Dragging his tired body, Nick walked out of the airport. The car was already waiting out front.
Under the curious stares of other travelers, Nick slid quickly into the car and they pulled away.
"Nicholas, back to the office first, or straight home?" Ryan asked quietly.
Nick yawned, checked the time, and shook his head. "Home first. I'll hit the office tomorrow. One day won't kill us."
"Got it." Ryan nodded and told the driver, "Home."
Leaning back into his seat, Nick looked around at everyone in the car and smiled. "Everyone's worked hard these past few days. Once you drop me off, go home and rest. Take a couple extra days — nothing major on the schedule for a while."
Everyone in the car nodded. They'd genuinely been running on fumes, especially the three-man security detail — staying sharp every second while traveling took it out of you. They only really got to relax once Nick was back safe in a hotel room for the night.
Security work at home was easier than abroad, sure, but they still had to stay on guard. Excited fans wanting a handshake or a photo, random people trying to strike up a conversation — that kind of thing.
Ryan's whole job was keeping Nick separated from crowds and moving quickly. If too many people swarmed at once, things could go sideways fast — bad for Nick personally, and worse for the Militech brand.
The assistant team had it just as rough. Sometimes Nick would already be asleep and they'd still be grinding away. You could see the exhaustion on every one of their faces after days like this.
"Landed yet? When are you getting home?" A text popped up from Vivian while Nick was scrolling the news.
Nick smiled and typed back quickly.
"Just landed, heading home now."
"Not going to the office?"
"Nah, taking today off."
"Oh."
And that was it — no follow-up. A little odd, but Nick didn't push it. He put his phone away and closed his eyes to rest.
Rush hour traffic meant it took over an hour to get home.
Even though Nick had been gone ten-plus days, the smart home system had kept things running, so the place was still spotless.
Nick was just about to hop in a hot shower and throw on something comfortable when the doorbell rang. Vivian's face popped up on the living room TV.
Nick smiled and opened the door. Vivian stood there holding a huge bag of stuff, out of breath. "Quick, help me, this is heavy!"
"What's all this? So much stuff," Nick asked, taking the bag from her.
Vivian walked in, catching her breath. "Food, drinks, some veggies. You've been gone ten days, half the fridge went bad — had to restock everything.
Picked up groceries too. I'm cooking tonight, welcome-home dinner, wash off the travel dust."
"Thanks," Nick said softly, feeling warm watching her bustle around.
Catching the shift in his tone, Vivian blushed and shooed him off. "Alright, go shower already. You reek."
Nick laughed sheepishly, grabbed his suitcase from the living room, and headed to the bedroom. Vivian let out a breath of relief once he was gone.
Something crossed her mind and her face went red again. She muttered something under her breath and got back to cooking.
After a good hot shower and comfy clothes, a refreshed Nick came out to find Vivian already deep in the kitchen.
Standing in the doorway, watching her back as she cooked, Nick pushed down whatever was stirring in his chest and asked gently, "Need any help?"
Vivian turned, rolled her eyes at him. "Nope. Go sit down and rest. Almost done here."
"You sure?" Nick asked again.
"I said no, so no. Quit asking!" Vivian waved the spatula at him, pretending to be annoyed.
"Okay okay, I'll go sit. Take your time," Nick backed off immediately.
Vivian nearly burst out laughing, caught herself, held it in, and went back to cooking with a smile.
A little bored on the couch, Nick pulled up the news with his assistant "Kacy," catching up on the last few days — especially anything about their new product.
The new product had been out for two or three days now. Nick had been too swamped to check in, but now he had time to see what the press was saying.
Before the official launch, global pre-orders had already hit five million units — three million domestic, over two million overseas.
The overseas numbers weren't as explosive as domestic, but that lined up with expectations — they were still new to that market, and word-of-mouth takes time to build.
The gap in perception between domestic and overseas coverage was obvious in the headlines. At home, general optimism, and their heavily promoted live-interpretation feature was getting rave reviews — a lot of people calling it a game-changer.
Overseas, though, thanks to some long-standing bias, people kept finding new angles for cheap shots.
Like one US news network reporting their new voice assistant had security holes, claiming it was harvesting user data and recording conversations, leaking everything.
It even claimed the interpretation feature would somehow help take over global internet infrastructure, "endangering national security and world peace."
And to top it off, a sour little jab suggesting the tech must've been stolen from Apple or Google — no way a company like Militech built this themselves.
Nick was so annoyed he almost laughed. What really got him was how many people actually bought into this nonsense.
Looked like breaking into the overseas market smoothly was going to be an uphill battle.
"Alright, come eat." Vivian's voice snapped him out of it.
Nick walked over and smiled. "Pizza?"
Vivian shot him a look. "You're complaining about free food? Burgers when you leave, pizza when you're back — it's tradition. Green pepper and peperoni shoot pizza. Eat it or don't."
"I'm eating it! Who said I wasn't?" Nick grabbed his chopsticks and dug in.
"Slow down, nobody's stealing it from you."