Chapter 2762

Nicole, expecting some sort of news from him, was surprised when Jared maintained his silence. Did you really just come over to have a meal with me?”

She thought something significant had happened, but upon noticing that he had not said a word along the way, she concluded that she had simply misunderstood.

The smile from Jared proved exactly that. “Just a meal, yeah.”

“Oh, I thought something occurred, and you came over to tell me about it.”

Nicole took a sip of water.

Teasing her, Jared said, “You seem quite disappointed.”

Annoyed, she rolled her eyes and placed her glass down. “Of course I’m not.”

As Jared’s sudden appearances usually indicated that there was something he needed her to know, it was natural for her to assume that he had brought some kind of word with him. Still, she was happy that he had simply brought her out for a regular meal.

With a gentle smile on his face, he explained, “I just signed a project, and I thought I’d come to see you after I’m done with it.”

In addition, it was already lunchtime by the time he had concluded the meeting, so he thought it would be a good idea to take her out for a bite along the way.

“Speaking of projects, I don’t know how it’s going in BayCorp. There should be news about the bidding soon,” Nicole said.

“Probably.” Jared agreed, as the bidding should be around the corner soon.

“That kid hasn’t told me anything. I don’t know how he’s doing,” Nicole complained.

Amused, Jared replied, “When you handed it to him, it’s possible that he already knew you wanted him to work on it himself. So, until there’s a result to show for it, he probably won’t trouble you.”

Nicole nodded in agreement. “Makes sense. He has indeed matured.”

“He has admired you since his days in school, and he has always viewed you as a role model. So it’s expected that he’ll do his best.” Jared replied with a look of seriousness etched on his face.

Nicole was exactly that – calm, cool, tenacious, and capable. Because of this, Jared would not need to worry too much about her, but that was until that fateful incident five years ago. He knew there and then that she was not invulnerable.

Even now, he wished he could be there to protect her all the time. However, he knew that she would not want that, so he had to let her do as she pleased. All he could do was assign a security detail to watch over and protect her from a distance.

Nicole nodded in agreement, unaware of what Jared was thinking about.

“Indeed, I can feel it. I believe Ellar will soon be able to handle things on his own entirely.”

This way, BayCorp could operate as a completely independent entity which no longer relied on the headquarters for support.

“Nicole! Jared!” an excited male voice called out.

After looking up, Nicole saw Ellar walking up to them with a grin.

“Ellar? Why are you here?” Nicole’s eyes widened in surprise.

“I’m having lunch with a business partner. I didn’t expect to run into you guys.”

Ellar beamed.

“We were just talking about you. Speaking of which, I was wondering how your previous bid went,”

Nicole asked Ellar.

“It went smoothly. The results should be out within three days,” Ellar boasted, having bagged the deal all on his own.

“That’s good.” Nicole smiled, encouraging Ellar.

Ellar then nodded and promised, “Once the results are out, I’ll inform you and treat you to a big meal as a token of appreciation.”

“Okay, I’ll be waiting for it!” Nicole readily agreed.

Looking around, Ellar grinned and asked Nicole somewhat awkwardly, “Nicole, are you two the only ones here?”

Furrowing her eyebrows in confusion, Nicole responded with the question. “Who else do you think should be here?”

After all, why would it be strange for her and Jared to have a meal together?

“Well…Isn’t Patricia supposed to be here too?” he asked, thinking that Patricia had been following Nicole around to protect her.

It was then that a hunch came to Nicole, and she shot him a meaningful glance.

“Why do you care so much about Patricia?”

The last time Patricia got injured, Ellar had gone to visit her, and it was said that he had even taken Patricia back to her apartment personally. Now, To add to that, he was now asking about her as soon as he bumped into Nicole