Seeing her paralysis, June stepped forward with a toothy grin, holding a manicured hand out. “Hi there,” she said, her southern accent stronger than ever. Anytime June disliked someone, her accent came out even more pronounced, as though it was a shield. “How nice to meet you. I’m June Stewart. Chief Technology Officer, Make Up.”

“Hudson,” he said, his own brilliant smile never fading. Self-satisfied, complacent, little … “CEO, Break Up.” His eyes danced with laughter. “And this is the partial owner of Break Up—”

“—Percy,” the redhead, who hadn’t stopped staring at June since they arrived, jumped in. He held his hand out, too, and June took it. “But they call me Ziggy.”

“Oh.” Letting go of his hand, June cocked her head and smiled pityingly at him. “You can’t get them to stop?”

Ziggy let out a strange laugh, like a goose having an asthma attack. “I—I guess not.” He continued to stare at June, as if he couldn’t bear to look away.

Annika rolled her eyes and turned to Hudson. “Why are you here?” She hoped it sounded just as rude out loud as it did in her head.

His face was tinged with annoyance and something buried deeper that she couldn’t get to, but then he was looking past her at the whiteboard on the wall, his expression back to confident and smirky. “The EPIC pitch contest, huh? You’re pitching them in June?”

Annika crossed her arms. “Yeah, so?”

“No, nothing.” Hudson brushed back his hair and shrugged insouciantly, as if he were talking about the weather. “We’ll be there, too.”

It took Annika a beat to catch on. “You … you mean Break Up’s going to be pitching the investors?”

Ziggy adjusted the collar of his crisp button-down. “Yeah, the rumor is Lionel Wakefield’s really looking for a dating app to invest in right now.”

“But you don’t need any more money!” Annika found herself bursting out. “And you’re not a dating app—you’re a heartbreaking app!”

A corner of Hudson’s mouth lifted in a self-satisfied half smile. “I know we look successful—and we are—but every start-up needs a steady infusion of capital to keep it going. Break Up’s no different.”

Ugh. Typical. Mercenary, greedy, smug ass. She exchanged a glance with June, who looked just as miffed as she did. This was their chance to turn things around, dammit. Break Up wasn’t supposed to be part of the picture. She didn’t want to have to worry about Hudson fucking Craft at EPIC, too.

He looked at her with a slightly pitying look on his face. “I’m not going to take it easy on you. Just FYI.” Raising his chin to June’s notes on the whiteboard about wrenching the investors’ hearts and punching their guts, he added, “You might want a more cerebral approach than just torturing the investors until they give you money.”