Flora’s Guide to a Second Chance at Love and Life

"Who says we're definitely going to lose?" Brianna huffed, clearly annoyed. "And having her here doesn't mean we're going to win either!"

"Yeah, yeah, I get it." Ivan tried to calm her down. "But it took a lot of effort to get her on board. We even helped a small company just to bring her in. If she leaves now, wouldn't all that be for nothing?" "Yeah, Princess, we'd be totally at a loss!" The others chimed in quickly.

"All this talk, you just want to keep her around, don't you?" Brianna accused.

Ivan cleared his throat. "It's also for your own good."

Brianna still looked skeptical.

"What's done is done at your cousin's place. Getting mad now won't change anything. Think about it. If you keep Flora here, under your watchful eye, she's like a lamb ready for slaughter. Letting her go would be doing her a favor, wouldn't it?"

Brianna started to feel swayed but was still grumpy. "Do you think Flora's computer skills are better than mine?"

"She... she's just better at the hands-on stuff. She's not even a computer science major, so her theory can't be as strong as yours," Ivan said, feeling a bit guilty for bending the truth. "She can't possibly be better than you. Keeping her on the team and outshining her with your skills would be much sweeter, wouldn't it?"

her teeth. "You're right! Letting her go now would be too kind. I'll keep her here and make her life miserable! She thinks she's hot stuff for being the national top scorer? I'll show her what real talent

did the trick. Ivan exhaled in

of guys around him felt a collective weight lift off their

Princess. She might be high-strung and fiery, but she was easy to calm

talk to

exasperated. "Princess, we're really hungry. Can

"Yeah, I'm starving too."

and Flora were

on edge the whole time, almost tearing

let's head out. It's

nodded slightly and

they walked out of the classroom, they bumped

warmly, only to get a hard