A Date to Remember by LeTeisha Newton Page A

books and culture consulting. It was an odd job, but she was good at it. She spent her days teaching people about other cultures before their travels, or government classes on decorum and customs before their employees traversed the map. What she did not do was spend her evenings, and nights, entertaining men who would drool over her, lavish her with expensive gifts—like the Mercedes Natalie had gotten last year—and God knew what else could be going on. She didn’t ask, and Natalie didn’t tell. She believed her friend when she said all she did was tease these men or provide adequate arm jewelry when they needed it.
    Either way, Sam didn’t fit the bill.
    “Look, Sam, it’s just for one night. There is something different about Maddox. He makes me smile, really smile. My heart just stops every time he looks at me, and I think I may just have to let all of this go. I want to talk to him about it tonight, but I have this commitment. I don’t want to leave it on a bad note.”
    “Can’t you reschedule?”
    “Not with Joel Anderson. No one reschedules him, and the pay is ten thousand.”
    “Did you just say ten thousand? As in dollars, not cents?”
    “Ten thousand dollars. You take the job, you take the cash. Look, Sam,” she continued when Sam opened her mouth to argue, “I really need you on this. I want this with Maddox. I really do.”
    “You’re serious, aren’t you?”
    “As a heart attack. Scout’s honor.”
    Sam had never seen quite that look on Natalie’s face before and felt her defenses starting to cave. She knew when Natalie was just trying to get her way and when something was really going on. Sam saw the seriousness now in her beloved friend’s face and wasn’t sure she could turn her down. At the same time, though, she wasn’t sure she could pull it off even if she wanted to. She wasn’t Natalie. Men didn’t gravitate to her. She never had that natural charisma that made people want to take notice of her. Sure, she was attractive, she knew that. She also knew there was more to beauty than a pretty face. If you had a lackluster way about you, people pretty much tended to ignore your looks after a while.
    Sam knew that like the back of her hand.
    “I can’t be you, Natalie. I wish I could, but I can’t.”
    “Oh, don’t start that crap again. You are an amazing, beautiful woman whose smile lights up a room and whose walk makes everyone look. You just choose to downplay it. All your little hang-ups are in your head. I keep telling you to let them go and everything will be much different for you.”
    “I like myself just the way I am. I make a good living, have my own home, my own car, no credit issues, and I am progressing successfully to thirty with no meltdowns. I think I’ve done well.”
    “Baby, your life is boring as hell. It would be hell if I wasn’t in it, so don’t give me that, and don’t try to change the subject, Samantha Marie.”
    “Uh-oh,” Sam grumbled hearing Natalie use what she had deemed her mommy voice. Whenever she said Sam’s name like that, it was trouble.
    “I need your help, and I thought that your innate love for me, and the friendship that we have shared, would be enough for you to help me out on this one, but I see that I was obviously wrong on that, so let me see if I can go a different route on this one. If you don’t help me, that amazing, wonderful, delectable picture I have of you from Roni’s bachelorette party is going to see every social media Web site that I am on, a copy will be sent to your mom, and I will get a poster-size version just to plaster on your door. Do we have a deal?”
    Samantha heard the scream of rage in her head, but she bit the inside of her cheek to stop it from escaping. Said picture had been a gag to keep her friend laughing long after the flame of being newly wed had worn off and they were old biddies talking about the good old days. It was not supposed to be used to blackmail her into something she couldn’t,