She stopped and turned around slowly.
In the golden light of the setting sun, Ethan was walking over, carrying a packed lunchbox in his hand.
"Take it." He walked up and handed it to her directly.
Nora instinctively waved her hand and stepped back. "Ethan, you really don't have to keep feeding me! You've already..."
Ethan's lips curved into a faint smile, tone easy but leaving no real room to argue. "We agreed on three meals, so three meals it is. This is the second one."
He paused, then made a move like he was about to toss the lunchbox into the nearby trash can. "If you don't want this, we can go grab something else."
"No!!" Nora's heart lurched. She practically lunged forward and snatched the lunchbox right out of his hands, hugging it tight against her chest. Her voice came out weak but urgent. "No, no — I... I'll eat this! This is fine! Really!"
She genuinely wasn't sure he wouldn't just throw it away, because he absolutely would.
Seeing her clutch the food like it might escape, a flicker of amusement crossed Ethan's eyes. "Alright. Go back to the dorm and rest. You look exhausted."
He gave a small wave, turned, and disappeared into the crowd.
Nora stood there holding the still-warm lunchbox, frozen for a few seconds. Something warm and complicated stirred in her chest that she couldn't quite name.
She took a slow breath, pulled the lunchbox closer, and turned toward the residence hall.
...
Back at the dorm.
Kevin was the only one still going strong, parked on his bed playing games like he hadn't just survived a full day of training.
Marcus and Derek, on the other hand, were completely done.
They hadn't even bothered going to the dining hall — just grabbed some bread and snacks from the campus store downstairs and called it dinner.
By now they'd already showered, each sprawled out on their own bed, phones in hand, eyes somewhere between open and closed, staring at nothing. Military training had genuinely emptied them out.
Kevin's energy was on another level. Showered and right back to gaming. Ethan had to respect it.
The room wasn't huge, but Kevin had claimed well more than his fair share of the floor space.
When the door opened, Kevin didn't even glance over. He just smoothly paused his game, swiveled in his chair, and somehow already had a lighter in his hand. That wide, shameless grin was all over his face. "Ethan, bro!! You're back? You got a cigarette? Emergency situation, I'm dying here!!"
The sudden warmth in "Ethan, bro" was very telling.
Ethan knew exactly what this was — when Kevin wanted something, it was all "bro" and "man" and big smiles. The second he got what he wanted, it'd drop right back to just "Ethan." Classic.
In his past life, Ethan would've probably just said "no" with an eye roll and moved on.
But that was then.
Coming back the way he had, he understood now that these small, easy gestures were what kept relationships alive — and sometimes paid off in ways you didn't expect.
He reached into his pocket, pulled out his pack, flicked one out, and tossed it over to Kevin.
Kevin caught it with a grin, immediately lit up, and finally got around to asking, "So Ethan, you skipped training — how are you getting back even later than us, the ones who actually had to suffer?"
And just like that, "bro" was already gone. Back to plain "Ethan."
Ethan quietly noted the drop. Called it.
He climbed up onto his bed, stretched out, pulled out his phone, and tossed back an answer that he knew would absolutely destroy Kevin. "What do you think I was doing? Girls, man."
"WHAT." Kevin spun around so fast he nearly dropped his cigarette, eyes huge, face cycling through shock, envy, and pure anguish. "Ethan, bro — the way you live your life is just... it's not fair. It's genuinely not fair."
Kevin had a girlfriend — his high school sweetheart. He'd stayed in New York for college, she'd gone somewhere else. Long distance. The cigarette suddenly tasted like nothing.
Ethan ignored him and went back to his phone.
The room settled into the sound of Kevin's game and his occasional frustrated growl.
...
The next morning, word spread that training intensity was getting cranked up.
Ethan had even less interest in standing around the yard watching people suffer than before.
The mental image of thousands of freshmen wilting under the sun was enough. He made his decision.
"Let's go check in at the office, see what needs handling." He started up the black Audi, pulled out of the noisy campus, and headed toward the Midtown office.
It had been a while since he'd been in, and the place had completely transformed.
Last time, only parts of it were barely functional — just enough space for Alex's team to work without going crazy.
Now the full renovation was done. Every floor, finished.
Walking in, Ethan's eyes lit up.
Diana's execution was genuinely something else.
It wasn't just Alex's development floor — every other office space in the building was fully set up too. Brand-new desks and chairs lined up clean, conference rooms spacious and fully equipped, a proper employee lounge, a well-stocked kitchen. Everything was there, and every detail had that sharp, polished feel of a real company.
Ethan gave a quiet nod to himself. Handing things over to Diana had been the right call. Her coordination skills were elite.
Alex's team was deep in the final sprint before launch — pushing hard to get Vibe, the new social app, ready to go live.
Once it launched, the most pressing problem was going to be people.
Alex's engineering team needed to grow. And beyond dev, you had product marketing, user growth, PR, customer support — every single lane needed fresh talent, and fast.
Right now, even though Alex's team was operating under the Vibe banner — upgraded from the earlier version — this whole social messaging subsidiary still didn't have a real leader. Someone who could own the big picture and run things independently.
Alex was a world-class technical mind. Engineering lead, no problem. But operations and company management weren't his thing, and everyone knew it.
What Ethan was waiting on was Laura. The moment she arrived and stepped into her role, he could hand the entire Nexus Social operation over to her and actually trust it to run.
Because right now, Diana was carrying too much.
Diana was already running Redwood Capital — managing the fund's own investments, keeping an eye on the short-video platform stake that needed attention, and on top of all that, she'd been personally overseeing the office renovation and temporarily holding down Nexus Social too.
Once Laura arrived, that weight would lift significantly. Diana could get back to focusing on Redwood Capital's core work — which was going to need her full attention.
Because the moment Vibe went live, Nexus Social was going to explode with growth — and all the chaos that came with it.
There are 130 advance chapters ahead in my Patreon. If you are interested can check it out.
patreon.com/B_A_3439