As Keeley walked away, Aaron could feel the sour decay of something ending. She would probably never willingly speak to him again now that she knew the truth.

Come to think of it…she never mentioned how she figured it out. She came in guns blazing and happened to skip over that part. It was even worse because he hadn't managed to explain himself properly. She didn't think he actually loved her.

He should have seen this coming from the moment he realized she had been reborn. Keeley's emotional scars from their first life hadn't healed. He couldn't blame her; she went through so much because of him both directly and indirectly.

What was he supposed to do now? He couldn't prove he loved her if she didn't let him come near her. Giving her s.p.a.ce might be his best bet at this point. No texting and no showing up at her lab.

It was going to be difficult.

The next time he would be able to see her without purposely interfering in her life would be at Cameron's engagement party in two weeks. Obviously she was going to be there to support one of her best friends.

In the meantime, he would survive by focusing on work. Aaron still had several more international contacts to touch base with before staging his coup. Business trips might help distract him a bit.

Oh, who was he kidding? He buried himself in business after Keeley died and she still haunted his thoughts every single day. Work wouldn't help at all.

===

"Have you noticed something different about the boss lately?" Aiden whispered to Cameron over lunch.

"You mean the fact that he's become a robot who works 18 hours a day? Yeah. I've noticed. It's because of Keeley."

"What happened?"

"Well," Cameron said in his best gossip voice. "He showed up at Jennica's apartment looking for her last weekend and she turned him away. Jen talked to her and then she ran out furiously, claiming she was going to kill him or something like that. She came back a few hours later refusing to speak about it and ditched school and work by claiming to be sick for two days."

"You think she went to Aaron's place to confront him?"

He nodded. "I think she dumped him."

"Were they ever really together enough to const.i.tute dumping though?" Aiden asked before shaking his head. "Poor Aaron. He lives for that girl."

"I know. I'm not sure what he's going to do—they're both coming to my engagement party."

The hacker smiled wickedly. "Since I'm coming too I'll have to witness this firsthand."

"It gets better. Jen invited that guy Ryan. Aaron's going to flip," Cameron confided.

Aiden laughed. This soap opera was getting better and better. Did they fight because of Ryan or what? He would kill to know what exactly Keeley had said that turned their normally love-struck boss into a workaholic.

"Anything in particular you want as an engagement present?"

"Check the registry; that's Jen's domain."

"I'll do that."

A thought occurred to him. What were Keeley and Valentina going to do about their rent with Jennica gone? She had already moved over to Cameron's place a few days after getting engaged.

"Who's covering Jennica's portion of the rent?"

"Me," Cameron said with his mouth full. He swallowed before continuing. "At least until the lease is up in July. They'll sign a new lease with whatever extra roommate they find at that point. She felt bad about ditching them but I wanted her with me sooner, which is why I offered."

Aiden sighed dramatically. "You just have to rub it in that your girlfriend gets to live with you. Not all of us are so lucky."

"She's my fiancée not my girlfriend," he corrected. "Why not help Nova get a visa and move over here? You could practically do it with your eyes closed."

"She still has three years left of school. After that, I don't know if she'd want to leave her family behind."

Long distance relations.h.i.+ps almost never worked out for this exact reason. n.o.body wanted to give up their life for the other. Cameron felt sorry for his friend. He seemed to really like Nova. At the very least she could keep up with his gaming addiction.

Thinking of long distance…once he was married was Aaron still going to send him out of town once a month? Jennica wouldn't always be able to travel with him, especially once they started having kids.

Did he even need the money anymore? He was insanely rich—if you counted all of his a.s.sets together including stocks and bonds he was worth nearly a billion dollars.

Cameron wanted to talk to his boss about it but with his current frame of mind it didn't seem likely his request would get approved. He was an overzealous working machine at the moment. Besides, bringing up the fact that he was in a solid relations.h.i.+p while Aaron was recently spurned would likely bring on the next Ice Age.

Lunch was over and everyone began filing back to their desks, snapping him out of his reverie.

"Wanna go bug the boss?" Aiden asked eagerly.

"You really think that's a good idea right now?"

"Worth a shot. I want to see if I can get a reaction out of him."

Cameron shrugged and followed him. "It's your funeral."

The overconfident hacker opened the door to Aaron's office with a bang. "Good afternoon, my dude! How are you faring this fine Thursday?"

"Get back to work," he said mechanically.

The two friends exchanged a look. Robot mode was still engaged. Their desire to know what Keeley said that made him like this increased but they couldn't exactly ask either of them.

"I am working," Aiden replied cheerfully. "I'm doing my job as your friend to make sure you're still alive. Have you eaten anything today? A banana? Some yogurt perhaps?"

At the word 'banana' the robotic mask momentarily broke. "She's allergic to bananas; I can't have them either."

Aaron reverted back right after he said it. So talking about Keeley could bring him back to the human realm after all.

"Why can't you eat them if Keeley is the one who's allergic to them?"

He looked at them as if they were amoebas. Tiny and brainless. "Because then she won't kiss me until I've brushed my teeth."

What?! When did their boss ever kiss Keeley?! They wanted to ask what he meant but he retreated completely into his robotic sh.e.l.l and refused to answer further questions.

Aaron had it bad. He seemed to think they were a couple even though they never had been. Unless…was Aiden's bizarre theory that Aaron was the ex-boyfriend right?!