Telling her she needed help attracting beta testers? Ha. Make Up might not have the level of success Break Up had acquired, but they were doing okay—they’d get there one day. And to imply that she would still go to the rooftop party, eager to guzzle his free drinks and enjoy his shallow entertainment? As if she was so desperate that she needed Hudson to set up this amazing networking opportunity for her. She had to cream him at EPIC. It was the only way she’d ever be at peace.

There was a sudden clot of people on the street in front of her, blocking her passage. Annika frowned, trying to dodge them before she realized it was a mariachi band, warming up to play.

She stood back and watched them for a few minutes as an idea began to take root in her mind. Grinning, Annika pushed through the crowd. Hudson wouldn’t know what hit him.

After lunch, she strode into the office to find June still hard at work.

“Hey,” Annika said breathlessly. June didn’t look up. She had the dogged look of someone with her sights on an enemy target, the keyboard her weapon, the unsatisfactory aggression algorithm the enemy. “Hellooo.” Annika waved her hand in front of her best friend’s face. When June finally looked up, she was dazed, as if she was surprised to find herself in an LA office instead of inside the actual code.

“Oh. Hey. What time is it?” She checked the clock and gasped. “Four o’clock? Where have you been all afternoon?”

Annika smiled at her, hoping it looked enthusiastic and not deranged. “I had the best idea. Don’t worry, I’ll fill you in on everything. But first, do we still have that banner from our booth at the SBA event back in January?”

“I think so.” June got up and was halfway to the storage closet when Annika noticed what she was wearing.

“You changed,” she said, trying not to sound accusatory. Never before in the history of June’s many varied hookups had she made an effort to look nice for her date. She was gorgeous enough that they wouldn’t have cared if she showed up wearing a giant paper bag, and she knew it.

June turned pink. Her hands smoothed down her one-shoulder black dress, which had a very conveniently placed cutout on her chest. “Kind of.”

“And you’re wearing your La Perla push-up!” Annika said, coming closer. “I’d recognize that level of cleavage anywhere.”

“So what if I am? I’ll wow our new business contacts with my brains and my boobs. There’s nothing wrong with that.”

“No, there’s nothing wrong with that,” Annika agreed, tapping her foot on the carpeted floor. “Except I have a feeling you have more contact than just business contact in mind. Especially with a particular redhead?”