When Nathaniel met Katie
Katie Donnelly tucked a stray wisp behind her ear as she practically danced over to the fixings, plucking two sugar cubes up and depositing them into her cup. “Baby I'm the one who put you up there, I don't why….” She crooned quietly as she took a little pitcher of cream and added a splash to her tea, skirt swaying as she stirred her tea, her eyes closing as she let herself get lost a moment.
Katie went still for a moment, lifting the teacup to her lips and blowing over it before taking a sip. She then emerged from the bar, her movements still fluid, in sync with music only she could hear. “And then I got you off your knees put you right back on your feet just so you could take advantage of me…” Her melodic voice carried slightly as she dance-walked her way to her usual chair by the fire, setting the teacup down on the end table. Her eyes flicked to the piano and her fingers twitched slightly. She could easily slip onto the stool, pound out a few songs quietly, no one would even notice….her hand fell. She hadn't touched the piano since…well. It had been a little over a year.
Nathaniel Whitley pushed the door open, the collar of his leather jacket turned up against the wind and snow outside. Turning around it, he pushes it closed behind him, making sure it's firm before turning around to survey the place he had now arrived at. It had been a while since he'd been anywhere like it, and he missed the lifestyle, the atmosphere. The people. He closed his eyes rolled his neck, trying to get some warmth into his chilled muscles. It made a sound like a boot on wet gravel in his ears, something that others might pick up if they were close enough to hear. “Ugh, damn snow.” He took a few strides to the bar, noting the young lady in her own world listening to her music by the fire, twitching as she looked at the piano.
With no one to serve, he paused a few moments, then prepared a coffee from the remains in the pot, adding cream and sugar. He stirred until the bitter dark liquid turned into a pleasant creamy brown, and he took a sip, settling down on one of the barstools to get his bearings and figure out his place in the club.
Katie looked at the piano again, longingly for a moment, then the chair. She almost sat. “Feelin' so high but too far away to hold me…” She reached for her messenger bag to take out the book she was reading….but grabbed her tablet. She pulled up something and then took a deep breath, propping the device up against the piano and smoothing her skirt under her as she shakily took a seat. Her eyes closed and her fingers laid over the keys. She had to be brave, right? She'd made a promise. The earbud came out and her fingers waited a moment as her voice dropped to a whisper, and then they were moving, her voice soft at first, trembling, trying to keep her singing below the volume of the music her fingers danced and wrought forth.
Nate listened to the music as she played, his hands cupped around the paper coffee cup he was drinking from, and he slowly, surely made his way towards the girl at the piano. He kept his steps as quiet as he could, not worrying so much if she would hear him. She's busy concentrating on the music, why would she? Eventually, he stood behind her, watching her fingers dance over the ivories, listening to the song she sang.
“Name in the sky does it ever get lonelyyyy….” She sang, her fingers keeping sync, eyes closed, her upper body in gentle motion with all the finesse of one who had played her entire life. Her eyes blinked open for one moment at a higher note, and though her fingers kept moving, though her lips kept singing, her eyes caught…legs…gold-flecked blue eyes traveling up to meet his face. “Baby I'm the one who put you up there…I don't know…why….” Her voice trailed off, her fingers stilled and she sat up. “Hello.”
Nate's lips widened as she noticed his presence, then parted to reveal pearly white teeth. “You play beautifully. Don't stop on my account, miss.” Polite to a fault, he would have rather she'd continued playing while he stood there, listening, enjoying. He could tell she had a background in music, playing the piano, singing, even perhaps a little dance in the way she swayed while playing. He avoided staring into her eyes, trying to see the music she was playing on the tablet, but even that felt a little rude. “What were you playing?”
Katie turned pink at his praise, a hint of a smile twitching one corner of her lips. For a second, her eyes met his, shifting on the stool to make room for him if he wanted to sit. “Erm….Halsey. Without Me. I…love the song.” She said, looking back down at her fingers on the keys. “I…actually haven't played in…a very long time. It feels like forever but maybe it's been a year? A little more?”
Nate noticed the blush cross her cheeks, but not the twitch at her lips. That moment when he looked into her eyes, the moment she returned that gaze, something unspoken crossed between them. He sat down without even thinking. “I can't play.” As he sat, he did his best not to fall off the edge, which meant his body was pressed up against hers. “Your playing didn't give that away, it was beautiful.” He felt almost uncomfortable, being this close to someone in a place like this, but she had invited him.
Katie swallowed. “I…” He was close, his warmth was…throwing her off. She cleared her throat. “Ah, well…thank you…” She said quietly, tucking a stray wisp behind her ear. “My name is Katie.” She offered, holding out her hand, peering up at him with a gentle, friendly smile. “If there's something you'd like to hear…I'd be happy to play it for you, sir. You'd really be doing me a favor, I was terrified to even sit here….” She pressed her lips shut. The man had an aura that serenaded her to spill things she'd kept quiet. She had to be careful.
Nate gave her a subtle nod. “You're welcome, Katie.” He held his coffee in his left hand, lifting his right awkwardly to take her hand in his. Instead of shaking it, he lowered his head to place a kiss in the air barely a sixteenth of an inch above her knuckles, ever the gentleman. “What do you know?” There was a word in there, something he wasn't sure she'd intended, but still buried itself deep in his soul. It was… Unexpected. Pleasant. Something he wanted to hear from her again in future. If he even got to see her again.
Katie was purely thrown out of her element. Her eyes followed his path to just above her fingers, and her own gave the slightest curl around his, brief, not wanting to infringe on his personal space despite being pressed up against him as she was. She thought a few moments. Her fingers plucked out a few notes, then she pulled up sheet music on her tablet and played for a few moments. Her voice began hardly audible as she grew used to singing for someone. “I may cry ruining my make up…wash away all the things you've taken…” Her eyes drifted shut again. “And I don't care if I don't look pretty, big girls cry when their hearts are breaking…” She stumbled on a couple of notes, but then found her zone. “I'm waking up aloh-oh ohhhnne….” Her voice rose, though careful that while she sang from her stomach, her volume didn't lift too loud. She didn't want to make him go deaf…or make him cringe or move. She…wanted him right where he was.
Nate closed his eyes and listened, head swaying a little as she played, as she sang. He didn't realize it was for him, simply thought that she had picked something she enjoyed. It took him those moments to realize the words meant something to her. She was singing from her heart, something he realized only after she stumbled, then her voice rising as she got further involved with the music. He didn't cringe, he didn't move, only to allow her the motion she needed to play, his body swaying with hers, remaining close to her. He didn't speak, waiting for her to finish enjoying both the company and sound in the otherwise quiet club.
Katie didn't understand why she was picking these meaningful songs. Perhaps it was because she hadn't played in so long that she wanted to remember why she loved playing, loved singing, and so she was selecting music that bared little enigmatic pieces of herself. She was used to coming to the place, at first it had been to observe and read a novel she thought to be utter trash, but as she had seen the people, the dynamics at play here, she stayed. She was the Coffee Tea and Scones Girl, aside from slight conversation here and there with Seeley and the tattooed woman she didn't know the name of yet, and she'd been content to just watch life play out here. Her cheeks were red when the last notes faded away and she turned her head to look up at him. “I fear I am being terribly rude, sir, subjecting you to this. You're wonderful for indulging me….I didn't even catch your name.”
Nate stopped his swaying as she finished playing, maintaining the contact against her side. She didn't seem to mind, she hadn't asked him to move. He was always cautious about personal space in a place such as this, so many things could go wrong. He opened his eyes as the last notes drifted away into the air, lost in the moments before. Her voice caught him unexpected, but he did his best not to show that he'd been caught up in her voice. “I'm sorry, I should have told you when you gave me yours. Nathaniel.” He gave another subtle, tiny little nod. There it was again, that word. Did she know what it did to him, even though they'd only just met?
“If you would play, I would listen all day. But before you continue, what brings you to place like this? Work? Play? Someone requires your presence?” A subtle way to ask if she was owned, one she may not even pick up on if she didn't understand his meaning.
Katie pushed her glasses up on her nose as she looked at him. “A pleasure to meet you, Nathaniel.” A flicker crossed her eyes. Nathaniel didn't sound right. It sounded right but…she couldn't put her finger on it, really. “That's very kind of you, sir.” That sounded better? She couldn't explain it. But she -could- write it off as being the polite young woman her mother had raised her to be. “I would play more for you.” She turned pink as she stood and went to get her messenger bag from the chair by the fire. She took that moment to take a sip of her tea. Setting it down, she came back over to him, sitting beside him, touching against his body with her own as they had been sitting before. She fetched a book out of the bag, briefly showing him the cover. A Very Bad BookTM .
“A friend had loaned it to me, I wanted to see what the fuss was about, but it's not even well written. I was going to write my senior thesis on it for my Psych degree.” Her head bowed, still ashamed she'd had to postpone the last semester she needed for her degree. “Someone advised observing here, and some people here gave me other reading suggestions. No one requires my presence here. I just like making the coffee and tea for everyone in the mornings. Sometimes I bring scones.” She whispered.
Nate watched her through her glasses. She spoke his name. Nothing. Not to him, at least. He could see something in her eyes, but then she continued. Another strike to the soul. He lifted his coffee cup to his lips to hide the smile that played over his lips, both from the flush at her cheeks and from her continued use of that word. It almost felt like he had his hooks in her, even though he hadn't intended to when he wandered over to admire her musical talent.
He watched her over the edge of his cup, eyes tracing her path to where she imbibed some of her own drink, then the book. The color drained from his face as he saw what she had in her hands, then she spoke. He listened, taking in her words, and his color returned. She didn't see it as a good example, something he was glad for, and the smile he had played across his lips once more. “Good to know that…” He wanted to call it trash but held back. “Book hasn't given you an odd view of what goes on here.” Looked around, noting the look from the man with the lady in his lap. “Like them?”
He gave them a cursory glance before returning his gaze to Katie. “What suggestions? And if you're here in the mornings, I'll have to make sure I'm here for the coffee.”
Katie idly danced her fingers over the keys. “Once I was seven years old….” She sang quietly. “This book strikes me as someone getting away with metaphorical murder. She's got her own personality, her own job, her own place…and he just swoops in and changes everything. Changes who she is, what makes her…her. He's abusive, he doesn't care about her well being or her needs, he only cares really about his own.” She slid her gaze over to Seeley and the tattooed woman. “Those two make me smile. They clearly love one another.” She said softly.
She blinked, then took out her tablet and opened her bookmark folder. “Well, one told me to just…look online for accounts that were more than anecdotal or fever dreams of a sparkly vampire with a different name. The other recommended a book…” She pulled up another page. “This one.” She showed him. “I…haven't read it yet. My reason for reading isn't really…a reason anymore.” She shrugged, pulling up more sheet music. She began to play again, softly so as not to interrupt their conversation. She did not sing this time, instead preferring to talk to this man who'd come to sit with her.
Nate noted her quiet words, something familiar, but he couldn't place the song. He knew he'd heard it, but he'd heard so many songs over the years. That BookTM was certainly a sore spot amongst the members of the community he knew, and yet it was so popular. “That sums up everything that makes it bad.” He turned again, noting the two sat where they were, the mumbling woman in the man's lap. “I'll have to take your word for it, I'm new here.”
Her mention of the sparkly vampires made him chuckle, again hiding his face in his coffee cup once more. The stories he could tell. He wouldn't be able to use the coffee as an excuse after this time, however, and he crushed the paper cup in his hand, throwing it into the trash can as she continued to speak. “Good to see you have good friends looking out for you. Almost anything is better than…” Again, he bit back his comment, leaving it there. If her hearing was as good as he suspected, she'd be able to hear him swallow down the word itself.
Katie looked over at the two again. “I don't know that they're…friends. Perhaps close acquaintances.” She said softly, honesty in her tone. “Welcome then, sir, if you are new. I hope you find what you're looking for.” She smiled warmly up at him as her fingers stilled. She spoke softly then, something passing between them not meant to be heard.
She rose then, moving behind the bar, pouring a cup of coffee into a mug for him, adding enough cream and sugar so that it matched the color and viscosity of the liquid she'd seen gathering on the edges of his paper cup when he'd crumpled it. Back she came, sitting, offering him the mug.
Nate nodded. Perhaps he'd chosen the wrong word. Friends, acquaintances, colleagues. All words for people he kept at arm's length. She was worming a little closer than that, especially every time she chose to use that word to refer to him. Even without knowing it, she pushed his buttons. “I think I might already have found what I was looking for.” Her words in his ear made him tilt his head to one side, not from the action, but the words themselves. It almost meshed with how he felt.
He watched her go, unable to help himself watching that stride, then as she returned he locked his eyes on her face. Polite. Gentlemanly. His nature not entirely hidden, but obscured. She would find out soon enough if he continued to see her.
He took the mug from her, taking a sip from the mug, savoring what she brought him. Not just the coffee. “It's always better when someone else makes it, isn't it?” He smiled back up at her. “Thank you.” He almost called her something, right there, right now. He barely knew her, that wasn't something you said to someone you'd barely met unless you wanted a slap in the face. He patted the seat next to him. “Please, I'm enjoying your company.”
Katie sat readily back next to him again. She was torn between needed to keep her carefully honed 'public Katie' face, and…what the hell was it about him that had her wanting to lay her head on his shoulder? “It usually is.” She smiled up at him. “And I am…that makes me…happy. I am enjoying yours too.” She rested her hands on her lap. He made her nervous. He unnerved her. But she pushed her glasses up on her nose and took a deep breath. “I…have a studio…well, it was my mother's…I'm thinking of turning it into my own coffee shop…would you like to see it?” She asked.
Nate noted the ease with which she did as he suggested. Perhaps the next time would be a subtle command. He wanted to push her, to find her limits, to get to know her. Perhaps that was phrased the wrong way round, but she intrigued him with his responses. Subtle notes of her state of mind gave away how she was feeling. Even the nervous tic that was pushing her glasses up her nose. Almost as if she needed time to think about her words. The pauses in her words. Hooked.
“I would love to.” He reached over to place one hand on hers, emboldened by her invite. He was prepared to suffer the consequences if she felt it was too forward.
Katie looked at their hands. She adjusted, using her other hand to sweep her tablet into her messenger bag. She looked over to her teacup and his mug, and for a moment the urge to clean up tingled at her. But…she cleaned up every morning after serving coffee and tea. She was a little sick of being fastidious. “Alright. It's about four blocks away in the Newman Tower.” She said aloud, in case her instinct pulled her wrong and something happened. She rose, her hand still in his. “Shall we, sir?”
Nate downed the remains of his coffee, tipping the mug up against his lips and his head back. He pulled down the cover for the piano's keys, setting the mug down to be cleaned up by whoever would do so. He nodded, noting the address, both for now and for future reference. Somewhere he could find her outside of this place. He rose to his feet, and he squeezed her hand slightly as she used that word again. He mumbled under his breath, “keep calling me that and you'll have a friend for life.” He wanted to say something a little different, but if what she said earlier was true, he didn't want to scare her away.
No. It was too soon. Patience. Care. Caution.
Only then would he make her His.
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