“But not at your expense,” he said. “You could have lost your job.” Daniel’s heart dropped. “Wait, did you lose your job? Did they fire you over this?”

“No.” She shook her head. “Barrington understood as well. He revoked my access to the secured databases, but in the most ironic twist in all of this, that turned out to be a godsend. I’ve gotten more work done on my app this week than I ever would have if I was still being pulled in eight hundred directions at work. I even took the day off to finish up the data integration testing.” She shoved her hands in her back pockets and hunched her shoulders in a shrug that seemed much too casual for such a momentous conversation. “It’s taken me a few days to arrive here, but after looking at the situation from your perspective, I’ve come to the conclusion that you truly had no other choice. You did what you had to do. I’m not going to hold that against you.”

“Samiah…” There was no way it would be this easy. She could not be this amazing? There had to be a catch.

“You know,” she continued, the corner of her mouth tilting up in a brief smile. “Even if it had cost me my job, I think I would have eventually gotten over it. I don’t mind being collateral damage if it means some really bad people get caught.”

“But it wasn’t my place to put you in the position of sacrificing a job that means so much to you.”

She shook her head again. “My job at Trendsetters doesn’t make me. I can always find a new one.” She shrugged again. “Or, I can work full-time on Just Friends. I’ve put myself in a position where I’m not dependent on any single job.”

She crossed her arms over her chest and tilted her head to the side.

“You have cleared up the one question that bothered me the most this week, so thanks for that.”

“What question?”

“I was unsure if you’d started out with the plan to steal my access card from the very beginning,” she said.

“No.” Daniel shook his head so emphatically he nearly hurt his neck. “Please believe me when I say I didn’t set out to use you or to hurt you.”

Her lips eased into a relaxed smile. “Then that’s all that matters.”

He was too afraid to hope, but he had to ask. “Samiah, what are you saying?”

“I’m saying that if you had given me just a little more time, I would have eventually called to tell you everything I just said. And you could have saved whatever ridiculous amount of money you spent on airfare.”

Relief crashed into him. God, he didn’t deserve this. He didn’t deserve her at all.

“It was worth every penny just to see you,” Daniel said.