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He pulled away and caressed my cheek. “I still do not believe so. I could not blame you, any more than I could blame the flowers for blooming. But just in case? We should work extremely hard to make Advanced Crypto Solutions the best company it can be.”
The two of us grinned at each other, and then we kissed, onlookers be damned.
67
Amber
All of us—me, Melinda, Jude, Owen, and Furio—went out toMarcello’sthat evening to celebrate. Owen offered to kick all the other customers off the rooftop deck, but I shot him an angry look at the suggestion.
“Okay, we can share the area with everyone else,” he said.
I nodded with satisfaction.
We settled into two couches next to a firepit, overlooking the sun as it set between two towering skyscrapers. Owen ordered two bottles of champagne, and filled everyone’s glasses.
“A toast,” he said, raising his glass. “To turning downbillionsof dollars.”
“Woo!” I said, taking a deep sip.
“It is possible,” Furio said, “that we are the only people on the planet to ever celebrate such a thing.”
“The way I look at it,” Jude said, “we’re celebrating the future of ACS. A future we will all be part of.”
“The fact that Google wanted to buy us in the first place is a good sign,” Melinda agreed. “They know we have potential.”
“We’ll leak the buy offer,” Owen said. “When word spreads that we turned it down, people willreallybegin to look at us as a rising star.”
“Or they’ll marvel at our stupidity,” Jude said.
“Also that, yeah.”
Jude smiled at me from the other couch. “I would like to make a toast to Amber Moltisanti. The woman who convinced us to turn down the offer, and to finish our work at ACS.”
“I’ll toast to that any day,” Furio said, putting an arm around my shoulder.
It felt totally natural, until I realized Melinda was there. I cut my eyes over to her, but she was already laughing it off.
“Relax. I already knew.”
“How?” Owen demanded. “How do you seem to notice everything?”
“I have a radar for these kinds of things,” she said. “It’s kind of my superpower. I predicted Nancy and Dave two weeks before she asked him out on a date.”
“Do you… have opinions about it?” Jude asked awkwardly.
“What, that Amber is juggling all three of you?” She laughed. “Not really. It’s kind of weird, but it works for you. For all of you.” She turned to Furio. “For them, at least. I don’t know you well enough to say.”
“I can assure you it works quite well for me,” Furio replied, planting a kiss on my cheek.
“Giving you any ideas?” Owen asked Melinda. “You hoping to form your own harem of nerdy coders at ACS?”
She laughed and sipped her champagne. “My boyfriend is plenty for me.”
“Her boyfriend doesn’t exist,” Owen said to Furio. “None of us have ever met him.”
“He does too!” Melinda said. “He said he might join us tonight.”
Owen leaned back in his chair. “I’ll believe it when I see it. In other words: never.”
