"Damn, a Wrangler." Nick couldn't help but exhale as he took in the heavily modified, aggressive black Jeep Wrangler idling at the curb in front of him.
"What's wrong with it?" Vivian asked, popping the heavy driver's side door open.
Nick shook his head, offering a dry smile. "Nothing, I just think it's a pretty intense choice of vehicle for a girl to be throwing around the city."
"Please, you're making a massive deal out of absolutely nothing. There are plenty of girls who daily-drive lifted Wranglers and Mercedes G-Wagons. Get your ass in!" Vivian rolled her eyes, throwing a commanding shout across the seats.
"Uh, look—you go ahead and drive. I think I'd be much more comfortable tracking behind you in my own vehicle." Nick was temporarily stunned as he watched Vivian slide seamlessly into the command position behind the steering wheel.
"What, are you seriously going to pull some outdated cliché about female drivers on me right now?" Vivian raised an eyebrow, her tone challenging.
"Not at all. I've just genuinely never ridden shotgun in a modified Wrangler before." Despite the defensive positioning, Nick slowly climbed up into the elevated cabin and meticulously fastened his seatbelt, checking the click mechanism twice. He couldn't help but run a brief mental check on his active insurance policies, praying that his tech empire wouldn't meet its corporate end at the hands of this girl's accelerator foot.
"Look at you, panicking already. Let's roll!" Catching the sheer caution taking over Nick's expression, Vivian dropped the handbrake, slammed the gas, and aggressively spun the Jeep into the flow of traffic. Behind them, Ryan, holding down the watch inside his corporate sedan, turned a distinct shade of pale as he watched the Wrangler roar down the street, hurriedly firing up his own engine to maintain his tailing coordinates.
"Hey, keep it under the speed limit!" Nick couldn't help but call out as the cabin jolted over a pothole.
"Jesus, how can a powerful CEO like you be such a total coward?" Glancing briefly at him with a smirk, Vivian kept her eyes locked onto the pavement ahead, smoothly navigating the heavy machine.
Nick adjusted his seating position against the sports bucket seat and shook his head. "I'm not a coward, Vivian. I'm an engineer—I just fundamentally dislike handing complete control of my biological trajectory over to an unverified operator."
"You just have deep-seated trust issues with people." Vivian rolled her eyes at his logic. "Where's the drop point?"
"Take a right up at the next intersection by the large organic grocery store. Park in their retail lot."
Nick smiled, leaning back. "How exactly am I supposed to establish a baseline of trust when I don't possess any validated data points regarding your background?"
"Then I guess I'll just have to give you a massive window of time to run your analysis on me."
Arriving at the grocery store, Nick and Vivian strolled down the wide supermarket aisles pushing a stainless-steel cart, while Ryan maintained a discreet, twenty-yard security perimeter behind them. Ryan had originally tried to hustle forward to handle the heavy lifting and push the cart himself, but Vivian had cleanly sent him back to his tracking station with a few sharp, charming words.
"Alright, what are we logging into the inventory?" Vivian asked, scanning the organic product displays.
Nick smiled, casually tossing a carton of items into the mesh basket. "Grab whatever parameters you want, it's all clearing on my personal corporate card."
"You laid down the terms yourself, so I am absolutely not holding back my purchasing power." With a face full of excitement, Vivian hopped over to the snack aisle, aggressively grabbing a massive pile of specialty chips, premium chocolates, and imported candies, dumping them into the shopping cart like a hurricane.
"This is strictly a high-sodium, low-nutrition junk food array." Seeing the absolute mountain of wrappers stacking up, Nick couldn't help but feel a drop of sweat hit his collar.
"You explicitly told me to select whatever assets I wanted."
Nick was temporarily left completely speechless. "I authorized you to choose, but there is zero operational requirement to hoard a lifetime supply of snacks in a single shopping run. Keep three items and return the rest to their designated shelves."
"No way, I'm locking down the rights to this entire haul." Vivian protectively grabbed the handle of the shopping cart and flared her eyes at him.
Nick laughed in pure, exhausted exasperation. "Fine, but we are establishing a strict compliance boundary right now: you have to load this entire snack inventory directly into your Jeep and take it back to your own place. None of these calories are crossing the threshold of my apartment."
"What? You don't like my taste in snacks?" Vivian pouted, her lower lip turning out.
"Hey, focus up—we are in a highly public retail environment, maintain your professional high-society image," Nick whispered helplessly.
Hearing the caution, Vivian glanced briefly around the aisle, noticed a couple of shoppers looking over, then cleared her throat twice and began meticulously returning the extra items back onto the retail pegs one by one.
Watching her comply, Nick breathed a massive sigh of relief. What exactly was driving this girl's behavioral variables today?
Fortunately, after that brief logistical standoff, Vivian's demeanor returned to a highly civilized frequency. The two of them continued navigating the grocery grid with the cart, and Nick had to admit it was actually a remarkably pleasant, grounded experience.
"Grab me a prime cut of that beef tenderloin right there—yeah, that specific one on the marble slab," Nick instructed, stopping the cart at the high-end butcher counter to inspect the selection.
"That'll be exactly two pounds and four ounces, coming out to sixty-three dollars," the butcher behind the counter stated, wrapping the meat in butcher paper. He glanced over at Vivian standing gracefully by Nick's side and offered a warm smile. "This beef cleared our supply chain fresh this morning, completely top-tier quality. It's going to release an incredible aroma the second you throw it on a cast-iron skillet."
"Thank you so much!" Vivian stood right next to Nick, instantly deploying a sweet, perfectly polite, and obedient smile that could melt stone.
"Of course, ma'am. Your girlfriend is absolutely stunning, sir." The butcher's unsolicited compliment instantly made Vivian beam with absolute joy, leaving Nick with zero choice but to stand there, clear his throat, and smile along with the narrative.
After nodding goodbye to the counter staff, Vivian turned to look at him with a look of pure shock. "Wait, your skillset actually includes gourmet cooking?"
"Don't sound so completely blindsided by my versatility," Nick said with a smug, playful grin, pushing the cart down toward the checkout lanes. Watching his confident stride, Vivian put her hands on her hips, bit her lower lip, and trailed behind him, pouting with a flash of mock anger.
Perhaps as direct tactical retaliation for Nick's previous answer regarding her snacks, Vivian suddenly went completely cold on him. No matter what question Nick directed her way during the checkout process, she would only offer a silent nod or a sharp shake of her head; if a prompt could be answered with a single word, she absolutely refused to deploy two.
Nick just smiled at the silent treatment, making zero effort to run a standard customer-service script to comfort her, choosing instead to focus on finalizing the grocery transactions. This passive response made Vivian even more irritated; every single time he caught her eye, her cheeks were completely puffed out like an angry squirrel.
By the time they cleared the exit gates, their total payload had completely maxed out the capacity of a full cart, totaling well over a thousand dollars in high-end ingredients and supplies.
The drive back to the residential tower was executed in absolute silence, and Nick smoothly guided Vivian up through the building's security sectors and into his private penthouse.
The exact millisecond the main entrance door unlatched, the automated lighting grids and the advanced climate control fresh-air systems throughout the residence seamlessly synchronized and turned on. Nick reached into the integrated entryway closet and handed her a pair of plush, light-colored cotton slippers. "Here, swap out your boots. They're completely fresh inventory, nobody has ever worn them."
Giggle... A brilliant smile finally broke across Vivian's face as she quickly kicked off her combat boots, slid into the slippers, and immediately began wandering through the high-end space to run a visual inspection.
"Nick, I'm going to hold down the exterior security station and pass on entering the residence," Ryan stated from the corridor, handing over the heavy grocery bags while peeking at Vivian as she explored the expansive living room, a highly amused grin plastered across his face.
Nick clocked the explicit look in his bodyguard's eyes, locked his hands around the handles of the bags, and snapped, "Get the hell out of here, Ryan."
"Haha, copy that!" Ryan let out a clean chuckle and hurried back down toward the elevator bank.
Closing the heavy oak door, Nick carried the supply haul over to the kitchen island and began organizing the proteins and produce into their designated storage units.
"Wow, your layout here is actually incredibly massive," Vivian noted, sitting down on the Italian leather sofa, bouncing slightly against the cushions to test the density while taking in the panoramic views.
Nick glanced at her over the counter, his hands continuing to sort the groceries. "What's your preferred fluid intake right now? What would you like to drink?"
"Surprise me—anything works!" Vivian stood up, stepping directly to the massive floor-to-ceiling windows to track the sweeping waterfront scenery outside.
Nick smiled and commanded toward the ceiling microphone array, "Kacy, please prepare and pour a cup of premium hot jasmine tea for our guest."
"Certainly, sir!" A smooth, melodic female voice synthesized perfectly from the premium audio speakers flanking the entertainment center.
Immediately, a sleek robotic articulation arm that had been docked inside a recessed charging bay in the corner slid smoothly along its magnetic track toward the luxury beverage cabinet. The mechanism opened the glass door, precisely pinched a clean porcelain cup, and dropped a specialized pyramid bag of organic jasmine tea inside.
The mechanical grip then securely balanced the cup, transitioned to the integrated water purification hub to fill it to the exact millimeter, and slowly glided across the hardwood floor toward Vivian—who was already tracking the automation sequence with wide, completely startled eyes.
"Good afternoon, ma'am. Please enjoy your beverage."
"It... wait, you..." Vivian blankly accepted the teacup from the mechanical claw, watching the robotic arm seamlessly retract back into its hidden recess, completely lost for words.
"Ma'am, the internal fluid temperature is currently registering at a high thermal baseline; please exercise caution to avoid a burn injury," Kacy's voice articulated through the overhead audio grid once more.
"Ah, right—got it, thank you!" Vivian quickly placed the cup down onto the marble coffee table and blew on her fingers to cool them down, before snapping her gaze directly toward the kitchen. "Nick, is this an actual deployment of Artificial Intelligence?"
Nick, who had just stepped out from the main kitchen area after wiping his hands down with a fresh linen tissue, looked at the bewildered, wide-eyed girl and let a relaxed smile take over his face. "This is the proprietary smart home automation network our laboratory developed. Kacy, initialize your visual rendering and greet our guest properly."
"Right away, sir." On cue, the massive 4K display panel on the wall illuminated. A hyper-realistic, stunning digital avatar of a long-haired young woman wearing a sleek red dress materialized against a flawless white studio backdrop, waving gracefully toward the room. "Hello, ma'am. I am Mr. Nick's private automated butler, Kacy. It is an absolute pleasure to welcome you to the residence."
"H-hello!" Vivian replied, her standard confident cadence stuttering slightly as she stood frozen, before slowly turning her head to stare at Nick like he was an alien.