Elias
As the sun begins to set over the great city of New York, Elias is settling onto a park bench in one of its many parks. This one happens to be closer to the Columbia campus than some of the others. He's got one hand wrapped around a paper cup of expensive coffee and the other wrapped around a phone as he flips through his contact list looking for a name. When he finally settles on Natalie's, he sighs, considers, sighs again and hits send, bringing the phone to his ear to listen to it ring. He doesn't say anything immediately when it picks up, expecting the voicemail greeting.
Natalie would be so very heart-warmed to know the enthusiasm with which Elias dials her number. Indeed, it would pick her frustrated spirit right up! As it is, she's seated crosslegged in the middle of her bed, staring down at her laptop as she types. The ring of her cell phone jerks her out of concentration and she curses under her breath before she stretches out sideways to scoop it up from the table. She glances down at it briefly to note the name, mutters something else, and then flips it open. "Hey."
"Oh! Hey." The trepidation that lurked in his mood vanishes when Natalie actually answers the phone, Eli's voice sounding hopeful, almost cheerful after. "Um. Sorry." He follows up, concern edging in again. "Hope I'm not interrupting anything."
"Doing work, same as usual," Natalie says briskly, adjusting the phone to her other hand.
"Feel like a break? I could bring over coffee or pizza - or something chocolatey. Kind of by any type of store you could imagine right now." Elias stands up at this, looking around to start to spot the direction he could go for each of these items.
There is a moment's pause, drawn out past several breaths before Natalie says, "You want to come over?"
"Unless you'd rather go out?" Elias offers the option, drawing in a deep breath after, holding it unconsciously.
"Er. No," Natalie says after a brief moment. She sighs audibly and pushes herself up from her bed, arching back a little in a stretch. "I'll be here. You can bring something if you want-- doesn't really matter much."
Elias nods and then relays this information more vocally. "Okay, fifteen minutes." Elias then hangs up and starts walking, heading out of the park and toward a near by, rather tasty pizzeria. When he does show up at Natalie's apartment, he does have a six pack of beer and a pizza that smells of bacon and pepperoni along with cheese and fresh bread.
Natalie's apartment remains noticably sparkling, minus the usual piles of papers and dirty dishes. Her laptop remains open on her bed, visible through the door, when she undoes the locks and lets Elias in. She steps back, swinging the door wide with a sweep of her hand.
"Best I can do on short notice. The beer's not swill and the pizza's not cardboard." Eli smiles warmly as he steps in, toeing out of his shoes unconsciously, especially in the face of all this cleanliness. He looks around and lets out a low whistle. "Showing the place?" People only clean like this for real estate agents.
"Huh?" Natalie says, blinking at Elias as he steps in before she moves to do up the locks behind him. "What?"
"It's very clean." Eli notes, taking the beer to the fridge and putting some of it away.
"Oh. Yes. I cleaned," Natalie explains. The fridge is already home to a decent collection of beer, but there's surely room for more. Natalie trails after a bit, resting against the edge of the counter that separates living room from kitchen.
Elias slips the beer in and then turns around and sets the pizza down between them, resting on the counter. "I'm sorry. About all of this. Things have been weird. I had to get out of the city."
"Sure," Natalie says lightly, and jerks her head toward a cupboard to Elias' left. "Plates are there."
Elias turns around and grabs two plates, setting them down on the counter before opening the pizza box. While there is a healthy smattering of vegetables on the pie, there is no clear line between that which contains meat and that which is veggie only. Elias doesn't seem to mind as he tears a slice off and puts it on a plate for himself. "I really wanted to tell you myself."
Natalie snorts audibly and leans in to peer at the pizza, her expression hidden by her bent head.
"Bahir gave me two days - and I was on a train to Georgia the next. I - I really have no excuse." The pizza rests on his plate untouched as Eli purses his lips, looking over at Natalie, quieting.
Natalie finally chooses a piece of pizza, small and not overly populated with bacon, so that when she sinks back onto one of the barstools she can focus on picking it off. "How was Georgia?"
"Eh, too quiet for my tastes, but a good break. Meeting the parents, I guess." Eli rolls his eyes and inhales deeply, cradling the plate of pizza near by. Having ordered it, he doesn't need to pick anything off.
Natalie blinks for a momen and glances up at Elias. Silence stretches into realization before she says, "Oh. Right." And resumes her picking.
"Then there was a quick trip to L.A. to get things set for the move." Elias concludes.
"How was that?" Natalie chews.
"Productive. There's a place to stay - shared residence, sort of like a duplex. The job's secure. I'm signed for the first 13 episodes of the season. If the show's contract is renewed, then mine is as well, you know, barring scandal, death, bad opinion polls, things ike that." Elias finally takes a bite to give himself a moment to think. "Pretty good money. Should help me get out of debt."
Natalie squints at Elias for a moment. "Show?"
"It's one of those obnoxious teen dramas where everyone's sleeping with everyone and their parent and wearing what will set the trend for the next year." Eli shrugs. "It's a new one. They're trying a different approach - letting me design and sell the clothing exclusively to the studio's buyers. It's being written in as a branch to my current label and the lawyers I've spoken to - ones in New York - say it's a good deal."
Natalie looks, for a moment, clearly and absolutely horrified. Her "I see," is faint.
"It's work." Eli replies, taking a big bite. He chews.
"Sounds like," Natalie answers, taking a small bite. She chews.
"How's your paper coming along?" Eli returns, brows rising.
"Done."
"When's the defense?"
"Week and a half."
"Ah." Eli takes another bite before heading to the fridge to get a beer. He waves it in her direction.
"Sure," Natalie allows, and leans back, leaving the crust of her pizza to rest on her plate.
Elias grabs another and passes the first to Natalie, closing the refrigerator door behind him. He twists the lid off his own and leans against the counter, pulling off a pepperoni and munching on it. "I'm..." he amends the thought, "You should visit - or tell me when you're in California and I'll visit."
"I don't really go to LA," Natalie says a bit shortly, although she leans forward to tug her beer toward her swiftly enough. A twist uncaps it, and she leans back for a long swallow.
"I know," Eli responds readily.
Well. As long as he knows. Natalie considers him for a moment and then takes another swallow of beer.
Elias remains silent, grabbing another slice of pizza and placing it on his plate before taking another pull off his bottle of beer.
And so silence stretches, quite past 'comfortable' and clearly into 'awkward' while they drink.
"You're mad?" Eli finally asks.
Natalie glances up at Elias and levels a Look at him. After a stretch of silence, she says, "Thank you for the pizza. I've kind of got a presentation to finish writing, though."
"Come on, Natalie. Don't be like this." Eli tries, a little stiff, his ears pinkening, quite visible since his hair is short cropped.
"What, Elias? It's been a rough couple of months for you. I'm not going to throw a fit." Natalie's voice edges toward annoyance, and she frowns and hides the last in another long swallow.
"Well, yes," Elias replies, fingers curling around the bottle a little tighter. "But this - this is like, hell, I don't know, you're cutting me out of your life."
"You're moving to L.A.," Natalie reminds stiffly.
"And you get free plane tickets." Eli is blunt. "Come on. I'll be back several times visiting my family and keeping a presence in New York for my clothing line." He sets down his bottle and pushes it away. "All that aside, this is the age of technology. I can email. I can call."
"You /can/," Natalie says. "You also /could have/. Be honest with yourself, Elias. It's fucking stupid to pretend. I'm sure you will like LA and it will be a wonderful change for you guys and goodness knows that escaping this city is a good idea. So go, move on with your life, have fun."
"What? I took a couple weeks off while I was out of state and now I never keep in touch?" There's more than a hint of sarcasm in his tone. "I have to say I'm confused."
"I'm not going to sit here and argue with you, Elias," Natalie answers, her tone gone very flat in response to sarcasm. "Fine. You keep in touch, and you will. Excellent news. And thank you for the pizza."
"Fine." Elias leaves everything where it is and heads for the door, grabbing his shoes and stepping into them, much to the detriment of the heel. "I'll keep in touch. Call you later." He fumbles for a moment with the locks before pulling the door open and stepping out into the hall.
"Sure," Natalie says tightly, and leans forward into the counter as Elias exits.
Elias closes the door behind him, making it only five feet before he has to kneel down and fix his shoes. He heads on toward the elevator afterward.
Natalie stays at her counter and drinks some beer.
THE END.
Elias calls. It goes well.