Welcome to Gaia! ::

The guy on the right insisted on paying the bill. "C'mon guys. I did invite you." he said as he took out his wallet and paid the bill. However, they all agreed that they would leave a good tip for their beautiful and funny waitress. All together they left Mai a $20 dollar tip. Their overall bill had been around $30 but they really didn't mind.

Before leaving completely, the three men waved at Mai who was by the waitress station. Nate actually approached her and handed her their tip to her in person. "Thanks for the meal. Tell my son I say hi." and with that said, Nate joined the two other guys and left the restaurant. They headed back to the office building. The napkins in which they had drawn they had taken with them. It would seem the nice expensive cologne the men wear was still impregnating the air in the area they had sat. At least they were down to earth and friendly.

When they got back to the office building they recommended the small restaurant to everyone. It was quite good, a friendly environment, and with cute waitresses. For now the three architects seemed to have forgotten about the little mishap of the "daddy" calling since they all were too caught up with their work, but as soon as they all returned to their own personal working stations, Nate remembered again. Daddy... Heh. I don't know this Mai woman but she already made my day. The memory of that moment about an hour ago made the young architect have a good chuckle. He could always use and enjoy a good laugh.

Quickly, however, he returned to doing some blue prints for a small construction site that would start on a couple of months. Nate was one of the head architects on that, much to his pride and joy.

As the day went on, nothing pretty spectacular really happened at the office. Well, with the exception of the guys constant teasing to "daddy", although they were making fun in friendly way. Nate left seemingly "humorous" atmosphere of the office that day when the clock stroke five o'clock. He had been caught up with his new design that he would be turning in during the finals. It was kind of psychedelic yet old in a way.

Upon his way home he couldn't help but remember yesterday's surprising encounter with the little boy and his mother who he happened to encounter today again. Honestly, the memory did bring a somewhat smile on his face for he understood the need of the little boy of a father. He himself had grew up without one and it did feel terrible. Not understanding where he is and wanting to have one when seeing the rest of the children at the playground accompanied by both parents. This explains why Nate had a positive reaction towards the little kid. Either way, he kept on his way back home and once he got there he realized that he needed some serious cleaning.

Yes, his home was organized but that didn't mean it didn't require some sweeping, removing some dust, and all the basic stuff that a house required when it came down to maintenance. Messiness was not the problem at least. Scratching the back of his head and letting out a sigh, Nate spoke to himself. "I need a housekeeper.... " He spent so much time out of the apartment that he rarely had time to spend there or clean. That is why it was all organized but with dust. The only reason he came back to his apartment was to sleep and shower. His office was more of a home than this place!

Sighing, the young man left his suit case on the living room and his coat on the coat hanger by the entrance. Winter was right around the corner and Nate just loved it. It was the time where a beautiful white cape embraced the city and his inspiration came. Letting himself fall on the couch, he decided to rest for a while before taking a shower or doing anything else. It was a brief rest of probably twenty minutes but still, it served its purpose.

The next day, it was the same process. Waking up, shower, skip breakfast and go to the office. Without realizing it, lunch hour came by in a blink of an eye. He had no idea what the office would order that day. Since there was an architects meeting that day, the office was paying lunch for everyone. Apparently, the secretaries had taken their recommendation of the small restaurant seriously for they called them up to bring lunch for everyone. Nate had no idea...

Nate was up front talking to an old man who happened to be the CEO of the architectural firm. The old man was writing some stuff on the board while Nate watched him and asked a couple of questions. It was good to know the right people and be their friends, and with Nate's naturally friendly personality this wasn't a hard task at all. The CEO, however, stopped talking now and began laughing a bit. "Alright, I think I should give you a break. This old man needs to feed." he said as he patted Nate in the back and laughed a bit more. He was a friendly old man.

Nate chuckled as well and turned around to put some papers away. This young aspiring architect was quite hungry for he had skipped breakfast again and the only thing he had in his stomach was a cup of coffee. Sometimes he could really forget about his own feeding from being so focused on his work. Either way, he tried to keep a balance even if he failed most of the times.

The food smelled really good and it reminded him of the restaurant he had gone yesterday with his co-workers. It had been some good food and a really nice environment. He noticed the tag on the food and recognized that it was the same place. Looking ahead, he saw a familiar petite young lady by the food. What was it..? Mae? No.. Hmm.. Mai! smiling a bit more for this had been the third time he had encountered the woman in three days, he decided to approach her.

"Third strike." It was a reference to their third time meeting. Extending out his hand to her to greet, he looked straight at her eyes. He always made eye contact when he spoke to people, that way they would know he wasn't lying and that he was a confident man. "Must be fate if we meet again." he said laughing a bit.

Raising his eyebrow a bit, Nate asked the young woman a question. "Something wrong? You seem a bit nervous?" he said as he placed his hand back on his pocket as he finished greeting her. The smile still well implanted upon his lips. "Yeah... I'm another architect in this firm, however, if I'm lucky enough I'll manage something bigger than that in a couple of weeks. It isn't usually as busy as this. We rarely have lunch at the office." he replied to her question.

"Oh yes, before I forget. I'm Nathan Bremont. You can call me Nate. Being the third time we encounter I believe it is about time I introduce myself to the mother of my son." he said jokingly. He hoped she didn't take it the wrong way. Since that was pretty much the only piece of information he knew about her, that was his only point of reference. "How's he doing by the way?" His eyes were still very fixed on hers. Like any man would, Nate offered her a seat. Knowing she was also in working hours, he knew he shouldn't be talking too much with her. Plus, he had his own work going on at the moment too.

"My bad. I apologize for taking up your time." he said offering an apologetic shy smile. His finally seemed to stop staring at hers and now began wandering off to the man who had called her name. Quickly, he took out his wallet. "Here, it's my contact number. We should meet some time before we meet again by chance." he said letting out a small chuckle. "Oh, and here's the tip. Thank you for the food." Now he handed her a $100 dollar tip. Before he could say anything else, Nate got pulled by one of the other architects who urgently required his opinion and suggestions on a new landscaping design. Even if he didn't look like it, Nate was someone quite important in the office.

The rest of the day went pretty much just as busy. Drawings everywhere, meetings, phone calls, blue prints, buying and ordering materials, brainstorming, conferences, all that in just one day! Nate ended up going home at around midnight. Of course he would be tired the very next day, which probably would be just as busy. Although, there was no space to complain. The man did live for this. His entire life was dedicated to becoming a great architect and all this hard work and sleeping late was just part of it. At the end it would all be worth it with maybe a couple of surprises... Heh.

After making himself a small frozen meal, Nate sat on the couch and saw the news. He actually enjoyed watching them and because he was never at home when they transmitted it, he recorded them. After finishing up his meal and placing it on the kitchen, Nate fell hard on his bed like a rock.

The Next Day, Nate repeated the same process as usual, however, he decided to go to work earlier than usual. It was around the time Mai took Taehyun to Machiko's. The weather was getting colder as they were getting closer to winter. The weather in this town was unpredictable, something that always kept the busy Nate entertained. Always wondering what type of climate shall they have to day. He was the type to enjoy surprises.

With the sudden wrath of the wind, some papers that Nate was carrying were blown away. "No! Dammit!" said the young tall man as he chase after them all over the playground. Luckily, the papers were not going into the street, but instead were going around the entire play area in circles, up and down. Those papers were some new ideas for an art museum in construction. The people around stared at him laughing quietly for it was quite weird to see a well dressed man in a suit run around in such a situation. It would've been better to help him but society now days just rather watch.

If Nate didn't catch those papers ruined, all his hard work from the previous days would be put to waste, plus, he would be late to work. Not that his boss really mind since he was quite the responsible and hard working employee, but still. It was nothing like Nate to be late for anything!

Collecting his papers and putting them back in order, Nate now looked at Mai and Tae Hyun. "I didn't think it would be so windy today." he replied as he gave one last glance at his papers making sure they were in order. "Anyways, thank you. I wouldn't want to spend all night working on these again." said the man with a small smile and a sigh of relief. He fixed his tie and suit. Running around did mess up his clothes a bit.

Hearing the little boy call him daddy, Nate couldn't help but chuckle and smile even wider, then looked back at Mai. "I guess I'm still a dad? It never gets old." he admitted. "Must be fate if we keep meeting like this." he joked. "Do you want to meet up for some coffee later today?" he asked her looking at her with a rather relaxed expression on his face, as if him asking her technically out wasn't a big deal. He just saw it as a meeting with a new acquaintance, nothing bigger than that, however, others might detect it as something else.

Nate looked back at the little boy. "What do you say little guy? Do you give your mom permission to have some coffee with me after work?"