Always next to you

Chapter Fifty-Seven

AIDEN

"Aiden! The display was wonderful today. I look forward to more exciting games from your company,"

"Thank you so much,"

We shook hands, and I moved on to the next person and the next and the next after that. As I walked from stand to stand with Lizzy by my side to guide me, I couldn't avoid tracking Nicole with my eyes.

She was a hard one to track because she spoke with fewer people, but she moved around a lot. Nicole had been struggling for the past few days. That much was obvious.

Several times, I fought the urge to pry the information out of her, but I figured she was already under pressure from working for me. Despite what anyone says about her, she was a real talent.

In my programming team, Nicole's coding and hacking talents could only be rivalled by Jessi or Halo. I may be a better programmer, but Nicole was more skilled in hacking.

I would have expected more if I knew the one and only Halo trained her. Yet, nothing prepared me for her skills in fixing the optimization problem.

She worked with Halo the entire time and I could see their synergy. They both had enough stamina to pull through and it made me feel inferior. Without my insomnia, there is no way I'd be able to last more than two days without sleep.

The more I found out about Nicole, the deeper I fell. My gaze was always on her, so it was easy to tell when something changed. With her eyes and her body, she avoided me.

My mind imagines several scenarios as the problem during my rest times. I could sleep without her by my side, but my worry kept me up at night. Was it because I confessed my feelings to her?

If Nicole felt overwhelmed, all she had to do was throw a fit or tell me like she did when I secretly had her movements tracked. Her silence was driving me crazy, especially after I heard her cry at night.

Why didn't she trust me?

When would she tell me what was on her mind?

My gaze shifted to where she was last seen and she was gone. As I spoke to an acquaintance, I scanned the lobby to find her. The last time I saw her, she was speaking to Halo, but she was nowhere next to him.

Nicole didn't move that fast when she explored the party, but for some reason, I could not find her.

"My people will be in contact if you're interested in attending the launch event," I said, wrapping up the conversation.

My heart danced away in my chest, and I hoped the person I was sharing a handshake with wouldn't notice my discomfort. As soon as they left, I excused myself from the other guests and went to Halo.

"Hey, where's Nicole?" I asked.

"I saw her leave a couple of minutes ago,"| he replied, taking a sip of the flute in his hand.

"Why didn't you stop her?!"

"I am not her babysitter," he frowned, walking away.

My heart rate increased as I began to imagine all the bad things that could have possibly happened to Nicole. I knew she could take care of herself, but our parents were watching and Jessi would be working on our plan today as well.

The plan was for all of us to stay at this party till the end to avoid suspicion. Jessi's move needed to be unexpected, and there was no telling where Nicole would have gone.

I walked towards Jonas and as soon as he noticed me charging towards him; he wrapped up his conversation nicely and pulled Oliver towards me.

"I don't like that look in your eyes, Aiden," he said, smiling at the camera lights flashing around us.