The Boyfriend Project Read online

  Her brows shot up before dipping into a deep V with her frown.

  “Okay,” she finally said. “I guess that makes sense.” There was a crispness to her voice that hadn’t been there before. “Although, I don’t see why bouncing ideas off each other over a couple of burgers wouldn’t be considered working.”

  God, he hated this.

  “It’s just…it’s not a good idea,” Daniel said.

  The seconds that ticked by were some of the most uncomfortable of his life. Her shoulders straightened, her chin lifting as she stared down at him. If not for the nerve jumping in her stiff cheek, Daniel would have thought his words were no big deal.

  “Fine,” she said. The word was clipped. Final.

  With that she turned and started back toward her office.

  “Samiah—” Daniel called in a voice that was barely a whisper.

  Letting her walk away was the smart move here. The only move. Hell, he could subvert Trendsetters’ security tomorrow and see this job come to an end. What would he say to her then? Sorry about lying to you? We’ll probably never see each other again, but thanks for lighting my world on fire with that kiss, and for paying my salary with your tax dollars?

  Yeah, that would go over well.

  He put the headphones back on and returned his attention to his computer screen. He needed to finish up this Austin job so that he could move on to the next. It would be better for everyone.

  * * *

  Samiah pitched her head back and gloried in the rays of sunshine streaming through the trees overhead, welcoming the warmth on her face. She’d happened upon the rarest of rare finds, an empty bench in what was possibly her favorite spot in the city, the Japanese garden in the botanical gardens at Zilker Park. An oasis in the middle of the city, teeming with brightly colored flowers, willowy trees, and ponds filled with lily pads, this was the place she came to when she needed to get outside of her own head and just exist.

  She definitely needed it today.

  She balanced the pen and steno pad on her knee, and read over the impressive list of ideas she’d brainstormed in the short time she’d been out here. She’d debated whether she wanted to bring anything work-related to her favorite sanctuary, especially while on her lunch break, but decided that when it came to her app, this was the perfect spot to work. She didn’t want Just Friends to feel like a job. It should bring joy.

  She was due a little joy after the sour taste left in her mouth yesterday following Daniel’s rebuff. It had hurt, but she was no longer angry.

  Okay, so she was a little angry, and maybe just a bit confused.

  She’d prepared herself, knowing things would now feel different between them. You didn’t spend several minutes with a guy’s tongue down your throat without expecting a shift in how you interacted with each other. But that complete one-eighty? No, she hadn’t expected that.

  His brush-off had bruised her already tender ego, but it had also been the wake-up call she’d needed. After ending her relationship with Craig, the last thing she should have done was walk into this thing with Daniel.

  She had yet to define exactly what it was that had blossomed between them over these last couple of weeks. A few lunches and a single weekend of hiking—something she’d wanted to do anyway, but could never find someone to do it with—did not a relationship make. That kiss, however, had placed them well past the friendly coworker mark.

  That kiss.

  When she looked back on this period years from now, she would be able to pinpoint the moment they’d taken a wrong turn. If it weren’t for that kiss, this thing with Daniel wouldn’t be anything more than a really nice friendship with a dose of lighthearted flirting thrown in.

  In a perfect world, they could forget about that kiss and go back to being friends. But the world wasn’t perfect. Although that kiss had been close.

  She closed her eyes and sucked in a slow, calming breath, seeking the peace she’d found when she’d first happened upon this bench.

  Maybe if she gave it some time, gave herself a little space, she could approach Daniel with an offer of friendship and nothing more. It was something to consider.

  But not yet. She was still too deep in her feelings to entertain thoughts of being his friend.

  Her phone vibrated with a text. She slipped her phone from her jacket pocket and her heart jumped into her throat at the sight of Denise’s number. Samiah immediately calmed herself down. If there was an emergency with the baby, her sister or Bradley would call instead of texting. Goodness, she was going to give herself a heart attack if she didn’t stop jumping into worst-case scenario mode every time she heard from her sister.

  You free to talk? Denise’s text read.

  Instead of texting back, Samiah called. “Hey, what’s up?”

  “Hey,” came her sister’s surprised greeting. “I didn’t call because I didn’t want to disturb you if you were in a meeting.”

  “Nope, we’re good. I’m taking an extended lunch break. What’s up?” she asked again.

  “I need a favor.”

  “It’s too early to ask me to babysit.”

  “Har har,” Denise said with a snort. “Although, now that I think about it, this is another form of babysitting.”

  “What is it?”

  “Bradley is teaching eighth graders this year, and part of the curriculum is job shadowing. One of his students, a little girl named Tomeka, is really great at math—nearly genius level, according to Bradley—and she wants to be a software engineer when she grows up.”

  “Yes,” Samiah said.

  “I haven’t asked you yet.”

  “You’re going to ask if she can shadow me at work, and the answer is absolutely yes.”

  Samiah could practically hear her sister’s relieved smile through the phone.

  “Thank you so much, honey. I just know it would be so powerful for her to see someone who looks like her working in technology. Not just working in it, but killing it.”

  The pride blossoming in her heart was so overwhelming Samiah feared it might burst. To hear her big sister, the woman she’d looked up to her entire life, describe her in that way had a greater impact on her than any praise from the powers that be at Trendsetters could ever have.

  “However, there is a slight issue,” Denise tacked on, the hesitancy in her voice causing Samiah’s oh, shit antennae to perk up.

  “Job Shadow Day is tomorrow, and Tomeka’s parents share a car, and her dad works all the way in Kyle. So she needs someone to pick her up and bring her back to school. I would do it, but you know what the doctor said about me driving.”

  “No,” Samiah said. “You’re not driving.”

  The million and one things cluttering her desk demanded that she make an excuse for why she couldn’t do this, but she ignored it. She would get it done, even if she had to stay at the office until midnight. This was too important.

  “I’ll handle it,” Samiah said.

  “Awesome. Bradley will make sure you’re placed on the authorized pick-up list,” Denise said. “Tomeka will be so excited. Do you have any idea how much this will mean to that little girl?”

  As a matter of fact, she did. She’d been that little girl. She’d been an eighth grader who’d excelled at math and science and loved learning how things worked. But instead of encouragement, many of her teachers had sought to impede her dreams of entering the tech field. How often had she been berated for thinking too highly of herself, of not being realistic in her aspirations? What a difference it would have made if she’d had a peek into what life could be like for her as a young black woman working with computers day in and day out.

  No one should have their dreams discouraged the way hers had been. If not for her stubbornness, and an overpowering desire to prove wrong anyone who’d tried to discount her abilities, she likely would have allowed them to sway her. How many other young women of color saw their dreams succumb to a similar fate?

  Not on her watch. Not anymore.

 
; “Just give me the details on when and where to pick her up and I’ll be there,” Samiah said. “I’ll make sure Trendsetters lays out the red carpet for her.”

  “Thank you again, hon. Love you,” her sister said.

  “Love you too.” She ended the call with Denise and saw a text had come through from Taylor. She’d written one word in all caps: EMERGENCY.

  Samiah’s stomach dropped as she immediately hit the call button.

  “Hey,” Taylor answered in a hushed voice.

  “What’s going on?” Samiah whispered. “Where are you? Are you okay? Have you been kidnapped?”

  “Kidnapped?” Taylor asked, her voice now at a normal level.

  Samiah sat up straight. “Hold on. Why were you whispering a second ago?”

  “Because the lady next to me in line is all in my business,” Taylor said. “I know you were listening to my last phone call,” Samiah heard her say somewhat distantly, as if she’d pulled the phone away from her mouth. A second later, she said, “So, what’s up?”

  “You tell me what’s up,” Samiah said. “You just texted emergency in all caps.”

  “Oh, yeah, that. So, I have a meeting with this woman in Bee Cave today,” she said, referring to a suburb just west of Austin. “She’s in charge of some kind of homeschooling consortium type thing. I think it’s just a bunch of rich parents who pooled their money to start their own school because they don’t want their kids attending public school. Anyway, she wants to hire me to teach phys ed three days a week.”

  Samiah brought a hand up to her head and rubbed her temple. “Is that what you call an emergency?”

  “Well, she needs to know by this afternoon,” Taylor said. “The problem is, I’m not sure I want to commit to something like that. But if I don’t take the job, she has someone else she’s going to offer it to.” Her dramatic sigh had Samiah rolling her eyes.

  “I don’t know what to do,” Taylor continued. “What if I accept her offer and I don’t like it? And it will definitely eat into the time I’ve set aside for my boyfriend project. I have less than six months to get my shit together before I find Mr. Perfect.”

  Was this what it was like to have a little sister? Had she put Denise through this over the years?

  “So, do you have any advice?” Taylor asked. “I didn’t want to bother London, but I really needed to talk this through with someone I can trust.”

  “Oh, so it was okay to bother me at work, but not London?”

  “Well, you’re not literally saving the lives of sick children.”

  She had a point.

  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

  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.

  But what had caused the most excitement around the office today was a certain munchkin-size visitor who seemed to be charming the pants off every Trendsetter employee she came in contact with. Samiah had arrived with the young girl just before lunchtime—what was once his time. Everyone had lost their minds, as if they’d never encountered a cute kid with a beaming smile and bubbly personality before.

  Daniel had watched as surreptitiously as possible as Samiah took her on a tour of the office. She’d played around on the computers and even sat behind Barrington’s desk so she could have her picture taken.

  They now stood just two desks down from him, at Amy Dodd’s station. He hadn’t seen their approach; he’d felt it. The sensation that rushed along his skin whenever Samiah was near had alerted him.

  The middle schooler—Tomeka—enthusiastically nodded at whatever Amy had just said. She raced to the other side of the desk and sat in front of the computer. Samiah looked on like a proud auntie.

  She’d ignored him all day. Although Daniel wasn’t sure what he would say if she actually had talked to him. What about his situation had changed between the moment before he’d kissed her and now? Nothing.

  He was still here to do a job that required him to lie to her. A job he shouldn’t allow himself to get distracted from. A job that would possibly be in jeopardy if his superiors found out that he’d kissed her the other night.

  The difference, of course, was the DEFCON levels of agony he’d experienced since he’d turned down her invitation to lunch. How had he not realized just how much he would crave her? He’d become as addicted to seeing her smile in the morning as he was to the coffee he no longer allowed himself to have for fear of running into her at the coffee bar.

  This is why he needed to concentrate on the job at hand. The sooner he solved this case, the sooner he’d be out of here. And out of this misery. At least that’s what he’d been telling himself. He knew it was naive as hell to think he would just forget about Samiah the moment he left Austin, but he was going with it.

  Daniel felt a tap on his shoulder. He lifted his headphones from one ear and looked up at Morgan, who thankfully had halted her pursuit of him.

  “What’s up?” he asked her.

  She hooked a thumb over her shoulder. “Amy’s calling you.”

  He removed the hoodie and swiveled his chair around toward Amy’s desk. Samiah stood there with an expression he couldn’t quite name. Disinterest, maybe?

  “What do you need?” he directed at Amy.

  “Tomeka is learning JavaScript. Why don’t you come over and show her the trick you showed me?”

  Daniel noticed Samiah visibly stiffen at the suggestion.

  Shit. Had he really messed things up so badly that she didn’t even want him around her?

  He considered coming up with an excuse so that he wouldn’t ruin her day by invading her space, but they couldn’t avoid each other fo
rever. Their team was set to meet in an hour to discuss progress on the Leyland Group project.

  “Sure,” Daniel said. “Give me a sec.” He saved his work then went over to Amy’s, trepidation traveling along his spine as he approached. Samiah remained stoic, her expression unreadable.

  “Daniel, this is Tomeka Sanderson,” Amy said. “She’s shadowing Samiah for the day and wants to create video games when she graduates from college.”

  “That’s a pretty cool job,” he said. “Which games are your favorites?”

  As the girl rattled off an extensive list of popular video games, Daniel tried to get a read on Samiah. She didn’t seem angry, which was a relief. Neither did he sense any acrimonious vibes from her. She seemed…indifferent.

  That wasn’t good. Not at all. He’d rather her curse him out or slap him in the face, anything but apathy.

  It was no less than he deserved. He’d spent these past few weeks shamelessly flirting with her because she was so fucking smart and beautiful and funny, all the while knowing that nothing could ever come of it. He’d strung her along. Which made him a class-A piece of shit.

  He quickly guided Tomeka through JavaScript, then returned to his desk, not wanting to subject Samiah to his presence any longer than necessary.

  Their avoidance dance was prolonged yet again after the status update with the Leyland Group project was postponed to Monday. Daniel had remained at his desk all afternoon, his head bent over the keyboard as he counted down the minutes until he could leave. Computer monitors throughout the office systematically went dim as, one by one, his coworkers closed up for the night. Some would be back bright and early tomorrow morning, despite it being the weekend. He would do the same. Maybe tomorrow would be the day he breached Trendsetters’ security and found the break he needed in this case.

  He got up for a bottle of water and noticed a glow coming from Samiah’s office. She’d switched the glass-paneled walls to frosted, but he could see her outlined behind the desk.

  Should he go to her? Did he even have the right? Why would she entertain anything he had to say after the way he’d blown her off? And why should he try when he knew he could be gone at any minute? It was selfish, bordered on cruel.