been forced to accept an astoundingly hard truth. Not everyone with an Instagram account or YouTube channel became famous. If she wanted Taylor’d Conditioning to succeed, she would have to do it the hard way.

Her chest tightened. It did that whenever she considered the idea she’d been gnawing on for the past few weeks. Well, for the past year, if she were being honest.

“I think I want to change my goal,” she blurted.

“Really?” London asked. “So you don’t want to grow Taylor’d Conditioning?”

“No, I do! That’s always my goal. I just…I guess I want to go about it a different way.” She thought about chickening out, but she knew both Samiah and London would hold her accountable. They wouldn’t allow her to use the eight hundred reasons she had locked, loaded, and ready to fire at the first hint of fear.

Before she could talk herself out of it, Taylor said, “I’m thinking about going back to school to get my degree in fitness and nutrition.”

There. It was out in the universe. No going back.

“Ah, okay. That’s cool,” London said.

“Good for you,” Samiah followed.

That’s cool? Good for you? Did they not understand how freaking terrifying this was for her?

Then again, why would they? Neither of them knew about her complicated relationship with school. They were both ridiculously smart women who had probably breezed through high school and college. She doubted they had any concept of the fact that for some people, the thought of sitting in a classroom was enough to make one break out in hives.

“This is a big deal,” Taylor said. She put a hand to her knee to stop it from bouncing under the table.

“Of course it is,” Samiah said. “You’ll be working full time while going to school, right? You should try bullet journaling to help organize your schedule. I’ve heard it helps you stay on track.”

“It’s not about my schedule. It’s about…about the stress of it all. Going back to school would be a huge deal for me. It’s…Just forget about it,” she said.

“We’re not going to forget about it. The whole point of this project is to help each other achieve our goals. If your goal is to get your degree, we’re going to help you do that.”