chapter nine

After Tom and Gavin finished their presentations, Annika and June spent a few minutes speaking to small groups of the high schoolers, including the two girls who’d asked questions. Finally, Rita Davenport went onstage to thank all the entrepreneurs, marking the event over. The high schoolers said their goodbyes and began to pack up.

Rita walked up to the entrepreneurs, beaming. “Thank you all for doing such a splendid job!”

The four entrepreneurs expressed their own niceties, and shortly after, Tom and Gavin made their excuses and left. Rita stepped closer to Hudson and Annika. Her warm brown eyes sparkled. “I have to say, you two were definitely the biggest hit with the students. To see two incredibly successful—” Ha! Annika flashed Hudson a smug smile, but he remained impassive. “—young entrepreneurs doing what they love and speaking to them so candidly about it … you really have a knack for this. You should consider volunteering with us more often.”

“I would love to,” Annika said, and meant it. “This is really a great organization.”

“Agreed.” Hudson looked around at the kids, some of whom were still getting their bags together and walking out. “You’re planting seeds that’ll grow into mighty oaks soon enough.”

Rita looked impressed with his metaphor. Ugh, he was such an ass-kisser. “Well, I’ll be sure to let Lionel know just how fantastic a job you both did. And good luck at EPIC.”

“Thank you,” they said, and then, under his breath so Rita wouldn’t hear, Hudson added, “She’s going to need it.”

After they’d said their goodbyes, Annika and June walked to Zero Gravity, a trendy chrome-and-leather bar down the road from the library that was running a happy hour special on all their margaritas. Ziggy had wanted to take June out, naturally, but she’d told him she and Annika needed to debrief, for which Annika was thankful.

They grabbed a corner table in the dimly lit, mostly empty interior. Annika sighed. “That went well, don’t you think?”

“Definitely.” June smiled just as a waitress with a nose piercing came over to get their drinks order. Once they’d ordered their drinks—a cosmo for June and a mango margarita for Annika—June continued, “The kids were obviously into Make Up and what you do there. And I got a bunch of questions about being a developer at the end, so that was cool, too.”