"I'm so proud of you, Natie!" She said to Nate over the phone as she was fitted for an upcoming show. "It's a little loose from here….sorry I have to go. But I'll come over later."
Nate opened his door to find Serena standing outside with a bottle of champagne in each hand. "I thought we should celebrate!"
He laughed and leaned in to receive a kiss. "I'm not a partner yet."
"I know but…I wanted an excuse to drink. Besides, I know you will be soon enough. Why can't we celebrate a little bit early?"
He smiled at her. "Okay but I'm exhausted. I don't know if I can keep up with you. I'll try my best."
She put the champagne down. "How about a massage?"
He smiled. "That would be amazing." He took his shirt off and they walked in to his room where he lay face down on his bed.
She sat on his butt and rubbed is back. "How was the rest of work?"
He sighed in satisfaction. "That feels good. Um, fine. I'm just swamped. All these new files keep landing on my desk. They're testing me and I wanna do well so I'm working extra hard …lower…perfect…Jeff asked me to bring you. Everyone takes a date. Would you mind going with me?"
She rolled off and sat next to him. "Of course. You know I'll take any excuse to buy a new dress."
"It might be a little boring so I apologize ahead of time."
She smiled. "I'll suck it up. Besides we've been dragged to charity events our whole lives and somehow always manage to have fun. This won't be any different."
"You're the best, babe."
She sat up and looked down at him. "I missed you calling me that." She rubbed his back some more. "So today when you were introducing me to your boss…I couldn't help but notice that you weren't sure what to call me."
"Oh…well we haven't talked about it. I think we should just see how things go before trying to label things."
They'd never done that before. "Okay. Sounds good. But that doesn't mean your allowed to talk to other girls. Or look at them." She smiled. "On that note, I think you should fire your secretary."
He laughed. "Oh yeah. Me and Liza definitely get it on. Ask her 20 cats."
Serena giggled. "She is SO a cat lady! It's creepy that she has a frame with every single one of them on her desk. Why can't she just get one frame and have all her cats in one picture! It'd be less weird."
"How would that even work?" They spent the next 15 minutes discussing the different approaches to try get 20 cats to sit together and still long enough for a picture.
She missed being able to talk about the most random things. "Natie! It is SO possible."
He shook his head. "I'll believe it when I see it. That's enough about Liza. Let's talk about why you're still fully dressed."
She smiled. "Not tonight, buddy. I'll get back to you in 4 to 6 days."
He frowned. "Really? Well why are you even here then?"
She punched his arm and he laughed. "Ow! I was joking. How about we watch a movie instead."
She nodded and kissed him. After a while she pulled away. "I get to pick the movie right?"
…
Serena landed a photo spread on the French issue of Vogue. Her agent kept calling her nonstop after she told her to turn down the offer.
She put her phone on silent and sat on Nate's couch while she waited for him to get dressed. They were meeting Blair and Chuck for dinner.
Nate walked out of his room. "I'm ready."
Serena smiled. "I just need to use the bathroom and we can go." He sat on the couch to wait for her.
He felt his phone vibrate and answered it without checking who it was. "Hello?"
He didn't recognize the voice. "Hello? Is Serena there?"
"Uhh…she's in the bathroom…" He looked at the phone and realized it was Serena'a and it was her agent calling. "I'm Nate. I can tell her to call you back or I can give her a message for you."
"Tell her that she better get her ass to Paris next Saturday. I'll be there waiting for her. Getting a photo spread in Vogue is a huge deal!" He was practically yelling.
Nate hadn't heard anything about this. "I will tell her. Bye."
Serena walked back in. "Let's go."
He handed her the phone. "You got a photo spread on Vogue? Why didn't you tell me?"
She looked at him. "Umm…I'm not doing it. So I didn't think it would matter."
"Serena this is a huge deal. How can you turn it down?"
"It's going to be in Paris. Next weekend." He didn't seem to catch on. "The same weekend as your firm's event. I'd rather be with you."
He smiled. "Serena, as much as I'd love having you there with me…I'm not letting you turn this down. So I'm gonna sit here until you call your agent and tell him to book your ticket."
She smiled. "Nate. I promised you I'd go. Besides it's not a big deal…"
"It is a big deal! I can wait all day."
She smiled. "You're amazing." She kissed him and then speed-dialed her agent.