Annika and June went back to work, just to keep their hands and minds busy. Annika kept glancing at the clock on her laptop until she forced herself to switch Word over into Focus mode, so she could see nothing but the screen. Twenty-two more minutes. She’d know in twenty-two more minutes who’d won EPIC. In her heart, she was sure Break Up had taken it away. But there was a tiny, tiny part of her—that stupidly idealistic part—that kept saying it wasn’t over till it was over.

“Holy shit!” June yelped, and Annika started, her heart pounding.

“What? Is it EPIC? Did you hear something?”

“No, I’m sorry.” June gave her an apologetic look. “But I think I just got the future projection feature to work.”

“What? Are you serious?” Annika peeked at June’s laptop. “Can you show me?”

“Sure.” Grinning, June clicked on the screen. “So, I fed data points from a fictional couple into the computer.”

“Who?” Annika asked.

June wrinkled her nose. “Um, Sam Baldwin and Annie Reed?”

Annika laughed. “Tom Hanks and Meg Ryan’s characters from Sleepless in Seattle?”

“Hey, it’s what popped into my head, okay? And check this out.” She clicked the as-yet-rudimentary “go” button on the program. A short movie began playing.

It showed Tom Hanks and Meg Ryan together, at the top of the Empire State Building, kissing. Then it showed them on a computer-rendered wedding day, cutting cake in front of a dozen wedding guests. Afterward, it showed the couple with three children in Green Lake Park in Seattle, a golden retriever romping around them with a Frisbee in its mouth. And finally, it showed them on twin rocking chairs on a porch, watching the sunset.

“Wow,” Annika breathed as the picture faded to black and returned to June’s programming screen. “It … works. It really works.”

“Yeah, but I haven’t fed it real-couple data yet,” June cautioned. “So we’ll see how well it works then. But at least we know it’s possible.” She grinned up at Annika, her blue eyes shining. “Isn’t it great? When we roll the app out, this feature’s going to kick major ass.”

Annika got serious again. “If, June. If we roll the app out.” June had done so much work on it. It would break Annika’s heart if it had all been for nothing, but she had to be realistic.

She glanced at the clock on the wall at the same time as June, and they looked at each other.

“Ten minutes,” June said, blowing out a breath. “They’re going to call all the participants, right? No matter whether they won or not?”

“Right. So we’ll know for sure, one way or the other, in ten minutes.” Annika began to pace to the window and back to the desk. “I need to burn off some energy.”