NATE | REDMAN

Nate snorted. “Yeah, Nathan not Nathaniel, and no, nothing else, actually. I went home and went to sleep, and there is going to be a date, if you must know.”

“It’s not as fun as you might think it is, you get lonely. So be grateful you have all those siblings,” he chuckled. He couldn’t see himself having grown up with siblings. He was a naturally independent person, and he figured he probably would have been that way even if he had grown up with them. “No, it’s still a thing. We kissed at midnight and all that, but we’re doing a proper date and everything now, too. Definitely not a spontaneous hook up.”

“Hey, I’m telling you now– when I came in here to get my coffee and see you, my mind was a little more occupied with other things, like your love life, it seems,” he smiled. “His name is Norman, and this,” he pulled his phone out and opened up a picture. “is a picture that Arizona sent me, because I’m bad at cameras. “It wasn’t an intentional thing, doing it together. It started out as a new years resolution thing. We came up with resolutions for each other, hers was me getting a dog, then we made it a date, and now there’s a dog.”

“Yeah, in your dreams, maybe. You’re never seeing this dancing with your own eyes in this current timeline, mate. Never gonna happen,” he chuckled. If he could help it, nobody would ever see him embarrass himself on a dance floor. “I’d love to see that, though, Noah. Mind if I hide in a bush off to the side with a camera? For the memories.”

“I suppose there are worse things to be compared to,” he admitted. Nate laughed when she pulled out her phone and took a picture fo the dog. “You’ve gotta send me that photo later, you know? And a name? We’ll have to come up with that one together. Something original. And that shirt... that’d just be mean.”

Nate couldn’t help but laugh at her candor– but she was right, he had to admit. “Fine, then,” he muttered. “I like her a lot and she’s someone I really want to spend time with.” He raised an eyebrow at her to see if she was satisfied. “Any progression since then? Well, we went on that date– I can’t even believe I haven’t told you this yet. I have a dog now, or we have a dog. Primarily mine, but she’s got an attachment, too.”

Nate would have quietly disagreed– after what he’d heard about the New Years party, the stuff he’d luckily missed out on, he was pretty sure that the word did need to be heard here, to some people in particular, though. He chuckled as she brought up Arizona though. “Oh, you saw that did you? We didn’t go home together, actually. Just kissed at midnight. Name’s Arizona.”

nate: Oh yeah? That's a good thing, then. Hangovers are a 2018 Opal thing rather than a 2019 thing? Nice resolution.

nate: Yeah, the drink'll do that to you. Killer hangover in the morning or not?

“Three years– that’s a good long while,” he mused. “So, what you’re saying is that there aren’t a lot of door knocking Church of Latter Day Saint singers around Wintergreen, then?”

nate: What did you do after then? Sleep? Watch a movie?

“Forgive me. I’m not particularly well educated in the lives and practices of mormons,” he admitted. “Yeah, you definitely give off a bit of a vibe that you’re done with all of that for sure. How long ago did you... quit?”

nate: Yeah, good for me. Do your regret not staying yourself?

“Are you comparing me to a middle schooler, Arizona?” He raised an eyebrow, feigning offense. “You’re gonna have a phone full of dog photos now, aren’t you? All the photos you usually take are gonna have to be deleted or moved to a hard drive or something just so you can fit all the pictures of him,” he chuckled a little at the thought. “Every dog needs a mom... you should get that on a t-shirt.”

Nate chuckled at how happy she seemed to get some of the credit– which he supposed she deserved. He could still see that Jade had things going on in her own mind, things that he definitely couldn’t fix and things that his words couldn’t impact, but he supposed taking her mind off of it with his own love life was the next best option. “Yeah, potentially. We’ll have to see how it goes, and hope it goes well,” he mused. “You’ll be happy to know, as well, that there was a lot of smiling that night, and quite a lot of it since.”

“Rejecting dances is fun when you’re a shit dancer who’ll just embarrass both yourself and your dance partner if you do it,” he justified. The only day that Nate would willingly dance would be on his wedding day, if he got there. He grinned at Noah’s laughter – success. “I get that, though. You’ve gotta give it a little time, right? To make sure it fits. And to make sure you don’t get a reaction or something.”

Nate laughed, rather loudly, and shook his head. “I didn’t mean that, I just meant that barks are their way of speaking, not that I’m gonna suddenly bark too,” he chuckled. “No, you’re right. I’m pretty sure you’re gonna be crucial to his development, actually. As much as I hate to say that.” He grinned at her, obviously joking – he was happy to admit that.