Note: Hey, dear readers! I consider this a plotmoving chapter, because I'm trying not to rush to the good stuff. I think this is maybe a slow burn? I DONT KNOW YET. I just want Nate to be happy. But i have so many exciting plans coming up! I would love to hear some feedback or if anyone is out there! I see the stats, so I know I have some people reading. But I would love if you would say hello :) Let's go chapter 4!


"Thank you so much for showing me around," Mackenzie said to Serena. They had just spent their morning on the Columbia campus and Mackenzie was feeling a bit better about her upcoming classes.

They were seated down at a cafe near Central Park, a few blocks away from the university. Mackenzie was grateful to Serena for showing her around but she had to admit she was feeling pretty tired after their movie night.

After getting into the loft, Mackenzie texted her brother to let him know she was safe at home. She had also texted Nate another thank you for the drive home. One text back from him turned into them having a lengthy conversation that lasted until past 3AM. She found Nate engaging - she had been quick to judge him before, thinking he was a typical attractive business man in New York: hot headed, shallow, rude. But instead, he was honest, wise and kind. And quite witty.

She couldn't quite figure out why he was so interested in talking to her, but she was happy to be getting to know someone new. Maybe Nate was desperate for new friends. Or he wanted to get to know her and ask more questions about Northeastern…. She shook her head to herself. You're crazy, Mackenzie. Don't be irrational.

"Of course! Sorry it was so brief. I honestly didn't spend a lot of time there. Nate may be able to give you more advice about the ins and outs at Columbia." Serena stirred her coffee then dropped her spoon on the table. "He's going to drop by soon, I think."

"Oh, does he live nearby?"

"Yeah, just a few blocks away on 93rd. Blair almost shunned him for moving onto the West side but he found this incredible place. Private terrace and a view of the park."

"What's Nate's deal anyway? How has no one scooped him up?" Mackenzie's curiosity was getting the better of her. You have a boyfriend, Mackenzie. Stop.

"He's a workaholic! Nate has built this incredible empire and team with The Spectator but he works like 100 hours a week sometimes, I swear. He took his mom on a trip to Paris last summer and slept probably two hours a day to make sure he could be a tourist and work on the upcoming news releases with the time change." Serena took a sip of her coffee and sighed. "Plus, he has some questionable taste sometimes - I'll be the first to say he's dated a lot of beautiful women with empty brains."

Mackenzie looked at her for a moment, stunned by her passionate response.

"I, uh, guess that covers it," Serena laughed, "I just really want Nate to find someone great. And worth his time."

Mackenzie took a bite of her croissant. "I get it, you care about him. He seems like a real catch."

"Enough about Nate though - you still haven't told me a thing about Adam. How is the long distance going?"

Mackenzie took a big sip of her americano and let out her breath. Well, my boyfriend of 7 months has been avoiding me all week it seems.

"Uhm, well. It's been okay! He's supposed to come to the city for Thanksgiving next week and you'll get to meet him, I'm sure. He's studying Kinesiology - I think he wants to work for an NHL team in the future. He's like, 6'2 and built like a wall. We met at a house party during grad week. Dan met him when he came up but they didn't really get along. We had just started dating but I don't think he gave a great first impression."

Serena winced, "Yeah, I remember that. That's just Dan being Dan, though. If you like him, I'm sure he's great."

"He is, he's just a little reserved sometimes so it's hard to get a lot out of him.."

"So tall though! He sounds cute. Is he on Instagram?" Serena pulled out her phone. "What's his last name?"

"Oh, he is definitely not on there. He does not do social media. Adam Kross, with a K."

"I think I found him!" Serena stared down at her screen.

"What? No-"

"Yeah, here. It says 'Kin at Northeastern' in this guy's bio." Serena started to turn her phone towards Mackenzie when they were interrupted.

"Is this seat taken?" Serena and Mackenzie's Instagram sleuthing was cut off by Nate's arrival at their table. He was dressed in a pair of track pants and a Nike pullover, having just finished a run in the park. He took a seat beside Serena, across from Mackenzie.

"Morning. Good run?" Serena said to him, tucking her phone into her purse.

"I'm exhausted but I managed. This is for you." He reached into his backpack and handed Serena back her column draft. "This was great. Please tell me you'll reconsider my request for this to be weekly instead of bi monthly. People love Secrets of the City."

"Wait, do you write that?" Mackenzie turned to Serena, "How did I not know that? Your name isn't attached to it, is it?"

"No, it's published anonymously. Not in a Gossip Girl way, but just in a neutral lifestyle review kind of way." Serena turned to Nate. "I appreciate the ask, but I start with the Met as their newest public relations officer in January. So my time has to go to focusing on that."

Nate sighed but smiled at her, "Right! Okay, just know that offer is on the table forever." He smiled as the waitress placed his smoothie on the table in front of him. He turned to Mackenzie, "What did you think of Columbia?"

She smiled at him, "It was honestly so beautiful. Although a bit overwhelming. I was hoping to start visiting the school to finish up some research for one of my final papers but I don't know if I want to make that journey every day. The loft has not turned into a very promising study spot."

"There are so many cute coffee shops near the loft. I'm sure you can find a nice place to study." Serena told her, finishing up her coffee.

"Actually, if you want, we recently bought out the top floor of the building The Spectator is in. We're growing, which is awesome. But there's a few empty offices upstairs that won't be occupied for a while, if you want somewhere boring to do your research. Free wifi and cappuccinos in the office, too." He smiled. "Or, americanos."

Mackenzie gave him a small smile, recalling their long debate last night about their preferred coffee order. She didn't even really remember how their conversation lead to that but things could get delusional past 2AM, especially after a few glasses of champagne.

"Thanks, Nate. That actually sounds awesome. And a lot closer to Brooklyn, thankfully."

He handed her his business card from his wallet, "Come by the office tomorrow, I'll get you set up."

Nate walked away from the coffeeshop, smoothie in hand, already looking forward to seeing Mackenzie at the office tomorrow. He hated to admit to himself he had a crush on her. The word crush seemed too trivial. But since their late night text conversation the night before, she was all he could think about. And he hated himself for it.

He couldn't remember the last girl who captured all his rational thoughts so quickly. If he was being honest with himself, it was well before Sage even. And Amelia, his latest arm candy, was the last thing on his mind.

His phone rang and he noticed it was her calling. He ignored the call and continued on, quickly replying to an email from Leo about the Monday morning schedule and continued his way back home.

Just as he returned to his apartment, his phone rang again. This time it was Chuck.

"Chuck, hey." He fell onto his couch and kicked off his sneakers. He needed a shower before he continued on with his day.

"Nathaniel. Any Sunday plans?" Nate glanced down at his watch. Almost noon.

"Not really, no. Work, mainly. I'm trying to stay away from the office but I've got a ton of work to do for some shareholder meetings this week. Why?"

"So you have time for a small adventure. Perfect. I'll be there in 10." Nate rolled his eyes as Chuck promptly hung up on him. He raced to the shower and quickly changed into a pressed plaid button up and a pair of slacks. He headed down to the lobby and got into Chuck's town car.

Just as Nate slid in beside his best friend, he felt his phone buzz. He looked down to see a message from Mackenzie.

'Does this blazer work with this outfit? I'm worried it's too loud. Thank you, miss fashionista.'

He loaded the photo she attached: Mackenzie taking a mirror selfie in her bedroom, in a black pencil skirt, striped white blouse and a beautiful cropped red blazer. While he knew this message was probably not for him, he felt a smile grow on his face as he admired her in the outfit.

"What kind of woman is making you smile like that?" Chuck gave him a friendly swat on the chest and tried to glance over at his phone screen. Nate pulled back and shook his head.

"Don't worry about it," he rolled his eyes at Chuck as they started to drive away. Chuck began talking about Blair's plans for brunch at the Waldorfs and the upcoming foundation gala.

Nate glanced down at his phone again.

'OOOOH no, sorry. That was meant for Jenny. Please disregard.'

He smiled again and quickly responded: 'Noted. But if it counts for anything, from a purely business perspective and not at all about fashion, you look great.'

'Well, thanks. Will great get me a second interview for my dream internship though!?' she responded to him shortly after.

Nate hesitated to respond right away, dying to continue but not wanting to seem too interested. He wasn't sure what to do with whatever feelings he may be dealing with, so he slid his phone into his pocket.

"So, small adventure?" Nate glanced out the window as they drove down Park Avenue.

"We are going to take a look at the townhouse. Construction started Friday morning so I wanted to check in," Chuck said, thrusting a hardhat towards Nate.

"Wow, that was fast. Didn't you just close on this?" They pulled up outside a beautiful brownstone on 94th, just a few blocks away from the east side of Central Park.

"Well, when my wife makes a demand of moving in by the summer, we must act quickly. Nathaniel." Chuck smiled, with a slight roll of his eyes. Nate smiled and nodded, understanding of Blair's current demands of outgrowing the Waldorf apartment.

After briefly catching up with his contractors and realtors, Chuck took Nate on a full tour of the house - which was currently stripped down to the studs. He outlined lavish details of the new designs, including an in house miniature atelier for Blair and an entire floor for a home office for Chuck. Not to mention, a large playroom for Henry with room to grow.

They ended up on the rooftop level, where a full deck displayed potential for a beautiful future terrace.

"20 blocks from Waldorf Designs, a spectacular view of this city plus you can see The Empire from every window."

"This is incredible. How did you manage to find this so quickly?"

"Money talks, my friend. It helps to have the entire real estate community under my thumb." Chuck smiled, leaning on the edge looking out towards his surroundings. "Plus, I have a few other projects up my sleeve to keep all my contracts busy. I think I'm going to go forward with the boutique hotel in Brooklyn."

Nate was distracted. "Speaking of Brooklyn - I met Dan's sister the other day."

"I assume you don't mean Jennifer," Chuck paused, "It's Mackenzie, correct?"

"Yeah. I only have vague memories of Dan mentioning her after all these years. Have you met her?"

"In a way, yes." Chuck paused, "After the tragic events last February I leant the Humphrey clan the Bass Industries jet to get up to Boston on a few occasions. I went on the first trip to help smooth over what I could with the media. I really only met her in the hospital room, it was brief. She was...somber." They both stood in silence for a few moments. Nate's hand reached for his phone, feeling a sudden urge to text her and find a reason to talk to her.

"As much as I have a distaste for Rufus Humphrey, I would not wish the horror of feeling helpless about your child onto anyone," Chuck said quietly, turning towards Nate. "Is she staying in the city for a while?"

"She's enrolled at Columbia so yeah, I think so. We didn't talk a whole lot, but Dan's trying to get her socialized with the group, it seems."

"It's nice to have fresh meat around, breaks up the monotony. She should come to the cocktail party Friday. I'll have Blair add her to the invite list."

"You really think Blair will add anyone onto her guest list this late? Isn't she still screening all your staff for clean bills of health before entering your apartment?"

"Well, it is a Bass Industries staff appreciation party so I think I have some say on who gets invited."

"Sure, or at least Blair has lead you to believe that, dude."


"Are you sure it's not too late to chat?" Mackenzie was seated at the island of the kitchen, video chatting with her little sister.

"Kenzie, I'm only five hours ahead. It's like 8 o'clock here. If I wasn't talking to you I would just be watching some movie with Joseph." Jenny jutted her laptop screen to the left, allowing her boyfriend to come into frame across the room, waving at the screen.

Mackenzie waved back to Joseph and smiled as Jenny returned to focus. "So how was week one?"

Mackenzie detailed her busy week back in the city to her sister as they caught up on their lives. Admittedly, the sisters didn't have a very close relationship until Jenny moved to the otherside of the world. They both seemed to have a bit of growing up to do over the years but had settled into a very close relationship. They communicated quite often.

"So mom told me she still wants to visit at Christmas - are you actually okay with us crashing there for a week? I mean, we don't even have tickets yet so I have no idea it this will actually happen."

"Yes, please. I am desperate for a real holiday meal so I want mom here to prepare the whole thing," Jenny laughed.

"Oh! Also, I think I'm going to wear the navy dress instead. For the interview. The red blazer is stressing me out."

"I told you! The dress will help you feel more confident, I think. Plus, if you wear your leather lined jacket, you'll look so great. And those black oxfords."

"Thank you for always being my fashion guru."

"I know you said you don't need Dan to help you make friends but Serena also has great taste. And Blair!"

"Speaking of Dan's friends, did I tell you I accidently sent that picture to Nate Archibald instead of you this morning?"

Jenny laughed, "I'm sure Nate was nice about it. Man, I had such a crush on him in high school."

"Oh my god, was this the guy you used to write about on your Livejournal page?" Mackenzie joked, recalling her sister's dramatic online diary from high school.

"One of them, yeah. Nate was such a catch though. I miss him. Tell him I say hi if you see him again!" Mackenzie smiled and made a mental note. She contemplated for a second just texting Nate that very message right away but he hadn't messaged her back all day. Maybe that was a good thing. She was worried she was developing a weird infatuation with Nate. He was handsome and nice and talkative.

Mackenzie knew she had a tendency to fall for guys who gave her small bits of attention. The poor reasoning behind her last few broken hearts and failed relationships. She always cared more, gave more, wanted more. That gave the other person all the control and it always left her hurt. She was trying to do better - she knew Adam cared about her the way she cared about him. Or so she thought. He had been slow to reply to her the past few weeks but she knew he was coming up for Thanksgiving so spend the long weekend with her, and she was really looking forward to his company again.

The Humphrey sisters ended their call a few moments later with well wishes for the rest of the week and a longing for the upcoming holiday season.

Mackenzie fell onto the couch and thought about her upcoming few weeks. Research paper, lecture series, interview for her internship, Adam coming to town, Thanksgiving. It all seemed pretty easy to wrap her head around but she was worried the stress might get to her. One day at a time, Mackenzie.

She grabbed her phone and hit the call button for Adam. She let the phone ring for a few moments until it went to voicemail. She sighed and recorded a short message. Something was wrong. She wasn't sure why, but she felt like things may just start to fall apart soon.


"Hey boss, there's someone here for you. Mackenzie Humphrey."

Nate perked up from the paperwork in front of him and quickly responded to Marie on his phone intercom. "I'll be right out!"

It was mid Monday morning and Nate was swamped. He had a long week ahead with a few investors meetings, among other things.

He spent his Sunday night wrestling with his thoughts, finally catching up with Amelia and in a moment of weakness, he invited her over to hang out. He knew what he was doing and he hated to admit but he found Amelia a worthy distraction from other feelings. And, if he was being completely honest with himself, it was a satisfying way to release his stress. After she left this morning, Nate convinced himself that his growing feelings for Mackenzie were just curiosity and infatuation getting the best of him.

He could let this go. He had just met her, he hardly knew a thing about her and he was in an easy position to lay the foundation for a friendship and nothing more.

As he walked out of his office towards the front foyer, he took a deep breath then let it out, resolving that he was capable of shaking his mysterious crush. As he got to the front, he saw Mackenzie sitting on the waiting area couch, dressed in plain jeans, a white tshirt and a cropped black blazer. Her warm brunette hair was tied into a side braid and a New York Yankee hat was on her head. As she looked up and met his eyes, she smiled.

Nate almost melted.

"Hey Nate," she stood up and walked toward him, "I didn't know if there was a dress code in this building or if that's a thing. An office I worked in last summer in Boston had a strict code about denim so if this is too casual for this area, I can just leave for the day. I didn't want to just text you about what to wear because that's just so silly but I-"

He cut her off, smiling, "It's fine. No dress code for visitors. Nice hat."

"I assure you I am a Yankee fan and I'm not just wearing this for show," she laughed, "I had a terrible sleep last night so I'm trying to hide under this hat."

Mackenzie had pestered Adam last night after her initial phone call. She called a few more times until he finally responded, with no apology for his lack of communication. She broke down crying to him on the phone about her anxiety and fears about her transition and new life in the city and he had offered little to no comfort. She had been on and off crying for most of the morning too, trying to settle her reaction and get through her day. She was certain that once Adam came to visit her next week they would figure everything out.

Nate had enough women in his life to pick up on some signs. As he gave Mackenzie a tour of the office, he noticed she was distracted and her eyes seemed a bit swollen and red, like she had been crying.

He continued the tour as they got into the elevator, travelling up to the next floor that was newly acquired by The Spectator and fairly empty.

Mackenzie sighed as she looked at her phone in the elevator and let out a breath. Just as the doors dinged on the next floor, Nate followed her out of the elevator and finally asked: "Are you okay?"

Mackenzie sighed, "Sorry. Yes. I'm fine. Just in the middle of a dumb argument with my boyfriend." She glanced down at her phone again. "I think he's picking a fight on purpose. He's like, completely changed his tone with me since this summer and at first I just thought it was stress from school or this new distance in our relationship but he's just being a dick." Mackenzie stopped herself, eyes wide. She looked to Nate who was just standing with an uncertain look on his face.

"Fuck. Sorry. This is not the time or place or audience for my to vent about my relationship, too. Forgive my poor timing of that rant."

"It's okay, everyone needs to vent sometimes," Nate responded to her, biting his tongue to stop himself from asking questions.

Mackenzie sighed, "No, it's not okay." She tucked her phone into her back pocket. "So this whole floor is yours now, too?" She changed the subject quickly and walked further into the empty floor. They passed by a few couches covered in drop cloths and into a small hallway filled with offices.

Nate stopped as they neared the corner, "Yeah, it was an easy acquisition. The tech firm up here actually just moved to a new warehouse style place near DUMBO so I thought we should just expand up here instead of moving in the next few years, too. We've only used a few offices so far and the boardroom for video meetings." He pushed open a door to the office in the corner.

"Wow," Mackenzie walked straight to the windows, showing off a beautiful view of the city, Ellis Island and the Statue of Liberty.

"When we finish renovations this'll be my new office, but you can use this as your work slash research space for the time being. It's pretty quiet up here."

"Thanks Nate, I really appreciate it." Mackenzie slipped her backpack off and placed it on the large desk. She turned to him as he stood at the door frame, leaning casually.

"But feel free to come downstairs and use the kitchen of you need anything at all. I'll text you a security code to get in an out so you can bypass the front foyer, too."

"Thanks," she smiled again, "And sorry again about the boyfriend rant."

"Honestly, it's okay. Take it from me, men can be idiots sometimes." Mackenzie just sighed. She didn't want to get into her head about Adam again. Nate gave her one last smile and turned away, leaving her to do her work.

Whyyyy did she have to be wearing a Yankee hat? Nate sighed to himself as he got back into the elevator. Good luck getting rid of your crush now, Nate. Just when he couldn't find her any cuter - a Yankees hat. Casual, cute, collected. He grabbed his phone out of his pocket, desperate for a distraction. He shot a quick text to Amelia: Hey, last night was fun. Round two tonight?

xoxoxo

Up next: things are falling apart and NY is hit with a disaster of an ice storm just before Thanksgiving. What's going to happen when the power is out and everyone is stranded? Oh, just you wait.