“Well, I found out something that’s not going to make you feel so relaxed,” June said, her nose wrinkled. “Ziggy said that Time is doing this big profile on Hudson and Break Up. ‘His meteoric rise in the tech sector,’ that kind of thing. They’re going to make it look like he’s the next Zuckerberg.”

Annika squeezed her tweezers. “Of course they are. And of course the investors at EPIC are going to see it and be all impressed. Shit.” After a pause, she added, “But you know what? Let’s talk about something else.” She’d spent enough time stewing about Hudson Craft and the almost-kiss and what it meant that she’d wanted to kiss him, her mind going around and around in useless circles, like a merry-go-round that wouldn’t stop. Her brain was such a muddled puddle that she hadn’t even mustered the energy to tell June what had happened. Annika glanced at her best friend. She would—soon. Just not right at this second. She didn’t need to stress about the Time interview this minute, either. There would be time for damage control later. Right now, she was mentally exhausted and needed a reprieve.

Glancing up at June for just a second, she said, “You and Ziggy went out again last night, right? How was it?”

June’s gaze dropped to her hands, which were obsessively playing with a couple of errant threads on the couch. Annika resisted the urge to stop her before the entire couch collapsed in a heap of thread and batting beneath her. “It was…” June sighed. “I don’t know.”

Annika looked up from her picture, the amber-colored sticker that was meant to go on the lion’s eyeball hanging precariously from the tweezer. “Uh oh. That doesn’t sound good.”

“Well, it started off fine. We went zip lining—oh my god, what a thrill. I’m serious, Annika, the next date you go on, make sure it’s something that gets your adrenaline going. Our cheeks were flushed, our hearts were racing … talk about an aphrodisiac.”

Annika half smiled. “Thanks for the tip. Not that I’ll need it anytime soon.” June frowned and opened her mouth to say something, but Annika waved her off. “Continue.”

“Okay, and then we went to dinner at La Rouge, and then … I suggested skinny-dipping.”

Annika laughed and chose another sticker. “That sounds about right.”

June shook her head and sat up, crossing her legs. “He didn’t want to go skinny-dipping.”

Annika’s eyes went so wide, her eyeballs felt like they were in danger of popping out. “Wait, what? He didn’t want to go skinny-dipping with you?”