Now Makayla was jumping and squealing and throwing her arms around Naina. They held each other and jumped up and down.

Are you going to kiss her too? Of course Naina caught the question in his eyes. But she looked so happy he couldn’t not get lost in it again. The imprint of her lips still danced like sparks on his.

“How did that happen?” Makayla asked, pulling away and high-fiving Vansh.

Naina filled them in as Hari settled into a chair in a corner, smiling. Makayla stuck her head out of the conference room and called Sadiya and Mariel in, and the jubilation started afresh and continued for a while.

Naina, who had been avoiding Vansh’s eyes, finally looked at him as the others chattered on about the files they had to pull from various offices and submit again through Naman’s office.

She beamed at him, finally losing her battle to stop herself from doing it.

He smiled back. “I believe I just proved that I’m not entirely useless to have around,” he said, voice soft enough to not reach the others.

Something flared in her eyes, something fiery and consuming that made him forget there was anyone else in the room. “No one ever said you didn’t have your uses.”

He’d have bet anything that wasn’t how she’d meant for it to come out, but he couldn’t stop his smile from spreading wide.

Her eyes narrowed in response, face flaming. She threw a quick look at the others, still entirely absorbed in their victory. “Stop it. When are you ever going to let that go?”

Never.

“When is he going to let what go?” Mariel asked.

“Yes, Naina, let what go?” Vansh asked, making sure the most innocent of dimples dipped into his cheeks.

There was a way she had of pressing her lips together when she didn’t want to smile but couldn’t help it, and it made her eyes blaze to life.

“Nothing,” she said, heat turning her dark brown eyes even darker. “I just want us to remember that our work’s not done yet. We need to find a way to monetize the app so no rugs are pulled out from under our feet. Hari, let’s see where we are on those designs. Makayla, let’s look at the comps on what else is out there for our patent application.”

With that, they were back in head-down work mode.

IT HAD TAKEN a week to get Hari back into the app after Jiggy had terrified him. Things were looking on track to present to the board. Naina had made it clear that Hari was not going to be part of the presentation.