Always next to you

Chapter Forty Five

NICOLE

Living at Aiden's house with all my friends was a lot more fun than I imagined, but I rarely got to see Aiden because he was working all the time. The few hours he spent with me, he hugged me and went to sleep.

Watching him sleep was the cutest thing ever, but I slowly started to regret falling for a workaholic.

"Welcome to my coding den," Aiden said as the door opened.

The passcode to the den needed is biometrics and as the door slid open, my mouth fell open. Being rich definitely had its perks, because this room was large and had everything.

It was like an entire floor on the basement level. The room was large, and had an area with computers, a bar, a pool playing area and a part that looked like a gym. The gym side of the den has a walking pad, so I guessed he used that for brainstorming.

All the tech in here was top grade and my little weeb heart was about to explode from excitement.

"Am I really allowed to use it?" I asked.

"Yes, but you have to work," Aiden replied.

"Huh! Did you forget the mission Jessi gave us?"

"That's no excuse. You missed several days of work. It's time for you to come back,"

"I expected my mom would have notified the company of the reason for my absence."

"She did and Harvey even tried processing it, but I declined,"

Was he really serious? All this time I thought I lost everything, but he kept my job at Zen for me. What did I do to deserve someone like him?

"Nicol;e, I know you want Stark Industries and will eventually leave to run it yourself, but you have a place at Zen. at least until the game is completed. Can you stay?"

"Thank you," I said.

Aiden pulled me in for a hug, and we were interrupted by a cough from Halo. When we pulled away, I smiled shyly at him, but he gave his cousin a look of disgust.

"Can you take this somewhere else?" he asked.

"Sorry Halo,"

Aiden left me at the den to work with Halo, Oliver, and Mia. I worked on the game with Oliver, while Mia worked on producing articles and Halo worked with Jessi for the first mission.

I was informed about the details of the first mission because Aiden wanted to focus on doing the work I missed out on. I felt really guilty when I saw all the emails Harvey sent. I was only gone for a few days and there was a lot to be done.

Aiden wanted the new game ready by the next Zen anniversary so we could beta-test it at the event. I did my best working for the rest of the day and seven hours later I was up to date with everything, but I was beyond exhausted.

The coding den had a refrigerator filled with snacks and drinks. I helped myself to a few and gave some out to Halo, Mia, and Oliver. Halo smiled and nodded in gratitude while talking to someone I couldn't hear.

If we were free to do anything we wanted, we both would be playing games to kill time right now.

After eating snacks, I was able to do some more work and interact with a few people at Zen virtually. They all asked if I was doing better. My mother must have told them I had a chronic illness or something. As soon as I was done for the day, Jonas entered the den and called everyone to gather by the pool table.

"The first phase of the plan is going well, so we are going to phase two," Jonas announced.

He dropped a bunch of files on the pool table and began separating them. When he was done, he picked up two files and gave them to me and gave three to Halo.