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He exhaled, giving her a somewhat pointed look. “Well, you don’t really let any of the other developers have control over the bigger projects.” His eyes bounced away for a moment. “You can’t blame them for not wanting to stick around too long.”

Her jaw clenched as she shook her head. “You want me to give them control over bigger projects when they can just leave at any moment? This just proves that point even more.”

“So what,” he groaned, “you’d rather keep working yourself to death instead of trusting them to help you?”

Sam crossed her arms over her chest. “That’s better than risking them bailing and leaving us to pick up the pieces.”

He let out a deep sigh. They’d had that conversation many times before. And it always ended the same.

Every time someone on the team left, it stung. But it would’ve stung much worse if they were even more involved—if she let them in on the more important things.

“Remember when we were small and didn’t have any of these issues to deal with?” she muttered.

He snorted a laugh. “What I remember is working out of a glorified closet and how you could barely afford to pay either of us anything.”

“I definitely prefer things the way they are now,” he added. “Even with the stress.”

Sam took a deep breath, stretching her sore neck. “Yeah.”

She took a step down the hall as he called after her.

“Your friend is back there, waiting for you.”

Sam paused, turning to look at him. “What? Who?”

He shrugged. “She said you knew she was coming.”

Sam cocked her head, thinking back to her conversation with Liz the day before. She’d been distracted, but she was almost positive she would’ve remembered if they’d agreed to meet at her office instead that day.

Sam loosed a breath, trudging down the hall.

If it was Liz, then at least she’d be able to get through the work without running into Jess again.

She stopped outside the conference room, peering through the glass paned wall.

Empty.

Sam half turned, ready to go back to her office, but then stopped as a familiar laugh floated in from further down the hallway.

She continued walking until the area opened up into the large workspace they’d set up for when remote developers in the area wanted to come in.

Two developers sat at adjacent desks, smiling up at a woman sitting atop one of the desks in front of them.

She said something that Sam couldn’t quite make out, and they both burst into laughter.

“Oh, if you think that’s funny,” the woman started, and Sam stopped, immediately recognizing the voice.

“No way,” Sam said, a wide smile expanding on her face.

The woman instantly turned around, her face already holding its familiar teasing grin, as if she’d been waiting a while to catch Sam’s reaction. Her dark skin glowed beneath the harsh fluorescent lights, her expression radiating the kind of warmth that instantly drew people in.

“Ah!” she squealed before hopping off the desk and striding forward with her usual confident bounce. Her long box braids, tied up in a high, perfectly styled bun, swayed as she moved, a few loose pieces framing her face in playful contrast.

Sam dropped her backpack, knowing exactly what Tiana was about to do.

And a second later, she jumped up onto her, wrapping her legs around her waist and her arms around her shoulders in a tight embrace.

“What are you doing here?” Sam asked with a laugh.