Editor's note: This story involves allegations of sexual misconduct and contains graphic details from court filings. 

The two women met some time in March or April 2021 at an Eddie V’s Prime Seafood in Houston, a swanky chain where the shellfish tower costs $75 and the steak and lobster will set you back $96.

One, a lawyer for Deshaun Watson, wanted to know if the other, a licensed cosmetologist who did massages at a Houston salon, had filed a lawsuit against the quarterback for sexual misconduct.

Nia Smith, the cosmetologist, hadn’t, but said she agreed to talk to the Watson's lawyer because she wanted someone to know the "truth."

As they talked, it became clear that the lawyer wasn't interested Smith's account about what happened with Watson, Smith said. Instead, Watson’s defense team was “struggling to sift through each contact via Watson’s text messages and Instagram direct messages” to determine which of the dozens of women he hired to massage him were taking legal action.

At the dinner, one of Watson’s lawyers tried to “intimidate” Smith by saying Watson’s defense was going “to fight the cases to the fullest extent and also insisted that us black women must stick together,” according to Smith's lawsuit, filed about a  year later.

The lawyer “spent the rest of the dinner attempting to convince (Smith) to say nice and positive things about Watson,” Smith's suit said.

Eighteen other woman who massaged Watson did compliment the football player in records later released by Watson’s defense team.

But Smith refused. So did 22 other women who massaged Watson.

Though Smith said she still had no intention of suing Watson in the summer of 2021, she did want her story told. On July 26, she sat down for an interview on a YouTube show called “Unwine with Tasha K.”

A transcript of that interview was filed with Smith’s lawsuit.

“Now, this is pretty graphic,” Tasha K warned her audience before introducing Smith. “This is for grown folk,” not children.

The host conceded she had been skeptical about the allegations against Watson “because a lot of people are saying that this is an attack on another Black pro athlete who has money and this is an attempt to take him down.”

But the host said she had since reconsidered  some of the allegations and, after talking to Smith, believed what Smith had to say, the transcript said.

Smith told her story from the start: In 2020, when she was still working at a Houston spa, she checked her messages daily when she woke up to see who had requested massages.

On June 7, one message sent at 3 a.m. stood out because she noticed the sender, Watson, had more than a million followers. 

Smith didn’t know who Watson was and asked a friend, who told her Watson was the Houston Texans quarterback.

“And me, I don’t follow sports so I’m, like, 'Okay. Is that basketball or football? I don’t know,' ” Smith said.

Her friend who did know football urged Smith to message Watson back and she did, figuring he’d be sleeping. But to her surprise, Watson  answered, asking to schedule a massage that day, she said

It was a Sunday and the salon and spa where Smith worked was closed. But once the owner found out it was Watson who wanted a massage that day, she came to unlock her business even though she was sick, Smith said.

Smith, who was 21 at the time, knew Watson wanted her to focus on his glutes. She she didn’t think was unusual since he was an athlete.

But once the massage started, she told the YouTube host, “things just kind of went weird.”

Watson kept asking Smith to “go inside his butt,” she said.

“And I was just so confused,” Smith said. “Normally on my male clients – well, any of my clients – I’ll stop at the lower thigh.”

But Watson wanted her to go higher and said “don’t be afraid to go inside,” she said.

When the YouTube show host asked what he meant, Smith said he was talking about his anus. Smith declined.

When the massage ended, Watson left and Smith went to the spa owner. 

“And I was, like, 'Girl, you will not believe what just happened,' ” Smith said. “ 'He didn’t want me to massage his arms, his neck, his back, his feet. It was, I want inside of my butt.' ”

The spa owner asked Smith if she thought Watson liked men.

“I’m like, I don’t know what this is,” Smith said.

While Smith thought Watson acted inappropriately, she said she wasn’t offended.

“I just thought this was something that my client may be ashamed of. He didn’t want anyone to know,” including the NFL, she said.

When Watson booked a second appointment with Smith Aug. 24, he asked her to wear a sundress, her suit said.

Smith ignored his request and dressed as she normally would. But she didn’t think he would try the same thing again since she had refused the first time.

This time, Watson was very “touchy-feely,” Smith told the YouTube host.

When she was at the front of the massage table working on his neck, for example, he tried to grab her butt, she said.

Smith said she began “massaging him from a distance because he kept trying to touch me and I had to keep jumping back,” she said.

Watson had an erection throughout the session, she said.

“...He kept saying, ‘do you want to put it in your mouth?’” she said,  adding that she repeatedly pushed away his hands as he tried to grab her between the legs.

“He knew that I didn’t want him touching me like that and so he would always respond, ‘What?’,” Smith said.

Smith said was uncomfortable throughout the massage, but tried to get through it “without any conflict.”

“I knew the owner of the salon, she was very proud to have this person as a client and that was like her main focus at the time, like keep this person happy,” Smith said.

Smith wanted to avoid Watson in the future, but he booked a third session with Smith through her boss, the suit said. 

Smith “could not refuse Watson as a client because of her boss,” the suit said. 

This time, Watson’s behavior only got worse, Smith said.

Watson “blatantly told me he was not going to put any draping on, that I did not need to leave the room. He took his pants off right in front of me, he laid on the bed and refused to wear the towel, cover it,” Smith said.

He also “blatantly asked me to have sex with him,” saying that he had a condom, she said.

“And he just kept requesting sex from me, kept trying to touch me in between, well, he did touch me in between my legs,” she said.

Smith said “he wouldn’t keep his hands to himself” and it was too much.

“I had to decide that, that would be the last time I would massage him, you know, against everybody else’s wishes,” she said.

By then, the spa owner had introduced Watson to “so many girls” in recent weeks, that she knew Watson had other options at the spa.

“Actually, the people (the spa owner) was inviting in didn’t even work for the salon,” Smith said. “I don’t know where she was getting these people from, but she would be like, ‘Hey you, do you want to massage Deshaun Watson?’ ”

Smith said she thinks Watson was “a bit annoyed on all the people she was trying to push on him for the money-wise” and started asking Smith if the spa owner would be there before he came in.

In Smith suit, her attorneys say that Watson paid Smith’s spa manager at least $5,000 for her efforts.

Smith – who said she also worked as an emergency response operator for vessels that carry oil – quit the spa after her third session with Watson.

“It was just a lot to deal with for the same amount of money that I would get massaging my regular clients, and plus I just felt disgusted after the fact and – but nobody really cared,” Smith said.

Smith didn’t know other women who massaged Watson had similar experiences until her mom sent her a news story after the first lawsuits were filed against him in the spring of 2021. 

“I read the article a million times…And I was like, this has to be true because how would anybody know this,” Smith told the YouTube host.

Still, she didn’t file suit because she didn’t want the “drama” she knew the high-profile case would bring, Smith said.

As people on ESPN and bloggers fought about whether the allegations in the lawsuits could be true, one of Watson’s defense attorneys reached out to Smith, she said. 

“So I’m like, okay. This is the perfect opportunity for us to get the truth out,” Smith said.

Just after that meeting, Smith said she started receiving death threats. 

The first voicemail sounded like a shotgun, she said.

“It’s like, cha-cha boom, cha-cha boom. The next one, it’s just like – a handgun. It’s like pow, pow, pow, pow,” Smith said.

Within minutes of hearing those messages, she received one from her mother telling her to get out of her apartment. “Somebody is trying to kill you,” her mom said.

“It’s, it’s, it’s traumatizing…I wouldn’t wish this on my worst enemy…because…with all the facts that we have, all the screenshots, the messages, any proof in the world, it doesn’t matter,” Smith said. 

Smith told the YouTube host that she didn’t go back to that apartment, even though she was still paying for it. 

“I have a 6-year-old and I don’t need to be trying to figure out if my life is in danger or if somebody is watching me,” she said. “I’m steady on the run.”

Watson's lead defense lawyer Rusty Hardin put out a statement immediately after the Smith filed her lawsuit saying that "Watson vehemently denies the allegations, just as he has since she first discussed them with members of our firm in March of last year."

Hardin said two lawyers from his team denied "there was any coercion or intimidation inclined in the very cordial meeting" with Smith, which Hardin claims happened at Vic and Anthony's Steakhouse, an equally if not more pricey Houston restaurant.

"The suggestion that either of these two accomplished lawyers would have said 'us Black women must stick together' is absurd," the statement said.

Furthermore, Harden said Smith "has long had a vendetta against Deshaun since she jealously and angrily published Deshaun's personal data on social media in November 2020," the statement said.