[ti]Ep 3[/ti]You've Got a Match! [Oneshot, Closed]
Nov 12, 2022 0:33:46 GMT -5
Post by Nathan Walker on Nov 12, 2022 0:33:46 GMT -5
Week 4, Day 6...
Jasper, Nevada...
6:20 pm Local Time...
It was all a pattern at this point for Nathan. Come home, park the truck in a space close to a light, climb up the stairs to the second story floor. To anyone who happened to observe, this just looked like an average suburban bachelor coming home after a day at work with a pizza. And that is what Nathan intended for it to look like. Just a normal guy coming home from a normal day of work to enjoy normal after work things...
Well, the last part was true...
Nathan closed the door to his second story one bedroom apartment, making sure to lock the door with both the deadbolt and the lock before he pocketed his keys, then set the pizza box on the bartop in the kitchen before he went back and sat down with his back against the door while he undid his boots and tucked them underneath the coat rack that sat against the wall. Once that was done he stood up and pulled off the button down shirt he wore, leaving him in his white undershirt, jeans and socks while exposing the Glock tucked into the small of the back holster he wore. It was all a part of his ritual, taking off the mask that he wore when he was out in public.
Tonight was game night. His team, the Phoenix Suns, were facing their NBA rival the Houston Spurs in ten minutes. That meant he had to get ready. He took the button down shirt and tossed it into the dirty clothes hamper before heading over to the living room and turning on the television, flipping over to the sports channel. Sure enough, NBA Countdown was already underway. Nathan turned down the volume slightly, not caring too much to listen to the so-called ‘experts’. The real fun would happen soon enough anyway. He went back over into the kitchen and went into the refrigerator, pulling out a can of Guinness before closing the refrigerator door and grabbing a paper plate along with a few paper towels, then grabbed the pizza from the bar and walked back into the living room. He set everything down on the coffee table, making sure to place a coaster down before he set the beer can down. Some people might call him obsessive, but that table had been handmade for him back in Kentucky by a friend out of some fine maple hardwood. Speaking of which...he reached down and pulled out the hand towel he kept underneath the table and set it down, then placed his wallet, keys, and handgun with holster onto the hand towel before sitting down in front of the television.
He had a few minutes before tipoff according to the television, so Nathan took his phone out of his pocket to check the weather two weeks from now. First thing he had done when he found out he was being transferred to Nevada all those months ago was to get a hunting license, which he had managed to get just in time for mule deer season. He had managed to get a buck tag, and had been out to Humboldt-Toiyabe earlier in the month to do some reconnaissance. Now he just needed to make sure that the weather was going to hold in two weeks when he intended to go up for the weekend. He made a mental note to take his Winchester to that range he had spotted on his drive out to Omega, just to make sure that it was still sighted in. Part of him wondered if he would see Cassandra out while he was hunting. He’d have to ask her...
*DING!*
*You’ve Got a Match!*
Nathan stared at the notification on his cellphone for a moment before it clicked in his brain. A few months ago, when he had first moved to Nevada, he had finally caved to the pressure from his mother to “get back out there into the dating scene”. He had resisted her for the past two years, feeling he wasn’t ready to be vulnerable again. It wasn’t until he had been with Bob Miller to say goodbye that he’d changed his mind. So he’d gotten on a dating app, made a profile, and put himself out there...only to be somewhat disappointed. It wasn’t that the women weren’t beautiful out here, or below him...he just didn’t feel much of an attraction to anyone. He couldn’t put his finger on the why, though part of him wondered if he was just being a coward...
Just then the starting theme began to play. Nathan stared at his phone screen again as the notification banner disappeared, then shrugged and set the phone on the hand towel covering the table. He’d take a look at half time. He reached up and lifted the lid on the pizza box, revealing the medium supreme pizza he had ordered from Jerry’s Pizza, that hole in the wall Italian place in town he had heard about. Just as the tipoff occurred, Nathan reached over and grabbed the beer can, opening the top before leaning back on the couch to take a sip. He needed this...it had been a crazy past couple of weeks. First he was selected to work directly with the Autobots...then that whole issue with Patch going missing, Bumblebee and Neon getting fucked up...he needed to sit down, drink beer, and eat pizza while shutting his brain off for a few hours watching one of his sports teams play...
The game seemed to go pretty well during the first quarter for the Suns. Ayton had managed to stop a fastbreak from Jones and get the ball over to Booker who put up a three, helping the Suns gain a five point lead which grew to a six point lead when Booker put up a second three soon after that which the Suns managed to hold despite the Spurs dogged persistence. By the end of the quarter the Suns were leading 31-25. On top of that, the pizza from Jerry’s was just as good as advertised. Nathan had to pace himself in order to make it last, savoring it along with his beer.
*DING!*
Nathan’s attention was turned away from the game just as the Spurs passed the ball in to start the second quarter towards his phone on the table. A bit confused, he wiped his hands with one of the paper towels and reached over, taking the phone and looking at the screen.
*You’ve received a message from Sarah!*
So...her name was Sarah. Nathan searched his memory for a few moments before he thought he managed to put a face to the name. Sarah, twenty eight years old, red hair, blue eyes, lives in Jasper. Summary on her profile was somewhat guarded, giving a basic description of a fun loving girl who enjoyed the quiet moments in life and was a hard worker, but other than that did not provide much in the way of information about her private life like some of the other profiles he had seen. Though the fact that she had made the first move was interesting...suddenly his attention was not on the game anymore...
Nathan opened his phone and pulled up the app, sure enough he had been right when he put the name to the face. Though what caught him off guard was the message.
“Why did you swipe right?”
Well...she was certainly direct. Not like many of the other women that Nathan had chatted with had been like that, most of them coming up with some cheesy pick-up line regarding his “rugged good looks” or something that had been in his summary. This...this was somewhat refreshing. Though that begged the question. Why did he swipe right on her? In all honesty? He was intrigued by her summary. It was almost like she was inside a bunker and had opened a small window to allow others to see in, but she had chosen a window that didn’t offer much visibility and had carefully staged what could be seen. In other words, extremely cautious. Kinda like him...
Now how to phrase that without sounding weird...think Nathan, think...
After a few minutes, he began typing.
“I think for the same reason you did.”
He set the phone down on the couch, leaning his head back and taking another sip from his beer. Not thirty seconds later there was another alert, and he opened the phone back up again.
“And what is that reason?”
He looked away for a few moments before replying.
“Curiosity."
Nathan accidently hit send, and quickly typed an additional reply while swearing under his breath.
“Your profile was both a window and a wall. Clear enough to give a basic description but opaque enough to hide a lot of details about yourself.”
As he hit send, part of him wondered if he was overdoing it or coming off as weird. He leaned his head back on the couch again, his mind completely ignoring the game on the television even as Bridges drove past the entire Spurs team on the court and buried a beautiful one handed dunk to score another two points for the Suns. When the notification came he was almost too afraid to look at it, but he did anyway.
“Kind of like yours.”
He let out the breath he didn’t realize he had been holding.
“Yeah.”
The next few hours felt like minutes as Nathan chatted with Sarah. He could sense that she was still being cautious, causing him to wonder what might have happened to make her so guarded. If he had to venture a guess, it was a bad experience with her last partner, something he could relate to. But he made no attempt to figure out that mystery yet, and inwardly he was grateful that she didn’t try to pry too deeply into his past either. She seemed fine with just making small talk, asking the basic questions that weren’t covered in the profile and summary. Favorite foods, favorite type of music, ideal vacation spot, etc. By the time Nathan finally pried himself away from his phone the post-game show was starting, but strangely enough Nathan didn’t care too much to rewind and see the results of the game, instead grabbing the remote and shutting off the television. When it got to ten o’clock, he didn’t want it to end. But he had work to do in the morning...
“Well, I have an early morning tomorrow, so I’m afraid I have to call it a night.”
Her reply was only a few seconds later.
“Okay.”
However just as Nathan was going to type a reply, there was another message.
“I’d like to talk to you another time, if that’s alright?”
At this, Nathan felt a smile crossing his face.
“I’d like that.”
Jasper, Nevada...
6:20 pm Local Time...
It was all a pattern at this point for Nathan. Come home, park the truck in a space close to a light, climb up the stairs to the second story floor. To anyone who happened to observe, this just looked like an average suburban bachelor coming home after a day at work with a pizza. And that is what Nathan intended for it to look like. Just a normal guy coming home from a normal day of work to enjoy normal after work things...
Well, the last part was true...
Nathan closed the door to his second story one bedroom apartment, making sure to lock the door with both the deadbolt and the lock before he pocketed his keys, then set the pizza box on the bartop in the kitchen before he went back and sat down with his back against the door while he undid his boots and tucked them underneath the coat rack that sat against the wall. Once that was done he stood up and pulled off the button down shirt he wore, leaving him in his white undershirt, jeans and socks while exposing the Glock tucked into the small of the back holster he wore. It was all a part of his ritual, taking off the mask that he wore when he was out in public.
Tonight was game night. His team, the Phoenix Suns, were facing their NBA rival the Houston Spurs in ten minutes. That meant he had to get ready. He took the button down shirt and tossed it into the dirty clothes hamper before heading over to the living room and turning on the television, flipping over to the sports channel. Sure enough, NBA Countdown was already underway. Nathan turned down the volume slightly, not caring too much to listen to the so-called ‘experts’. The real fun would happen soon enough anyway. He went back over into the kitchen and went into the refrigerator, pulling out a can of Guinness before closing the refrigerator door and grabbing a paper plate along with a few paper towels, then grabbed the pizza from the bar and walked back into the living room. He set everything down on the coffee table, making sure to place a coaster down before he set the beer can down. Some people might call him obsessive, but that table had been handmade for him back in Kentucky by a friend out of some fine maple hardwood. Speaking of which...he reached down and pulled out the hand towel he kept underneath the table and set it down, then placed his wallet, keys, and handgun with holster onto the hand towel before sitting down in front of the television.
He had a few minutes before tipoff according to the television, so Nathan took his phone out of his pocket to check the weather two weeks from now. First thing he had done when he found out he was being transferred to Nevada all those months ago was to get a hunting license, which he had managed to get just in time for mule deer season. He had managed to get a buck tag, and had been out to Humboldt-Toiyabe earlier in the month to do some reconnaissance. Now he just needed to make sure that the weather was going to hold in two weeks when he intended to go up for the weekend. He made a mental note to take his Winchester to that range he had spotted on his drive out to Omega, just to make sure that it was still sighted in. Part of him wondered if he would see Cassandra out while he was hunting. He’d have to ask her...
*DING!*
*You’ve Got a Match!*
Nathan stared at the notification on his cellphone for a moment before it clicked in his brain. A few months ago, when he had first moved to Nevada, he had finally caved to the pressure from his mother to “get back out there into the dating scene”. He had resisted her for the past two years, feeling he wasn’t ready to be vulnerable again. It wasn’t until he had been with Bob Miller to say goodbye that he’d changed his mind. So he’d gotten on a dating app, made a profile, and put himself out there...only to be somewhat disappointed. It wasn’t that the women weren’t beautiful out here, or below him...he just didn’t feel much of an attraction to anyone. He couldn’t put his finger on the why, though part of him wondered if he was just being a coward...
Just then the starting theme began to play. Nathan stared at his phone screen again as the notification banner disappeared, then shrugged and set the phone on the hand towel covering the table. He’d take a look at half time. He reached up and lifted the lid on the pizza box, revealing the medium supreme pizza he had ordered from Jerry’s Pizza, that hole in the wall Italian place in town he had heard about. Just as the tipoff occurred, Nathan reached over and grabbed the beer can, opening the top before leaning back on the couch to take a sip. He needed this...it had been a crazy past couple of weeks. First he was selected to work directly with the Autobots...then that whole issue with Patch going missing, Bumblebee and Neon getting fucked up...he needed to sit down, drink beer, and eat pizza while shutting his brain off for a few hours watching one of his sports teams play...
The game seemed to go pretty well during the first quarter for the Suns. Ayton had managed to stop a fastbreak from Jones and get the ball over to Booker who put up a three, helping the Suns gain a five point lead which grew to a six point lead when Booker put up a second three soon after that which the Suns managed to hold despite the Spurs dogged persistence. By the end of the quarter the Suns were leading 31-25. On top of that, the pizza from Jerry’s was just as good as advertised. Nathan had to pace himself in order to make it last, savoring it along with his beer.
*DING!*
Nathan’s attention was turned away from the game just as the Spurs passed the ball in to start the second quarter towards his phone on the table. A bit confused, he wiped his hands with one of the paper towels and reached over, taking the phone and looking at the screen.
*You’ve received a message from Sarah!*
So...her name was Sarah. Nathan searched his memory for a few moments before he thought he managed to put a face to the name. Sarah, twenty eight years old, red hair, blue eyes, lives in Jasper. Summary on her profile was somewhat guarded, giving a basic description of a fun loving girl who enjoyed the quiet moments in life and was a hard worker, but other than that did not provide much in the way of information about her private life like some of the other profiles he had seen. Though the fact that she had made the first move was interesting...suddenly his attention was not on the game anymore...
Nathan opened his phone and pulled up the app, sure enough he had been right when he put the name to the face. Though what caught him off guard was the message.
“Why did you swipe right?”
Well...she was certainly direct. Not like many of the other women that Nathan had chatted with had been like that, most of them coming up with some cheesy pick-up line regarding his “rugged good looks” or something that had been in his summary. This...this was somewhat refreshing. Though that begged the question. Why did he swipe right on her? In all honesty? He was intrigued by her summary. It was almost like she was inside a bunker and had opened a small window to allow others to see in, but she had chosen a window that didn’t offer much visibility and had carefully staged what could be seen. In other words, extremely cautious. Kinda like him...
Now how to phrase that without sounding weird...think Nathan, think...
After a few minutes, he began typing.
“I think for the same reason you did.”
He set the phone down on the couch, leaning his head back and taking another sip from his beer. Not thirty seconds later there was another alert, and he opened the phone back up again.
“And what is that reason?”
He looked away for a few moments before replying.
“Curiosity."
Nathan accidently hit send, and quickly typed an additional reply while swearing under his breath.
“Your profile was both a window and a wall. Clear enough to give a basic description but opaque enough to hide a lot of details about yourself.”
As he hit send, part of him wondered if he was overdoing it or coming off as weird. He leaned his head back on the couch again, his mind completely ignoring the game on the television even as Bridges drove past the entire Spurs team on the court and buried a beautiful one handed dunk to score another two points for the Suns. When the notification came he was almost too afraid to look at it, but he did anyway.
“Kind of like yours.”
He let out the breath he didn’t realize he had been holding.
“Yeah.”
The next few hours felt like minutes as Nathan chatted with Sarah. He could sense that she was still being cautious, causing him to wonder what might have happened to make her so guarded. If he had to venture a guess, it was a bad experience with her last partner, something he could relate to. But he made no attempt to figure out that mystery yet, and inwardly he was grateful that she didn’t try to pry too deeply into his past either. She seemed fine with just making small talk, asking the basic questions that weren’t covered in the profile and summary. Favorite foods, favorite type of music, ideal vacation spot, etc. By the time Nathan finally pried himself away from his phone the post-game show was starting, but strangely enough Nathan didn’t care too much to rewind and see the results of the game, instead grabbing the remote and shutting off the television. When it got to ten o’clock, he didn’t want it to end. But he had work to do in the morning...
“Well, I have an early morning tomorrow, so I’m afraid I have to call it a night.”
Her reply was only a few seconds later.
“Okay.”
However just as Nathan was going to type a reply, there was another message.
“I’d like to talk to you another time, if that’s alright?”
At this, Nathan felt a smile crossing his face.
“I’d like that.”