Chapter 12

Nathan

Another long day at the office had crept into my plans, forcing me to try to be present when it came to handling business. I had been doing better with it since my talk with John during the last meeting and had stayed in the loop with everyone. John had avoided me the day before, and I was glad because I didn’t want to argue with him anymore. I wasn’t sure if he was having a bad day that day or what, but I wasn’t interested in his opinion anymore, even if he was just trying to be a good friend.

Amanda was on my mind as usual, only this time, it was a bit different. I was worried about her, having woken up to her still complaining about being sick. I had insisted that she stay the night with me when she started to feel ill, and I carried her up and put her to bed in my room. She tossed and turned all night, and when she woke in the morning, she wasn’t feeling any better than before. I made her some toast and brought it to her in bed, which seemed to help a little bit. I insisted that she go to the doctor, but she just wanted to go home and go to sleep. I understood not wanting to go to the doctor. I never went myself, even when I was dying from the flu. So, I got ready for work and took her home like she asked me to. I took her inside and set her up in her bed with ginger ale and movies to keep her busy. I felt terrible about leaving her there on her own, but I had an extremely important meeting that I had to get to. It was about the hacker, what they had found out, and what kind of charges they would be pressing against him. I had to be there to make a statement for the trial.

Speaking of the meeting, I had to get over there. I left my phone on the desk and headed over to the conference room, nodding my head at John and Jordan as I walked in. The agent from the FBI was sitting at the end of the table, shuffling through some papers. She looked up as I entered and stood, shaking my hand.

“Thank you for meeting with us,” I said. “As you can imagine, the hacker really shook us up.”

“I’m sure,” she said. “None of the damage to your system is out of your capabilities to fix. All of the sensitive information was hidden, and the hacker didn’t have anything saved on his computer. Nonetheless, these attacks are becoming more prevalent, and we are taking them very seriously. We will be prosecuting the perpetrator for internet crimes.”

“Good,” John said.

“Do you think he is a threat to other entities?” I asked.

“Well, he is pretty reckless, so we think he is in his infancy with hacking, but if he could hack your system with limited knowledge, we can only imagine what he could do with lessons,” she said. “For that reason, we are searching out the maximum sentence for this crime. He is facing sixteen years in prison and the inability to ever work on the internet again, without facing serious consequences. We want to nip this in the bud before it happens again.”

“Understood and appreciated,” I said, nodding my head. “I’ve given the list of damages to Jordan, my VP of IT, and his team is already working on fixing the issues. If nothing else, this kid gave us a good view of where our weaknesses are. I’m just glad he was caught. This could have been very bad for our customers and our clients.”

“We will be reaching out to you in the upcoming months for statements from everyone who was involved,” she said. “That will include all staff that came in to help get the system back on track. Those statements can be done in writing with a notarized signature at the bottom. We will give you all the details when we have our next meeting.”

“Absolutely,” I said, shaking her hand. “We will give you any cooperation that we can.”

The agent cleaned up her things and shook John and Jordan’s hands before leaving. I turned and looked at the guys, smiling since everything was finally getting resolved. Jordan got up and tapped his folders on the desk while John avoided eye contact.

“Jordan let me know when everything is corrected,” I said.

“Will do,” he replied.

I walked out of the room and down the hall to my office. I sat down at my desk and looked at my phone, wondering what Amanda was up to and how she felt. I didn’t want to bother her if she was sleeping, so I put the phone back on the desk and watched as John walked in, sitting at the chair in front of me.

“My secretary is at lunch,” I said with a smirk.

“I’m glad to see that your head is back in the game.” He chuckled. “Listen, I wanted to come in and tell you that I was sorry for how I acted the other day. It was out of line to talk to you like that about your own decisions. You are a grown man, perfectly capable of sniffing out foul play on your own. I should have been more supportive and voiced my concerns in a less offensive manner to you. So yeah, I apologize.”

“I appreciate that,” I said. “I know that you were just being a good friend. It is difficult when you are so happy about something and your closest friend is not, but at the same time, you have always looked out for me. Though I don’t share your sentiments about Amanda, I did think about what you said. I just want you to know that I heard you and I took it into consideration. In fact, it was the whole reason that I came to my final conclusion.”

“I’m glad that you can see that I am only trying to protect you,” he said. “I really want you to be happy, but not for just a short time, for a really long time. I want you to have someone that loves you as much as you love them.”

“And I do,” I said, smiling. “In fact, I’ve decided that I want to marry her.”

There was something satisfying about watching John’s mouth drop down to the floor. I knew that shock was going to be part of everyone’s reaction when I told them, but I was prepared for it. I understood that I hadn’t been with Amanda that long, and I knew that people were going to look down on us for that, but it was my life and my decisions. I didn’t need a babysitter or a big brother. I needed a supportive group of people that could accept Amanda the way that I had.

Just as I had expected, John was completely shocked. He sat there in his chair for several minutes, just staring down at the desk. I smirked to myself and picked up my phone, scanning through my pictures as I waited for him to come to terms with what I had just said. I wanted to marry Amanda, and though it was shocking to everyone else, it just made perfect sense to me. I loved her, I couldn’t be away from her, and I wanted to share my life with her. It was simple in my eyes, though I could tell it wasn’t so simple in John’s eyes. He looked almost panicked.

“I’m sorry, but what did you just say? You said you are going to marry this girl?”

“My connection to Amanda is incredibly powerful,” I said. “I don’t feel okay or at home until she is by my side. Every time we are away from each other, it feels like an eternity. I have never felt this way about anyone in my life. Marrying Amanda feels like the right thing for me to do. I want to grow old with her, to experience life with her, and maybe even start a family one day. When you know, you know, and what I know is that I love her and don’t want to be without her ever.”

“There is a difference between loving someone and getting to know them, and jumping into marriage, Nathan,” he said. “Have you really given this thought, or did you jump in feet first because I told you it wasn’t right?”

“I know this may be hard to believe, John, but not everything revolves around what you think,” I said, irritation brewing in my belly. “I know her enough to know that I want to spend my life with her. Sure, we could wait until we’ve been together the allotted, appropriate time, but I know for sure that we would still be getting married. I don’t want to wait.”

“You are making a mistake,” he said pointedly.

“Please, tell me why,” I said.

“Because you don’t know this woman,” he said loudly. “It is a huge mistake, and I don’t understand why you are making it.”

“I feel like the only mistake I have made thus far is confiding in you,” I said angrily. “Apparently, you weren’t sorry for how you acted at all. I am not a child under your care. Telling me you are sorry does not negate all the things you are continuing to do.”

“I was sorry for bringing it up the way I did, not for telling you the truth,” he said. “I have always told you the truth, and this was the first time I had to apologize to you. Maybe you should think about that. Maybe clear your head a little, and look at things objectively. I mean, how do you know that she isn’t some sort of gold digger? Did you check out her history or her past? Do you really know this girl like you think you do?”

“There you go, acting too big for your britches again, assuming any decision I made was going to be the wrong one,” I said. “I can promise you that Amanda is not a gold digger. She has never once given me pause about my money. My ex gave me red flags all over the place. I just refused to see them. Believe it or not, my eyes are open wider than they have ever been. She is not with me for my money. She was interested in me even before she knew who I was.”

“Nathan, think about it for one damn minute,” John pleaded. “You barely know this girl at all. You have spent a small amount of time with her. You don’t know what she is after at all. I think you are just as blind as with your ex, if not more. At least when you were dating her, you checked into it, ultimately finding that I was right. With this girl, you won’t even take two seconds to listen to an outside opinion.”

“Probably because outside opinion has no place inside of a relationship,” I said angrily. “Look, just go. I don’t want to talk to you about this anymore.”

“Fine,” he said, standing up and marching out of my office.

Who the hell did he think he was? He came into my office, talking about my personal life, and he hadn’t even given Amanda a chance. I was starting to think he liked to watch me struggle, having zero faith in the fact that I could make my own choices. I was fuming mad at that point, and I knew I couldn’t depend on John to be there for me anymore. I was going to have to make my own choices.