“All right, fine,” Annika said, turning back to the sticker book. “I’ll do it. You can tell Ziggy to tell Alesandro I’m in.” A couple of thoughts flashed through her mind: Would Ziggy tell Hudson? Would Hudson get jealous? She shook her head, annoyed at herself. Why would Ziggy bother telling Hudson? Besides, she couldn’t afford to think like that. She and Hudson were never going to work. Did she find Alesandro as attractive as Hudson? Not really. But that was neither here nor there. Everyone knew physical attraction should be a very small part of the equation. And the emotional attraction would probably come very soon. Like June said, she and Alesandro had way more in common than she and Hudson did.

June squealed and began typing furiously on her phone. “Okay, it’s done. I’ll let you know which days work for him and we can go from there.”

“Great.” Annika placed a white sticker on the lion’s mane, feeling nothing but a deep sense of foreboding. Here she was, putting herself out there again. Her string of first dates in the last year alone already told her it wouldn’t amount to anything, but at least June was happy.

June’s phone bleeped with a text and she giggled before responding. Annika sighed.

chapter eight

On Monday morning, June was already at her desk typing away industriously when Annika walked in at eight. “Oh, hey,” she said, setting her latte down on her desk and stashing her yoga gear in the closet. Thankfully, after that one time they’d run into each other at Breathing Tree, Hudson had stopped going to her classes. Something that required as much internal strength and awareness as yoga was probably a bad match for him. “You’re in early.”

June met her with a beaming smile. “Yes, I am. And I’ve had a breakthrough with the aggression algorithm. I’m just finalizing the last bit of code.”

“Awesome!” Annika booted her laptop up and took a sip of her coffee as she waited, glancing around at the office in satisfaction. Her enclave. The place she felt right. The windows threw sunlit squares on the wall, highlighting the painting above the settee. “When you’re done, I’d love to take a look at it.”

“Sure.” June turned back to her computer for a second before looking back up again. “Oh, by the way. How are you feeling about that tech volunteering thing this afternoon?”

Annika shrugged. “Pretty good. Early to Tech, Early to Rise is one of Lionel Wakefield’s favorite charities. It should be fairly low-key, and I’m hoping it’ll be an easy way to get into his good graces before EPIC. Plus, they do really good work, so it was a no-brainer to volunteer Make Up’s services.”