New beginning: Billionaire love story

Adrian leaned against Sandra's desk, flashing his signature charming smile. "Hey, Sandra," he greeted smoothly, his tone casual. "Claire's out for a business meeting, right?"

Sandra looked up, slightly surprised, and then gave him a polite smile as she tapped her keyboard. "Let me check." She clicked through Claire's schedule for the day, her eyes narrowing in concentration. After a few moments, she looked back up. "Actually, Claire doesn't have any business meetings today." Adrian's smile faltered, but only for a split second. "Oh, she doesn't?"

"Nope," Sandra confirmed, swiveling her chair back to face him. "Nothing on the calendar."

"Well, thanks for checking," Adrian said smoothly, regaining his composure. He gave Sandra a wink and headed toward the elevators, but his mind was already spinning. If Claire wasn't in a meeting, then where was she? And more importantly, why had she lied to him about it?

As he stepped into the elevator, he couldn't help but feel a twinge of confusion mixed with concern. Claire wasn't the type to lie, not to him at least. He leaned against the wall, arms crossed, thinking it over as the elevator began its slow descent. Why would she lie? What was she hiding?

On the other side of town, Eligos was reclining in his office chair, watching multiple screens flash data across them.

A smug grin spread across his face as he leaned back, puffing on a tobacco pipe he had lazily hanging from his mouth. Cryptonic had been caught completely off guard earlier, thanks to him. It had been glorious, really-a sudden, well-executed attack that left them scrambling. Then Metacortex followed, and Eligos found himself practically giddy with the success of his day.

"If only I could see Claire's face right now," he mused out loud, blowing a puff of smoke toward the ceiling. "That would really be the icing on the cake."

His eyes remained fixed on his monitors, keeping an eye on Claire's digital footprint. She was likely scrambling now, trying to patch up the holes he'd made. But he wasn't worried. He had spent years perfecting his hacking techniques, including a secret software that allowed him to slip past Cryptonic's defenses without even leaving a trace for her to follow. Eligos smirked, still feeling the thrill of outsmarting her.

"Well, well, Claire," he murmured, tapping ash from his pipe. "What game should I play with you next?" He chuckled, amused at the thought of keeping her on her toes. He had the upper hand now, and he wasn't going to let it go so easily.

Meanwhile, back at Metacortex, Claire was anything but amused. Her office was a mess of coffee cups, scattered notes, and her two monitors glowing in the dim light as she worked furiously, trying to secure the systems. After the internal attacks on both Metacortex and Cryptonic, she hadn't slept in over 24 hours.

She'd rewritten firewalls, updated software bypasses, recorded sections of their defenses-everything she could think of to make sure this didn't happen again. Eligos had struck out of nowhere, and Claire wasn't about to let it slide.

Her phone buzzed on the desk, making her jump slightly. She glanced at the screen. It was a text from Adrian.

"Hey, I've got a meeting out of town, so I can't do our date this weekend. How about we do it today instead?"

Claire sighed, leaning back in her chair. She really didn't want to leave her desk right now, not with everything that was going on. But... she did feel bad. Adrian was sweet, and she had already lied to him earlier about her schedule. He trusted her, and she didn't want to take that for granted.

Another buzz. This time a follow-up message from Adrian, "You free today?"

Claire glanced at the lines of code on her screen and hesitated. Should I just stay here and deal with this? Or... should I go and see Adrian? She sighed again, feeling guilty. Adrian wasn't the kind of guy to play games. She quickly texted back, "Yeah, I'm free. You can pick me up at the office."

Not even a minute later, her phone buzzed again. This time, Adrian sent a smiling emoji with a heart. Claire couldn't help but chuckle as she saw it. It was cute, and it made her feel a little better about her decision.

"Focus, Claire," she muttered to

herself, putting the phone down and

pulling her attention back to her screens. Matthew was at Cryptonic dealing with the fallout there, just as she had requested. She wanted to be at Cryptonic herself, handling things in person, but she couldn't afford to delay her own work at Metacortex any longer. Otherwise, the paperwork would start piling up, and that was the last thing she wanted on top of all this mess.

Her phone buzzed again, and she glanced at it, seeing Adrian's message,

"I'll be there in 20 minutes. Can't wait to see you."

Claire smiled slightly, biting her lip. She knew she'd made the right call. She'd just have to make sure everything was secure before she left. No more surprises.

As Adrian's car pulled up in front of Metacortex, he checked his phone for the hundredth time, half expecting another cancellation or excuse. But there was nothing-just the text from Claire telling him to come pick her up. He smiled to himself as he climbed out of the car, his heart racing a little. It had been a long time since he felt this excited

for a date.

He entered the lobby, greeted Sandra with a friendly wave, and took the elevator up to Claire's floor. As the doors opened, he saw her waiting by her desk, looking a little tired but still as beautiful as ever. "Hey," Adrian greeted her warmly as he approached. "Ready to go?"

Claire looked up from her computer, giving him a small, tired smile. "Yeah, just finishing up. One sec." She typed something quickly on her keyboard and then grabbed her bag. "Okay, I'm ready."

Adrian's arm rested comfortably

around Claire's waist as they made their way down to the lobby, his

fingers gently tracing patterns on et

her hip: Claire leaned into him, feeling the warmth of his touch, though her tired smile gave away the kind of day she'd been having.

"So, how's your day been?" Adrian asked his voice light but laced with curiosity.noveldrama

Claire let out a tired sigh, offering him a faint grin. "Hectic, to say the least. I feel like I've been putting out fires all day long. You?"

He chuckled softly. "Not as eventful as yours, I'm sure. But hey, at least we're done with all that now. We can relax for a bit."

As they headed out together, Adrian couldn't help but ask, "So, no business meetings today, huh?"

Claire stiffened for a split second before she laughed it off, lightly smacking his arm. "Nope, not today."

Adrian smiled, but a small part of him still wondered why she had lied in the first place. He let it go, though, not wanting to spoil the evening.

"Well, I'm glad I caught you," he said, slipping his hand into hers as they walked. "I've been looking forward to this all day."

Claire squeezed his hand, a small wave of guilt washing over her again. But she pushed it aside, determined to enjoy the night.