Computers, Basketball and Love

Chapter 13

The next day Nik packed his things in his car, which was a Jeep Wrangler. He made sure to leave plenty of room for Cora's things. When it was time he said his goodbyes to his friends and headed over to her dorm to pick her up.

Nik texted her to let her know he was outside whenever she was ready. Then he got out of his car to go wait by the door. Since it was an all girls dorm he couldn't go inside. Once she came out he grabbed her bags to carry them for her and loaded them in his car.

While he did that she went ahead and got in. When he got in she asked him, "How's your morning been so far?"

"Not bad. Better now though. How has yours been?" Nik asked her as he looked at her. She was wearing her typical jeans and t-shirt, but to him she was always beautiful. Today she had also put on a ball cap and pulled her hair into a ponytail and pulled it through the hole in the back of the hat.

"I got to sleep in so it started great and now it's even better. Are you looking forward to going home to see your family?" They hadn't talked about his family yet and she was curious.

Nik laughed and said, "Yes and no. I want to see everyone but I know once I get there my mom won't give me a moment's rest. Not to mention that my brothers will pick on me relentlessly. I imagine that my mom has already set up a family dinner tonight. So everyone will be there. It will be a mad house tonight."

"Brothers huh? How many? Older or younger?" Cora had always wanted siblings, especially brothers, but her mom had never wanted kids in the first place so she was the only one.

"Yeah there are five of us and I am the youngest. So the other four give me a hard time all the time. They all live in Denver, but have their own place. I am the only one that lives at home and it's only during summer breaks."

"It sounds like fun to have brothers." Cora seemed lost in her head. She is trying to imagine what it would be like to have brothers.

"If you want, when you are ready I will bring you for dinner sometime and you can meet them. I know my mom will be thrilled when I tell her I found an amazing girl. So once I tell her about you she will be relentless about wanting to meet you." He paused for a minute thinking and asked, "So does Sonic sound good for lunch? I have been craving their food lately."

"Yeah that sounds good to me."

Since they had decided where to eat he took off to find one. Once they had their food they hit the road. After they had been on the road for a little while Cora remembered something, "Oh yeah. Next week is the 1v1 tournament and the week after is the couples tournament in the game. Will you have time to do both? I forgot to ask if you are working this summer."

"I'll have plenty of time to do them. The only work I have to worry about is building security software for companies. Eventually, once I am done with college, I plan to set up a security software business." Nik laughed and told her, "It was actually you that gave me the inspiration to build security software."

Hearing that Cora had a confused look on her face. "I inspired you? What do you

mean?"

"Remember when you tested my software for me? That is when I found out that you were the one who had hacked my system. That is what inspired me to start building security software."

"I see. I had forgotten about that. It's crazy to imagine that we crossed paths even before we met. Heck, at that time I was still at home at the end of my last year of high school."

"That just means that we were meant to be." When he said that he looked over at her and winked, then he grabbed her hand and held it for a while.

It only took them two hours to get to Cora's home town, Burlington. Once they got into town Cora gave directions to her house. When he turned off the car he turned to look at her. "I probably won't be able to come see you until after we are done with the tournaments. I plan to come spend the Saturday after that with you, the whole day. And we can do whatever you want to do."