By the time we walked into the office the next morning, Brittany had balloons.
"Congratulations!" she chirped, tying one to my laptop like this was a baby shower. "You two are officially the hottest couple on the internet."
I blinked. "Did you get these for our app launch or..."
"Oh, no. Just for you two. The launch is fine, but your kissing video on the balcony has 4.3 million views."
Leo coughed. "There's a video?"
Brittany opened her browser. There we were, blurry and backlit, sharing that post-launch, pre-spaghetti kiss. It was oddly cinematic. If you ignored the fact that my hair looked like I lost a fight with a hedgehog.
The caption read: Real love or PR genius? Either way, I'm rooting for them.
"Great," I muttered. "Now we're a ship name."
"You are. It's 'Cleona.' Or 'Leoey.' Jury's out."
I gave up and collapsed into my chair. Leo just smiled like the chaos was part of the fun.
**
The next few days blurred together. Interviews. New meetings. A flood of user feedback, some of it helpful, some of it... less so.
("What if your app had a filter that only matched people with golden retriever energy?" Sure, Brenda. I'll get right on that.)
Meanwhile, Leo and I tried to navigate being business partners and dating. It was like trying to play Jenga in a hurricane. Cute, clumsy, and constantly one block away from disaster.
**
Tuesday night, we had our first official date.
"I made a reservation at that ramen place you love," Leo said.
"The one with the kimchi gyoza?"
"And the spicy miso."
My stomach cheered.
It should've been simple. But then my ex-roommate texted that my cat, Houdini, had somehow gotten himself stuck inside the dryer. Again.
"Can we swing by my old place real quick?" I asked as Leo pulled up to the restaurant.
He grinned. "Romantic detour to rescue a feline daredevil? Sign me up."
So instead of candles and noodles, we spent the next hour coaxing Houdini out of a lint trap with tuna.
By the time we made it back to the restaurant, the kitchen was closed.
"I'm sorry," the hostess said. "We stopped seating twenty minutes ago."
Leo looked at me. I looked at him. We both looked at Houdini, now purring smugly in his carrier like a cat-shaped chaos gremlin.
And then we burst out laughing.
We ended up at a 24-hour diner, splitting greasy fries and a milkshake under flickering fluorescent lights.
"Not exactly the night I planned," he said.
I leaned my head on his shoulder. "Honestly? It's perfect."
**
But good things can't stay simple.
Not when your old investor emails you with a subject line that says: "Emergency. Call me now."
It was late. Leo was asleep on the couch, hoodie half-zipped, one arm hanging off like he'd melted there.
I stepped out onto the tiny balcony and dialed.
"This better be worth skipping sleep for," I whispered.
"You need to come in," Harrison said. "Tomorrow morning."
"Why?"
"Because your app's patent? The one you filed six months ago? It's being contested."
I froze. "By who?"
"A shell company. But I tracked it. The address traces back to Jason."
Of course it did.
**
The next morning was a war room. Brittany had charts. Leo was pacing. I was clutching a donut like it held the answer to all of life's problems.
"He wants to drag it out in court," Harrison explained. "Hope you can't afford the time or fees. If he wins the claim, he gets a chunk of your launch profits."
"We can't let him," I said. "We've worked too hard."
"Then we fight."
"With what? He's a cockroach with a lawyer."
Leo glanced at me. "We do what we do best. We go public. Again."
**
That afternoon, we held our own press Q&A. A kind of unofficial Town Hall.
Leo stood beside me, mic in hand, in front of our modest little office building with its terrible street parking and weird smell of old coffee.
"We created this app to help people connect with authenticity and fun," he said. "But lately, we've been tested. By drama. By doubt. By an ex-boyfriend with too much time and not enough ethics."
That got a few laughs.
"But we're here. Not just because we love this project. But because—"
He turned to me.
"—because I fell in love with my co-founder. And if that's not worth fighting for, I don't know what is."
I blinked.
Then kissed him.
Right there. In front of everyone. No faking. No script. No doubts.
And the crowd? They cheered.
**
Back inside, Brittany whooped and threw a confetti popper.
"I TOLD YOU people love a power couple."
Harrison just smiled and slid over the newest investor offer. "They want to triple their seed round."
I looked at Leo. At our tiny, scrappy, ridiculous team.
And realized something.
We'd started this thing with a fake relationship, a half-baked plan, and matching coffee mugs.
Now?
Now we had each other.
And a future that looked like one hell of a rom-com sequel.