Nick and Charlie had become fast friends, hardly surprising as they spent quite a lot of time with each other. As nick was a 'junior security assistant' the rules about getting close to clients were more relaxed. Besides you couldn't expect a client to be comfortable with a robot, some level of friendliness was expected when constantly being in close quarters.
Nick had escorted Charlie on several trips, most were in secluded or controlled environments, like hikes through private grounds or Charlies birthday party in a private bowling ally.
Nick had met Charlies other friends, Elly Tao and Isaac. They were suspicious at first but warmed to his golden retriever personality.
Charlie had expressed interest in Nicks rugby and insisted on coming to one of nicks games. Everything was going well, Charlie was coming out of his shell, he seemed happy again.
Charlie turned up to nicks game with one of the adult bodyguards, to strangers they just looked like a father and son come to watch the match. Nobody was paying him any attention, all eyes and cameras were on rugby king nick nelson.
Charlie felt exhilarated to be in public again, able to cheer and yell from the side-lines. At half time nick jogged over and gave Charlie a hug. Nothing out of the ordinary, plenty of the other players were bumping shoulders and patting their bros on the back. But that single brief contact had been photographed.
Within hours it was splashed over social media, by the next morning it was in all the gossip columns. 'The princes new boyfriend' was the headline.
Charlie was devastated, he refused to leave his room, refused to eat anything. All the trauma from last year was dredged up. He was wracked with guilt for brining nick into it.
The press soon found out that nick was his bodyguard and fictional romance story's started circulating.
