As the annual meeting concluded, most companies and their employees were just awaiting the arrival of the Christmas and New Year holidays.
With the winter break approaching, the work velocity within the company was relatively relaxed, so employees were enjoying this easy operational state while also anxiously counting down the days.
Nick had finally finished most of his pre-holiday executive backlog, but as the person in charge of the entire enterprise, he had to wait until all personnel had officially cleared out for vacation before he could log off.
However, compared to the rest of the workforce, he seemed much more relaxed and casual. After driving down to the campus every morning to handle a few high-level approvals, the rest of his schedule became wide open, and he seized the opportunity to enjoy this leisurely pre-holiday pace of life.
Since moving down to Tampa, Nick had started learning how to cook for himself. Previously, back at their cheap public rental housing, ordering delivery was incredibly convenient, since there was a massive street-food strip directly downstairs. Since he wasn't good at handling a kitchen anyway, he had simply cycled between the company cafeteria, local diners, or running DoorDash.
But after relocating to his new luxury tower, although the surrounding waterfront environment was beautiful, it wasn't exactly a commercial hotspot, and there were no casual diners nearby. Even getting UberEats delivered was a massive logistical hassle because of the tower's strict biometric access control, making it incredibly difficult for delivery drivers to clear security.
Consequently, Nick began shopping at the local Whole Foods and teaching himself how to cook. Initially, he just survived on pre-cooked meals or frozen food, but gradually, he learned how to whip up simple, solid home-cooked dishes by following basic recipes and YouTube food bloggers.
The weather was perfect over the weekend. Nick woke up naturally without an alarm, washed up, and realized the clock had already cleared eleven. Feeling his stomach rumble, he decisively abandoned the idea of firing up the stove, threw on some casual clothes, and headed out to grab a bite to eat.
The second his security detail flagged that Nick had exited the perimeter, Ryan rushed over to intercept him. Although Nick had told him explicitly several times that he didn't need a detail running behind him on weekends, Ryan silently upheld his operational duty.
Finding a quiet, local pizza joint, Nick ordered a personal pie with green peppers and pickled jalapeños, and started mindlessly scrolling through his phone to kill time.
"Where are you right now?" A text notification suddenly popped up on his screen.
Nick let a slight smile trace his lips when he saw the sender ID, then quickly typed out a few words and fired them back: "Grab loads of lunch."
"Alone?"
"Yep."
"Drop your location pinning."
"What for?"
"Just send it."
Nick gave a helpless laugh and casually dropped his real-time GPS coordinates through the app.
"Wait there." The other party replied with two words and then went completely dark.
Nick shook his head with amusement, then pulled the fresh pizza with green peppers and jalapeños toward him as the waiter dropped it off, beginning to eat heartily. In the dead of winter, being able to smash a hot slice of pizza when you were starving was incredibly satisfying.
He was barely halfway through his food when he spotted a black Jeep Wrangler pull up aggressively to the curb outside. A short-haired girl wearing dark sunglasses, a military-green bomber jacket over a fitted black T-shirt, slim-fit blue jeans, and a pair of black high-top combat boots quickly stepped out of the vehicle and strode into the joint.
The second she clocked Nick eating his lunch, she slid straight into the booth across from him, tossed her key fob onto the wooden table, and called out across the counter, "Hey, boss, grab me a glass of iced water with lemon, please."
"Hey. Want to actually order some food too?" Nick asked with a smile, looking at the bold, completely uninhibited girl sitting in front of him.
Vivian waved her hand dismissively and said, "I already grabbed a bite earlier, I'm good."
Glancing around the casual pizza joint, Vivian focused her eyes back on him as he ate. "You seriously eat at places like this on weekends? Doesn't anyone manage your kitchen at home?"
"I'm just a single bachelor, who exactly is supposed to be cooking gourmet meals for me?" Nick laughed.
Hearing this, Vivian retorted with a flash of irritation, "Can't you just hire a private estate chef or a housekeeper? Are your venture funds seriously running that tight on liquidity?"
Nick shook his head, "I'm just used to living alone without people in my space."
"Ugh!" Vivian rolled her eyes, then picked up her iced water, swirled the lemon around, and took a careful sip. Only then did she flash a bright smile at him and ask, "So, what's the tactical roadmap for the rest of the afternoon?"
Nick thought about it for a second, then shook his head, "Zero plans. I'll probably hit the grocery store in a bit, and then head back to my place to decompress."
"Incredibly boring. Are you always this much of a total homebody?" Vivian couldn't help but press him.
Nick shook his head and defended himself, "I go out for drinks or catch movies with the guys all the time. That doesn't exactly classify me as a total recluse, does it?"
"How about we head out and actually find some real entertainment? I know a few highly exclusive spots around town," Vivian suggested, her eyes lighting up.
Hearing the pitch, Nick glanced briefly over at Ryan, who was holding down a defensive watch at a nearby table, then shook his head. "Pass. I'm just going to head back home and rest my brain."
"Ugh, why do you have to be so stubborn?" But the second she tracked his line of sight, Vivian's expression shifted instantly into a knowing smirk. "Wait, are you worried that having your security detail trail behind us is going to be a vibe killer? It's fine, just give him the afternoon off."
Nick shook his head firmly, "On weekends when I'm just hanging out at my apartment, I usually let him clock out and rest too. If I choose to run around the city, he has to go through the administrative hassle of tracking my vehicle, so I generally just stay low-profile on my days off."
"You actually structure your schedule so your bodyguard can rest?"
Vivian cast a long glance over at Ryan, an explicit look of genuine appreciation taking over her features. "I didn't project you to be this considerate of your support staff. I honestly don't get you high-net-worth tech guys sometimes—most founders have an army of suits trailing them everywhere like they're terrified someone's going to slide into their blind spot."
Nick just smiled but kept his mouth shut, continuing to finish off his lunch. Seeing his passive posture, Vivian felt a bit annoyed, then finally waved a white flag. "Fine, fine, I concede. If you don't want to hit the town, we won't. But I assume you wouldn't mind if I came back to check out your new place, right?"
As she dropped the question, Vivian stared intently across the table, locking onto his eyes. Nick looked back at her and smiled, "As long as you don't find sitting around a quiet apartment completely tedious, you're welcome to trail along."
"Excellent." Vivian flashed a highly triumphant, victorious smile.
Looking at her expression, Nick couldn't help but let a genuine smile break across his own face.
Through the comprehensive background intelligence report Ryan had compiled for his private servers, he possessed a solid, high-level understanding of the girl sitting across from him. When she was young, because her father and his partners were completely consumed with scaling their initial tech holdings, she had been sent back to their Midwest hometown to live with her grandparents—an environment that directly cultivated her bold, tomboyish personality.
She had spent her childhood running wild and causing logistical headaches with a crew of local neighborhood boys, giving her parents constant gray hairs. Finally, they had no choice but to pull her back to the city for strict parental supervision once she hit middle school.
Perhaps the significant psychological changes of puberty caused her originally reckless nature to subside considerably. Although she remained fiercely carefree, she had gradually transitioned into a highly sophisticated young woman.
Her high school run was solid and focused. By that timeline, Vivian was remarkably self-reliant and mature; through sheer academic execution, she secured admission to a top-tier Ivy League university with flawless tracking metrics.
During her undergrad years, she anchored multiple campus organizations and reportedly ran a long-term relationship with a guy from New York. In her junior year, she cleared an elite international exchange program, embedding as a visiting scholar at a prestigious university in London.
Following that runway, she successfully cleared the selection gates for the graduate program at Oxford Business School, completing her entire advanced master's curriculum in a compressed two-year window.
She had literally just graduated and touched down back in the states this calendar year, but she explicitly refused to step into an executive track at her father's multinational firm, remaining completely independent of any corporate payroll until now.
So, what exactly is your ultimate objective here? Nick couldn't help but fall into deep strategic thought as he analyzed the beautiful, complex girl sitting across from the table.
"What exactly is going on inside that engineering brain of yours right now?" Vivian asked, snapping her fingers when she noticed his gaze drifting.
"Ah, nothing crazy. I just suddenly realized you're remarkably attractive," Nick replied smoothly, snapping back to the present with an easy smile.
"Please, you're just thinking about that now?" Although her tone was completely dismissive and confident, a sudden, explicit blush still materialized along Vivian's cheeks.