“Sugar, Roger?” Nathan held a spoon over the cup, waiting for the acknowledgement.
“No, thanks.” Roger waved his hand negligently, without looking at Nathan.
Nathan blinked, then put the spoon away. “Since when do you take your coffee black?”
“Oh, I’m sorry. I meant 'no, thanks' to the coffee.”
Nathan frowned then quietly poured the cup down the sink. “It’s alright, I hadn’t poured mine yet. I’ll just take this one, with sugar.” He carried the other cup into the living room and sat down on the couch opposite Roger. “You don’t mind, do you?” Roger waved his hand again, dismissing the idea without a word.
Nathan sipped his coffee and regarded his friend. Roger, for his part, seemed to be regarding nothing at all. He sat slumped in the high back chair, staring at a spot somewhere just above the small coffee table. It was the same position he’d fallen into the moment he arrived. Nathan was tempted to snap his fingers in front of Roger’s face just to see what he would do. Instead, he sat back against the couch, continued to sip his coffee, and waited for Roger to decide he was ready to talk.
5 comments:
From reading, I get the feeling that Nathan wants to be a little more than 'just friends' with Roger. Furthermore, it seems that Roger is quite oblivios to this fact.
The cause of Roger's inattention is obviously due to a latent clairvoyant ability that he only recently began to notice. Until last week, Roger always thought it was just logic and intuition that enabled him to acurately predict which options would present the greatest gain for his firm. Sure, his actions seemed a bit too flawless in an area where perfection just didn't happen, but he simply passed that off as beginer's luck. There surely must have been other forcasters who did just as well, if not better than he during their first year on the job.
On top of that, there was the fact that his trade predictions just seemed obvious to the casual observer. Of course, this observer would have to be casually placed 3 months past the time his prediction was made in order to see this obviousness, but that didn't bother Roger. All that proved to him was what he knew all along; any task that you fully apply yourself to can be completed thouroughly.
He tried explaining this outlook to his bosses, but it didnt deter them from granting him a generous raise in salary, as well as an office with a view. Nor did it deter him from accepting these offers, as well as the acollades from his peers.
In spite of his misgivings, he really wasn't put off by these various sources of attention. Of course, he didn't go looking for new ones or try to illicit more from those pre-exisitng, he just did his job.
In fact, everything seemed rather natural to Roger. The work, the result...they all seemed normal...just like everything else in his life.
He was in the middle of going over these very same thoughts while in line for coffee when she walked into the store and changed everything...
(Cue forboading music)
OK, so I just had to add my bit in there. I had a few minutes to kill before GaTech started their rout of VaTech and thought it would be fun to totally change the story you had going. I DID like the Nathan's action/reaction to Roger's answers and I enjoyed the description of the unspoken/mispoken actions of Nathan as well.
-J
hee hee. before the "friend" bit, i was it sure sounded like nathan and roger were a couple. not sure about clarivoyancy. more like cheating?
I am glad that I am not the only one who saw something more in Roger & Nathan's relationship. I think Rob got angry with my assumption on this point, but now that it has been seconded, I feel somehow vindicated.
-J
Um, yeah, for the record, I didn't get mad at Jamie for thinking they're a couple. They might very well be (or, as Jamie suggested) Nathan might want them to be. He certainly cares about Roger. I dunno. It's a pretty short piece and I didn't get far enough in it to make that decision. I left it deliberately ambiguous. Perhaps, Jamie, it's the literary equivalent of a Rorschact test?
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