Chapter 6

Nathan

It was always a good feeling when the clock hit quitting time on a Friday. I had a full weekend planned, and though I would have to be CEO the next day for the party, for that night, I could just be me and relax. I straightened up my office and grabbed my briefcase, switching off the lights as I left. I walked down through the halls and took the elevator to the bottom floor. The car was waiting for me on the street, so I hopped in and sat there, thinking about what I had planned.

“Are we going home, Mr. Roberts?” the driver asked.

I knew that I had plans with Amanda the following night. I was taking her to the party for work, but it just felt like too long to wait to see her. I had never just dropped in on someone before, and I wasn’t sure if it was a good idea. Then, as if the universe was trying to tell me something, a bus stopped next to us. The billboard on the side featured Jordan’s fiancée, which I recognized from a photo in his office.

“You know what? Would you take me to Amanda’s house? I want to surprise her. And if you’d stop at the liquor store on the way, I’d appreciate it.”

“Yes, sir,” he said with a smile.

When I got there, I was happy to see that her lights were still on, and her car was the only one in the driveway. The last thing I wanted was to show up when she had company. I was pretty sure we were officially dating, but we hadn’t discussed the details of what that meant, which I was fine with. I got out of the car and told the driver I would be awhile and would call him when I was ready to go.

“I’ll be just down the block, grabbing a bite and some coffee,” he said, nodding his head.

When I got up to the door, nerves started to run through me. I reached up and pressed the doorbell, standing there awkwardly as I listened to her quietly approach. When she opened the door, she was smiling ear to ear.

“What are you doing here?!”

“I couldn’t wait to see you, so I thought I would surprise you,” I said. “I hope that’s okay.”

“Of course, please come in,” she said, stepping to the side.

“I brought a bottle of champagne,” I said, lifting it up. “I thought maybe we could have a couple drinks and just relax.”

“I love that idea,” she said, showing me into the living room.

After coming back with glasses, we sat down and started talking. She was really excited about the party the next night and told me she had bought a knockout dress. I was pretty sure she would look amazing in a trash bag, but I was excited to see her in it.

“I called my dad, and he was really happy for me,” she said. “You know, for finding someone that I felt comfortable talking to.”

“You’re close with your dad, right?”

“Yeah, growing up after my mom died, he was all I had,” she said. “We kept each other afloat, and he always made sure that I was able to be a kid.”

“My parents were always supportive, though I think my father is still a little bitter that I didn’t take over his mechanic business.” I chuckled. “It was never my thing. I tried, but I just couldn’t get into it.”

“You can’t force those things, you know? So, have you been in many serious relationships?”

“Well, actually, I was in one,” I said, feeling comfortable enough to tell her about it. “We met right before I started the company, and after a couple of years, I popped the question.”

Her eyes widened. “What happened?”

“I found texts to another man on her phone,” I said. “She was cheating on me and using me for my money. After that, I pretty much just shut women out. Until I met you, that is.”

“I understand how that feels,” she said. “I was in a relationship for years. He cheated on me five times that I know of, all with different women, including my best friend’s little sister. After that, I pretty much shut men out. Until you, of course.”

“Oh, man that’s terrible,” I said. “Lindsey’s little sister?”

“Yep,” she said, taking a drink of her champagne.

“Is she going to be at the wedding?”

“Yep,” she repeated, her eyes getting big. “But it’s Lindsey’s big day, and I won’t ruin that.”

“That is going to be awkward,” he said.

“Nah, I won’t let it be awkward,” she replied. “I have to be the bigger person, and in the end, she showed me that I shouldn’t be with him anyway, so I guess I owe her.”

“That’s definitely one way to look at it.” I laughed. “You’re the most interesting girl I know. Can I tell you something?”

“Shoot,” she said, smiling.

“I can’t get you off my mind,” I said pointedly. “No matter what I do, all day long, you are floating around in there.”

“That’s really nice to hear,” she said. “Especially since I feel the same exact way. I keep seeing all these signs, and who knows? Maybe I’m looking for them, but it’s almost like the universe is sending me in your direction at every turn. Now, I’m not a mystical person or anything, barely spiritual, but it has been hard to ignore.”

“No, I know exactly what you mean,” I said, scooting closer. “It happened tonight when I was trying to decide whether to just pop in or not. Then poof. A billboard of Lindsey appeared next to me out of the blue, on the side of a bus. I knew I had to come here.”

I reached up and brushed a piece of hair out of her face, watching her close her eyes as my skin touched hers. I pulled up my other hand and cupped her neck, pulling her in and kissing her passionately. She whimpered as I slid my tongue across her lips and tasted the sweet champagne on her tongue. I slid my hand down her side and around to the small of her back, feeling the heat rising in my chest. Just as I moved my lips to her neck, my phone went off, breaking the spell for a moment. I sighed and fumbled to find the thing in my pocket. Without looking at the screen, I hit the ignore button and set it on the table. I dove back in, pulling Amanda close to me, feeling the heaving of her chest against mine.

The smell of her perfume and the bubbles from the champagne had me completely twisted in knots. I wanted so badly to take her right there on the couch, to feel her supple body in my hands writhing beneath me as I pushed her closer to orgasm. However, before I even had the chance to get her undressed, my phone rang again. I groaned, angrily grabbing the phone from the table. She smiled and nodded her head, telling me to answer it. I pulled it to my ear and answered gruffly.

“Yes, what can I do for you?”

“Nathan,” John said in a slightly panicked voice.

I turned and sat up straight, not used to hearing that tone from him. “John, what’s wrong?”

“We have a problem,” he said. “There’s been a security breach. I came right over to make sure it wasn’t a false alarm before bothering you on a Friday night, but it looks like it’s the real thing. I know you’re probably in the middle of something, but you should get over here immediately. We need to get the system under control and fast.”

“Right,” I said, glancing over at Amanda. “I’m on my way. I just have to call the car.”

I hung up the phone and texted my driver, letting him know it was an emergency. I put the phone down and kissed Amanda sweetly on the lips, pulling back and sighing. She smiled sweetly and tilted her head.

“Is everything okay?”

“There has been some sort of security breach at the company,” I said. “I have to get over there and make sure it’s stopped. These things are pretty serious when it comes to the company and our projects.”

“I’m sure,” she said, looking up at the sound of my driver honking.

“I’ll see you tomorrow night, okay?”

I leaned in and gave her a long, deep kiss before standing up and heading for the door. I turned back for just a minute and smiled at her before walking out and shutting the door behind me. Once I was outside, I sprinted for the car and jumped inside, instructing the driver to step on it. This was a serious thing, something that could completely take us off the market for an entire quarter. We had serious steps in place to avoid these types of things, so whoever hacked in was either lucky or really experienced. When I got there, John, Jordan, and half the IT department were standing around different computers, looking at the system.

“Hey, we think we have him stalled,” John said as I pulled a chair up to the main computer and began looking through the system.

We worked for several hours, finally picking up the hacker’s signal and running a trace. Turned out, it was some kid in Idaho playing around with hacking like it was a game. He got lucky and got into the mainframe, but once he was there, he had no idea what he was doing. He was doing little bullshit things like changing some names and highlighting certain things in accounting. He obviously had no idea what he was looking at, or what to do once he was inside. I handed the computer over to Jordan and his team to start cleaning up and went into my office to call the proper authorities. We worked closely with the FBI’s hacker unit, so I gave my contact a call and let them know what happened. Luckily, there was no customer or employee information available on the level the hacker broke into. He was just surfing the regular system like most of our employees could do in the mail room.

“That was close,” John said, shaking his head as he leaned back in the chair. “We need to find the weak spot that he got in through and make sure that never happens again. If he had known what he was doing, he could have crippled us.”

“I know,” I said. “I’m gonna head out. I’ll see you tomorrow at the party.”

“Right on, buddy,” he said.

By the time I got home, it was really early in the morning, and I was dragging ass. Luckily, I didn’t need to be at the party until that evening. I got ready for bed and pulled my phone out to hook it up to the charger. It was the first time I looked at it since I left Amanda’s house. I noticed a missed text, so I pulled it open and smiled. Amanda had sent me a message shortly after I left her house.

“I miss you so much and I can’t wait to see you tomorrow. Thanks for listening to me ramble,” it read.

I sat down on the bed and reread the message probably ten times. I shut the phone off and hooked it up, feeling those same butterflies dancing around in my chest. As I turned the light off and settled into bed, I realized something. Those butterflies weren’t just excitement. They were much more than that. They were all too familiar, and although I hadn’t felt that way in a long time, I knew what it was. I was falling in love with Amanda, and I didn’t want the feeling to end.