Paige Goodall (shearmadness) wrote in remains_rpg, @ 2017-04-07 22:20:00 |
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Entry tags: | # 2020 [02] february, nathan posey, paige goodall |
Who: Paige Goodall & Nate Posey
Where: Clothes Encounter
What: A tour. And some awkwardness. And an accidental kiss. Oops.
When: [backdated] February 7, 2020
Paige had some design ideas to finish up but Nate’s appearance in her shop seemed like a good excuse to take a break from the busy last few days. True to her prediction she had a few of her former clients reach out to announce their engagement and express their desire to get a head start on wedding dress designs. Paige thought the whole Valentine’s day proposal was a little cliche, but not every girl could have the question popped right after their sailor made landfall after being deployed. “Thanks for stopping by,” she smiled, moving over to Nate to give him a brief hug, which he welcomed and returned easily. They were making progress on their friendship, and after their platonic sleepover the other night, Paige felt more hopeful than she had in awhile. It had felt good to spend time with him and catch up about life, talking about everything and nothing. Once she pulled back, she gestured to the small but cute main area of the shop. “Do you want any coffee or water before I give you the grand tour?” Looking around, he wasn’t real surprised by the look of the place. It felt like Paige to him, the same way her apartment had. Her fingerprints were all over. “A coffee, if it ain’t a lot of trouble,” he replied, then added, “This is nice. I bet y’all get a lot of compliments about it, huh?” Paige had always made sure that their place was well decorated, much to the envy of some of the other Navy wives. Or so Nathan had heard from his buddies. “I don’t reckon y’all have this in my size, though,” he joked, taking a pink polkadot top off the rack and holding it up. Paige laughed, envisioning Nate wearing such an item, and shook her head. “No, I think that would have to be a custom order,” she teased as she led them back towards the dressing room. She’d set up a little kitchen area back there, complete with a coffee maker… even if it was the most basic model on the market. Coffee was coffee! After pouring them each a cup she held the mug out to him and smiled. “Good thing you don’t take cream, because I ran out and haven’t made it to Walker’s to get more yet.” Nathan’s expression changed briefly with the reference, surprised, but brushed it off. “Yeah, good thing,” he agreed. Unconsciously she’d turned an innocent cup of coffee into a reminder of their previous familiarity. Doing her best not to dwell, however, she gestured to the corner and said, “Well, this is the kitchen area. I haven’t stooped so low as to have a stove or anything, but some basic supplies and a microwave can get me pretty far. And over here is the dressing room where normal sized people can try on my clothes,” she said with a smirk. “I reckon I could fit in there if I tried,” He defended, taking the few steps to open the dressing room door and look inside. “It ain’t like I’m a giant.” Nathan countered her smirk with a shrug. “And you never used to mind.” If her hiccup had been the coffee, his had definitely been that statement. It conjured up a reminder of more intimate knowledge than he’d intended. Hopefully it was just him though, and the mess that made up his feelings lately. “But if you’re real sure I ain’t gonna be able to fit in there, I reckon I could change out here. Don’t think your other customers are really askin’ for a show, though.” He smirked and took a drink from his coffee mug, trying to recover from the nerve he’d hit. Paige rolled her eyes and shook her head. “God, Nate. I know you’ll fit in the changing room. Just not into the clothes. And if I don’t have any clothes that you’ll fit in, there’s really no point in you even going in there, now is there?” He shrugged and laughed, biting back the smart remark that surfaced about dressing rooms and privacy. “Good point,” he responded instead. Stepping out of the small area, she led them back to the main room of the shop and gestured around. “I have more stock upstairs in my workroom, but down here it’s mostly staples. They sell more than my more intricate pieces.” Truth be told she should probably stop making so much of the fru fru stuff, since it didn’t sell as well, but if worse came to worse she would just wear it all. “Ready to see upstairs?” “Came for the tour, didn’t I?” he replied good naturedly. “And y’all pointed out I won’t fit into anythin’, so might as well keep from lingerin’ down here.” He let her lead up the stairs, although he wished that he hadn’t because it was harder than he thought it’d be to keep from staring at her ass. “You have any dresses you’re workin’ on?” Nathan kept getting struck by how Paige her shop was. If he hadn’t known it was hers, he probably still could have guessed it. “Yeah, I got a few big orders in the past couple days. A few of my regular customers got engaged so they’re already thinking about wedding dresses. We’re still mostly in the brainstorming process right now, though,” Paige said, purposefully maintaining a professional tone as she talked about wedding dresses with her ex-husband. “Someday I hope I’ll get some local customers and have a chance to use this little sitting area,” she added, gesturing to the two chairs arranged at the top of the stairs. “But for now, Skype is working pretty well.” Nathan hadn’t thought through the weirdness of the conversation, but he wasn’t about to point it out now that they were in the middle of it. “You think you’ll branch out to doin’ suits too?” he asked, looking around the room as an excuse to not look right at Paige. “Y’know, I still had the ones y’all made for me. They didn’t fit through the shoulders anymore though, or else I probably wouldn’t have left ‘em at the base.” He caught her eye and grinned. “Reckon you could make a couple of replacements. I might end up needin’ one if Pete gets smart and gives Sav a ring.” And there he went, circling back around to weddings without meaning to. Paige gave a smile and a shrug, determined to keep the flow of conversation going, even if they were talking about weddings of all things. “Menswear was never my strongest but with less people making clothes in general, I’ve been trying to branch out more. I’m sure if the time comes, I could make you a suit.” After a pause, toeing the line of amused and a little weirded out, she asked, “So what is it like to be roommates with your sister’s boyfriend?” He shrugged. “Weird if I think about it, I reckon. But they were a thing before, so it ain’t like I was real surprised or anything, and stayin’ with Pete is better than movin’ back in with Sav and the girls.” Better for everyone if the Posey’s weren’t under the same roof. They got along better that way. “Mostly I’m tryin’ to keep out of their business, since it ain’t ever brought real good results when I get myself involved.” He picked up a magazine from the side table, raised his eyebrows at the date, then set it back down. “The worst thing is havin’ the place to myself when Pete ain’t around,” he admitted, but he guessed that Paige might have already figured that part out because of the other night. “But I’m happy for Savannah. For both of ‘em, really.” Paige nodded as she listened, happy to see that Nate could be happy for his sister. She’d never experienced the Posey siblings at war (like they were when they were children) but she knew they could get on each other’s nerves worse than just about anyone else. “Yeah, you’ve never really lived alone, have you? Even as an adult, you had boot camp and military housing. Are you worried something’s going to happen when you’re alone or…” Paige trailed off, not really sure how to ask what she wanted to ask and honestly, not even sure what the question really was. Despite wanting to play it off, Nathan shrugged one shoulder and replied, “I guess I don’t know. It’s just a feelin’, really. Reckon I might just be one of those people that ain’t built for bein’ by themselves.” He had always talked things through with Paige, before, so at least saying that much didn’t feel as weird as it could have. “I sleep better when there’s someone else around.” And he’d figured out a long time ago that admitting things didn’t make him any less of anything. “Didn’t stop in to make you play shrink for me, though.” He gave her an apologetic smile. “Unless y’all got more rooms hidin’ somewhere, I reckon I should let you get back to it.” Did that sound like he was trying to duck out of a serious conversation? Maybe a little, but he was just trying to be careful about her time. A very confusing mixture of relief and disappointment churned around in Paige’s head at Nate’s words, not quite sure if she wanted him to really talk out his problems (like they had so often in the past) or if it would be simpler to just leave it at that. It was so easy to fall back into it, despite their divorce, but there was still that small part of her brain that was resisting. “I’m sure you have other things to be doing, too,” she said, because no matter what kind of internal struggle she had going on, it was easy to pick up his intentions. She led them back down the stairs, stopping short a few feet from the door to look at Nate. “So, thanks for coming by to see the place.” “Thanks for showin’ me around.” Nathan smiled. He looked around the lower level of the shop one more time. “It suits you, you know. Ownin’ somethin’ like this.” But she had to know that already, she opened the place after all. Anyway, it wasn’t his goal to drag out a goodbye longer than necessary, Paige had been nice enough to let him monopolize her time and he figured that she probably wanted to get back to whatever project she might have put on hold. “I’ll talk to you later,” he told her, then leaned down as he passed her, kissing her quick on the corner of her mouth. It was like his brain had turned itself off and decided instead to run on auto pilot, dredging up an old habit from over ten years ago. Nathan froze for a few seconds before he recovered, and rather than make it any weirder for either of them, he headed for the door, offering Paige a short wave before he stepped out. Stunned, Paige just took there and watched Nate as he walked out, totally baffled about what had just happened. She thought they’d been doing so well at this friendship thing but apparently they were going to need to reevaluate. Still dazed, she brought a hand up to touch the corner of her mouth as she wandered off back into her shop. Despite this very confusing incident, there was still work to do. |