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I ran out of the bar and down the street to the parking lot where my car was parked. I jumped inside and took off toward Nathan’s house, super excited to see him. There wasn’t that much traffic on the road going my direction, so I was lucky enough to get to him fairly quickly. I got out of the car and jogged up the walkway, smiling as he opened the door and took me directly into his arms. He kissed me passionately, pulling back and shaking his head.
“I can’t stand to be away from you,” he said.
“I feel the same exact way,” I replied, leaning up and kissing him again.
He let me go and stood to the side as I walked into the house. He shut the door and took me by the hand, pulling me excitedly into the house. I giggled, never seeing him so jolly before. I sat down on the couch and watched him disappear into the kitchen, coming back a few seconds later with two glasses of wine. He handed me mine, and I took a big sip, finally relaxing from the stress I had just been through.
“So, what’s up?”
“You are constantly on my mind,” he said. “I can’t seem to go ten minutes without thinking about you. Does that sound crazy?”
“No.” I laughed. “I am the same way. I don’t quite feel right without being by your side.”
“Yes,” he said, pointing at me animatedly. “What if we get married?”
“Wait, what? Are you serious?”
He let out the air in his lungs and relaxed his shoulders, walking over and sitting down next to me. He took the wine, put it on the coffee table, and took my hands into his. I was shaking, knowing what I wanted to say but not believing that he was actually serious.
“I am dead serious,” he said, staring deeply in my eyes.
He leaned forward and pulled me close, pressing his lips against mine. I could feel the passion between us exploding and the energy in my chest bubbling over. As he pulled his lips away, he ran his hand down my cheek. Out of nowhere, though, I started to feel sick. He looked at me and tilted his head.
“Are you alright?” he asked. “You just went as pale as a ghost.”
“I don’t feel so hot,” I said, holding my stomach.
“Here, turn and put your feet up,” he said, standing up.
“I think maybe I have food poisoning or something,” I said, feeling the room begin to spin. “It just hit me out of nowhere.”
“I ask you to marry me and you get sick.” He laughed. “That is not a good sign.”
“And yes, I think that’s a great idea,” I said, closing my eyes. “The best idea you’ve ever had.”
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.”
