“All right. I’ll take a look—maybe it’ll shake something loose.” June adjusted her Princess Leia Funko and turned on her laptop. Then, a little too casually, she added, “Ziggy texted me last night.”

Annika lowered her phone. “Really? What did he say?” She paused. “Wait. How did he even get your number?”

June’s cheeks turned bright pink. “I saw him in the parking garage on my way out. I might’ve given it to him.”

Annika raised an eyebrow that June didn’t see, since she was steadfastly clicking around on her laptop. “Right. So what did he say?”

June shrugged, her eyes still glued to the screen. “Just that he was looking forward to seeing me Thursday at the networking event. And then we talked some tech stuff. He’s Hudson’s developer, you know, so we have a lot in common as far as that goes.”

“June.”

“What?”

“June.” Annika waited until June finally met her eye. “He’s the enemy. Remember?”

“No, Break Up and Hudson are the enemies,” June said, leaning back in her chair. “And I do remember that. It’ll be good! I can keep an eye on Kingdom Break Up from the inside.”

Annika sighed. “I’m worried it might get a little awkward once you’ve broken it off, though. We work down the hall from the guy.”

“I won’t let it get awkward!” June shot back, affronted. “I’m a pro, Annika. When we’re done, Ziggy will think it was all his idea.”

Annika smiled and hopped off her desk. “Okay, then. In that case, I hope Ziggy turns out to be a fun distraction.”

June rolled her eyes. “Lord knows we could both use one of those.”

They laughed and got to work preparing for Colin McGuire.

“Wow. That was amazing.” June sat on the edge of Annika’s desk once Colin, a tall, reedy guy with a gap between his two front teeth, left. “It’s such a thrill to see decision trees forming in real time.” She patted her laptop. “Good old OLLI. He’s really comin’ along.”

Annika grinned. “Yeah, it’s pretty cool, right? I can’t wait till we’re done with this prototype phase. Maybe we can reach back out to UCLA for more beta te—”

Deep voices in the hallway made Annika look out her glass doors, only to see Hudson Craft outside, smirking at her as he spoke to someone. She gasped. “What’s he doing talking to Colin?”

June followed her gaze. “Uh oh. I don’t know, but you better get out there.”