Page 48 of The Devil She Knows
Sam was … kind of a big deal. Areallybig deal. Micro-celebritybig deal.
Executive chef, owner of not one but three restaurantsplusa bar, viral content creator,andwriter.
When did Sam have time to sleep?
Sam was going to have trouble believing she was social media famous until she saw it. Exiting out of her browser, she opened TikTok, an app she’d formerly only installed when she’d started dating Hannah, so Sam could watchhercontent. She tapped on her profile and—holy shit.
One point twomillionfollowers.
An empty feeling opened up in the pit of her stomach.
Sam didn’t want to be perceived by 1.2 thousand people, let alone 1.2million. Hell, some days she didn’t want to be perceived by anybody.
Bread pudding snafu notwithstanding, Sam wasn’t stupid. She’d gone into this wish with open eyes, knowing that the Sam she’d be would not be the same Sam she’d been. It was a virtual impossibility. Now, she would have preferred that the changes had not transformed her into some social media maven, someone who monetized putting their face out there for millions to gawk at, but … she could handle this. In the grand scheme of it all, internet fame was a small price to pay for the woman ofherdreams.
She’d have to watch her own videos, study up and figureout her schtick. But right now, she was still sleuthing, fact gathering.
Beneath her quite frankly absurd follower count was a brief bio.
Lover of Pastries, Prosecco, and @its_hannah_liu_to_u
Indulge Hospitality (@indulge_hospitality)—Glut, Gorge, Gratify, Gulp
She clicked through to Hannah’s account, and if Sam thought she had a lot of followers? She had nothing on Hannah’s 2.7 million.
Make life beautiful.
MUA turned beauty entrepreneur @luxe_liu_beauty Skincare launch coming 10/31
Business and PR: [email protected]
The first pinned video on Hannah’s page was about the upcoming product launch for her brand, Luxe Liu Beauty, but it was the second video that caught Sam’s eye. A proposal video that she couldn’t click on fast enough.
The video opened with a panoramic shot of Venice’s famous canals, gondolas gliding gracefully along shimmeringblue-green water as “Young and Beautiful” by Lana Del Rey played softly and hauntingly in the background. The video focused on a sun-dappled dock beside the famous Rialto Bridge. Sam led Hannah, who looked gorgeous as ever in a long black slip dress, down the dock by the hand. She pointed to the setting sun across the water, and when Hannah had her back turned, Sam crouched carefully down on one knee. Hannah looked over her shoulder and gasped. Sam couldn’t hear what either of them said, but Hannah nodded enthusiastically and held her left hand out so that Sam could slip the ring on her finger. The video captured their embrace from several angles, then transitioned gracefully into a series of aesthetic shots of Hannah and Sam riding in a water taxi, sipping champagne, and staring into each other’s eyes across a table located right on the canal at Ai Barbacani.
It was beautiful. It was romantic. It was everything Hannah deserved.
Sam wished she could remember it.
But that was fine. They had a lifetime together to make new memories, memories they both would remember.
A notification flashed across the top of her screen.
Reminder: Wednesday, October 29, 7 p.m. Dinner @ Adora
She tapped on the reminder, hoping that expanding the notification might provide her with a few more details, like with whom she had plans. Her Google Calendar app opened to a calendar that, by the looks of it, she shared with Hannah. A couple’s calendar. No doubt Hannah’s doing. Sam was definitely more of ajot it down on a sticky note or theback of an old receiptkind of girl. Atell herself she would remember and inevitably forget until the very last momentperson. This would come in handy for a whole host of reasons.
Like now, Sam knew by looking at the color-coordinated blocks of time that Hannah had just left an aqua-cycling class—whatever that entailed—and in an hour was due to meet someone named Monique at Maman to discuss Luxe Liu Beauty’s upcoming pop-up in Chelsea. Then she was meeting with friends for shopping followed by lunch at Kochi before she headed over to the East Side for a facial and massage at Dorothy’s Day Spa.
Except for dinner reservations at seven p.m., Sam’s schedule was oddly empty, her day apparently hers to do with as she pleased. Unlike the day after tomorrow, when she’d be busy hopping around town, going from one meeting to another and taking Zoom calls in between. Sam frowned. That didn’t leave a lot of time for, well,cooking.
Maybe … maybe she’d stop by Glut today. It was Wednesday. They started serving lunch at eleven thirty a.m., most of the kitchen arriving to begin prep three if not four hours ahead of opening, depending on what needed to be done at their stations and what the reservation list looked like.
Sam could stop for another coffee, one with creamer she actually liked, and grab a bagel or a croissant since the fridge here was tragically lean. By the time she made it downtown, Melissa should be there, and Javier, too. Sam could see the place for herself, get a look at how, if at all, it had changed under her ownership, and chat up the kitchen crew. Find out anything she might need to know that wasn’t on TikTok or LinkedIn or blocked out on her calendar.
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