die for you

[nate-hewitt]

-introducing Nate

AGE: forty-five. PRONOUNS: he/him STATUS: single. never married SEXUALITY: heterosexual. OCCUPATION: university professor

nate was raised in an upper-middle-class home: the only son of two authors who really cultivated his love for literature. he knew he wanted to go into high education out of college.

he had a pretty serious girlfriend in high school - delilah but he knew that long distance would not work and he had a goal in mind. they broke up after high school and remained close

nate is currently working at the University of Washington as a lit professor

he's been in London sporadically due to his work

8 years ago he ran into delilah again and it felt like the pieces were finally in the right place and after a year and a half of dating he was ready to propose when he was called to London for a summer job. he took it with the plan of proposing once he got back home.

he was heartbroken to find out she was pregnant

now he's just enjoying the single life

[akseldemir]

aksel: i'm hoping that's a joke, but now that you mention it... you're saved under "karma's bitch." aksel: the first one looks like it would clash with the grey. it's hard to tell without seeing them with the suit though.

[nate-hewitt]

nate: i'm touched that I'm saved in your contacts. nate: alright give me a sec. nate: -attached photos with the suit- nate: still clashes?

[dina-thomas]

Dina: oh, damn. i was wondering why it said they were delivered. they were just at your place, ha! Dina: do you really want to keep them? i mean... i don't know if you'd be interested in them.

[nate-hewitt]

Nate: you do know that you can set it so they all come in the same box right? Nate: What's in them? Now I'm curious.

[ezekieltandy]

— nate hewitt ; pike place market.

One could have wasted an entire day away while trying to canvas every inch of the busy market. There was something for everyone and everyone for something within the booths that lined each side of the walkway. He'd already had his weight in free samples, and as he sipped on a bitter coffee (another sample), he scanned over the booths before spotting a familiar face in the crowd. "Finding anything good today, Mr. Hewitt?" He was teasing, of course, his smile having given him away. "It's good to see you, Nate. You want some company?" @nate-hewitt

[nate-hewitt]

nate enjoyed the tourist places. it brought an air of new to his everyday. he had learned that seattle was the place he enjoyed planting roots in after his traveling years. his head popped up at the sound of his name, a name that he rarely used outside of campus. "Zeke, how are you man?" he asked with a nodd as he extended his hand out for a shake. "Yeah, of course. I would have thought you don't get weekends nowadays."

[akseldemir]

aksel: who forgets they have a wedding? aksel: i like the second one.

[nate-hewitt]

nate: it's the old age. what's your name again? nate: why that one?

[nate-hewitt]

TEXT NATE → DINA

Nate: your amazon orders are getting dropped off at my door. Nate: Legally i think I'm allowed to keep them. @dina-thomas

[nate-hewitt]

TEXT Nate → Askel

Nate: I forgot I had to go to a wedding this weekend in Bellevue Nate: -photo of two separate ties- Nate: Which one would look better with a gray suit?

[cemile-sahinx]

"Thank you." Cemile came out from behind the counter—scooping the cat from the man. "He was just abandoned?" She questioned, her brows scrunching before she began inspecting the cat for signs of neglect.

[nate-hewitt]

"i think so. he wasn't easy to catch but he seems friendly enough." he had grown fond of the cat in the small time it took him to get a blanket to wrap him in and get him situated in the car. "i don't know if you're able to see if he belongs to anyone."

[delilahcarreno-blog]

She couldn't remember the last time she'd seen him.

It'd been well over a year, far longer since they'd last spoken, and neither amount of time is too long for Delilah to blame him for. Seattle was a small town by no means, but it was funny how small a place could suddenly become when you were trying to avoid someone. Funny how a person could go from being your best friend, someone you thought you were prepared to spend your life with, to a total stranger.

A total stranger who is not happy to see you at the local grocery store. That much is clear, the terse cut of his words, the rigid line of his shoulders...thankfully, she doesn't think the wine in his cart had anything to do with her, though if he cracked a bottle open right there in the middle of the aisle, who could blame him?

"...you're right, I'm sorry. I didn't realize I was blocking the way." Her head shook, reaching to push the cart straight before bending to retrieve the splattered, but still usable cupcakes. They were placed in her cart, and upon second glance at his, she couldn't help but ask, "is your mom in town?" Very few things called for that many bottles.

[nate-hewitt]

acid build in his throat as he looked her over. there was no more anger in him, just plain darkness when it came to delilah. the darkness that stayed with him long after he had left. he would say that it hadn't affected him, he would say that it hadn't even affected his writing but that was just lies. she was scattered in his life in ways that he couldn't even understand at the time. she had even introduced him to the very same grocery store that they were both standing in. for years he had avoid it until he deemed it safe after years of not running into her.

"it's fine." he curtly responded. it was always just fine. those were even his words when she had broken the news that she was pregnant. pregnant with someone else's child. the cheating had stung, the fucking proof of it made it even worse. his eyes glanced down at the rolling bottles of wine in his cart. with half a mind of opening one in the middle of aisle 4 he responded back with a short nod. "and you? getting enough cupcakes to feed your family?" his words filled with vile and disdain.

[akseldemir]

Instant gratification was music to her ears. A coy grin slipped onto her mouth, a brow arched upwards as her gaze locked with his. "What about the wait? Isn't that what makes it worth it sometimes? No one likes getting what comes easy." There was a thrill behind waiting, but her mind wandered off past the conversation at hand, leaving her to wonder if he sought out instant gratification in every aspect of his life. "Okay, then what is it? Did you break someone's heart? Steal someone's cat? Please tell me you didn't ding someone's care trying to parallel park, and then left a vague note of an apology?"

[nate-hewitt]

"but what if the wait just leads to tension. tension building and getting to a high that just ends up being disappointing?" Nate countered back veering from their polite conversation in a coffee shop. "I'll have you know i'm an excellent parallel parker, so no not that." He shook his head meeting her gaze. "I don't know i'm just ready to tell you yet."

[lucianaortiz]

Sunny would like to claim that bumping into strangers, or general clumsiness, wasn't exactly her MO but if she tried that, she would most definitely be lying. Outside of flying and the high school soccer she played, which was only because she was a goalie and not someone who had to run up and down a field the entire game or have a ton of foot coordination, she was basically a walking, talking baby giraffe and bumping into strangers was something that happened more than she'd like to admit. Thankfully, the man seemed charming and gracious and pulled a chuckle from her lips as her smile widened at the joke. "We could, but my company's insurance is a joke so I'm not sure it would do you much good. Doing a research paper on planes or something? You look a little too old for high school."

[nate-hewitt]

"you might want to bump up your insurance if this becomes more of a habit." he continued to joke with a small laugh as he put his pen in his coat pocket. "Are you saying I'm too old to be prom king? first, you bulldoze right through me and add insult to injury. " he shook his head. it was part of his natural banter, he always found it easy to make conversations with others and she was making it that much easier for him. "would you believe neither? just needed a place to think that wasn't a library. maybe come up with an idea or two for book?" that was the hope at least, most of his own ideas looked very similar to the relics in front of them. either on the floor attached to too many things or hanging in place not going anywhere."

[joshhcrtnett]

[akseldemir]

That much she could agree on, but for the sake of staying spiteful, she wouldn't. "I take it you aren't a patient man? Even for the things that are worth the wait?" She'd appreciated his honesty up until this point and didn't expect that to change. What she hadn't expected was him actually caring about what she had to say. Though, just because he asked didn't mean that he did. "The coffee, the scone, the chair. If you aren't a path of redemption, then what's the point?"

[nate-hewitt]

"it's a character flaw, why delay the inevitable when instant gratification just tastes so much better." he countered back. he hated waiting, waiting always brought disappointment. he was the type that enjoyed and expected quickness. "I think a better question would be what am I hoping to redeem myself from? if, like you've said, i'm pulling out all the stops with the coffee, the scone, and chair."

[delilahcarreno-blog]

The third grade bake sale had completely slipped Delilah's mind. If not for Theo's most recent trouble (re: Slimegate 2023), perhaps she would have just said forget it and just doubled down for the classes Valentine's Day party instead, but not wanting to give the school administration another reason to possibly wonder as to just what was taking place in the Carreño household, the redhead found herself at the local grocery store's bakery section the night before, about to commit the cardinal sin of any PTA mom: store-bought cupcakes.

Jenny Warren would never let her hear the end of it if she knew. Just the thought of that conversation alone was enough to set Delilah on edge, but she had a plan. Mess up the frosting a little, add some of her own sprinkles, put them on one of her platters and no one, least of all Jenny Warren, would ever know.

But maybe she was more on edge than she realized. A sudden bump against her own grocery cart had Delilah jumping, the tray of cupcakes in her hand falling from her grip and landing at her feet...which might not have been the worst thing, regarding her plan.

"It might not look like it, but you've actually just done me a huge--" She took a brief glance up from the carnage, just to guarantee that it was not Jenny Warren or one of her cronies, but the easy smile that'd come to her lips is wiped clean at the sight of the man standing before her, "...favor."

@nate-hewitt

[nate-hewitt]

nate's fridge was in dire need of groceries, with his mother coming over for an overdue family dinner he needed to show her that he wasn't starving and that he was in fact fine. it was his mom's job to worry, he wouldn't take that from her. it came from a valid place and he didn't fault her for it. he simply wanted her to worry to stop translating to her setting up dates with whoever she saw at church that weekend. that's when he realized he needed wine to make it through the night. nothing stronger that that but something that would hold him over.

"sorry-" the word barely made it out of him before he registered who the voice belong to. if it was up to him, he wouldn't have to see her again, ever. he had handed his heart to her not once but twice and each time he was left looking like an idiot. "You might want to get a different package." if he knew anything about delilah was that she didn't do pre-packaged cupcakes, why hadn't she used someone in her contacts to make her some- wait that wasn't his concern. nothing to do with her concern him anymore. "might want to be more careful next time.."

[lucianaortiz]

location: museum of flight. status: open @sewastarters

The last place anyone would want to be on their day off was a museum dedicated to what the did for a living. She wouldn't expect a banker to visit the national treasury or a racecar driver to visit a museum about racing — yet, she often found herself at the museum of flight, fascinating with the ins and outs and creation of the thing she loved the most; flying. She'd walked to exhibits inside of the museum over a dozen times since moving to Seattle, rereading plaques for the millionth time and learning history Sunny already knew by heart. Still, she always managed to get distracted by looking at everything the museum had to offer, this time accidentally bumping into the person in front of them, both of them distracted enough to not notice their surroundings until it was too late and Sunny's forehead knocked against the other person, surprising her just as much as she probably surprised them. Stepping back, her fingertips pressed against the spot on her head and a soft laugh fell from her lips. "I'm so sorry, I wasn't even watching where I was going and I didn't see you until... well, I'm seeing you now. Are you okay? Sorry, I definitely should've asked that first."

[nate-hewitt]

the bump brought nate back to what he was doing. his pen rolling past him had broken his concentration. he had needed a quiet place to concentrate that would allow him the capacity to people-watch. the museum was a good mix of both. his notebook scattered with ideas that could be made into books. if they ever made it out of the idea phase. he was the epitome of those who can't do, teach. "you're alright." he reassured the stranger as best he could as he mirrored the same action as the woman. his fingers finally wrapped around the pen as he showed it to her. giving them both an out for their clumsiness. "should we trade insurances?"

[akseldemir]

She'd long given up on anything good coming her way. Even when it did, she had a thing for self-sabotaging until it faded away just out of reach. "Oh, I'm not concerned about that. I've had to wait before. Patience is a virtue," she shrugged as a devilish grin coated her cherry stained lips. Considering the not-so-karma-friendly things she did on the daily, there was no way she'd ever dig herself out of karma debt. "Oh, I'm accepting my damned fate, which means the wobbly chair is all you. You're on a do-gooder roll, I'd hate to mess that up."

[nate-hewitt]

"patience is overrated." he countered back at her glancing down only for a moment to notice her smug grin. "what about me screams do-gooder to you? I could be selling puppies on the side that you don't know about. I blatantly judge my students on a daily basis. I think as a gentleman I should give you the chair."

[nate-hewitt]

@cemile-sahinx

"So I found this little one meowing behind my place. I gave him some milk, that's all I had."