Vivek Malhotra did not do "weak." As the COO, he was the guy who stayed up to ensure every engineer was okay, the guy who checked on everyone’s morale, the man whose energy was supposed to be a permanent sun over the NYC office.

But as he lay in his king-sized bed in his minimalist penthouse, the sun felt like it had been extinguished. Every muscle in his broad frame ached. The memory of the snow-flurry from the night before was hazy—all he could clearly remember was the heat of Ananya Rao’s body pressed against his side under the shelter of his coat. It had been worth the 103-degree fever, he decided, as he drifted in and out of a restless, medicine-fogged sleep.