hold me closer, necromancer

With nothing going on in Seattle, Sam had decided to make his way to Washington DC in the hopes that he could convince Natalie to stop studying and join him for an afternoon at the mall. He had some Christmas shopping to do and he thought just an afternoon of hanging out and walking around and talking might be nice. Maybe they'd even grab a bite to eat or something.

She'd agreed so now he was waiting for her outside the huge mall, thumbing through some messages in his phone and enjoying the unusually warm day. One message came in as he was waiting from Ramon, asking Sam to get him lots and lots of expensive things just because he could.

Sam chuckled and shook his head.

[NFB and for the girl!]

Sam was back on the mainland for a few days. He'd made promises to be around more and if he couldn't be on the island and in his former room, he'd be as close as he could. And he'd found that he liked this particular hotel and Natalie knew where it was so it was convenient to use when he did spend time away from Seattle.

He'd gotten up early (or he hadn't slept, take your pick) and gone about showering, ordering breakfast and climbing back into bed to both watch daytime television and await his breakfast. While he did that, he pulled out his phone and dialed up his voicemail. There was a message which wasn't unusual.

What was unusual was the absolute incoherence of the message. He was able to figure out it was Ramon (and maybe Frank in the background) and they seemed to be singing happy birthday to him. They were a few days late and they sounded drunk but he didn't tend to keep alcohol in the house.

So, Sam was confused. Very confused. That confusion settled onto his face while he listened to and then saved the voicemail. What in the heck were his friends doing without him?

[NFB but open for the usual communications, of course! Inspired by a conversation I had with whenshewasnice about Chace Crawford's ability to look confused all the time.]

Sam hadn't been lying when he told Natalie that he hadn't planned on really leaving the hotel room at all during his weekend with her. Sure, they'd gone to dinner in the restaurant but otherwise, they'd stayed stuffed in the room, just the two of them. And why not when it was such a nice room with a view of a church. Sometimes, the money that he'd inherited came in handy.

Sam had woken up fairly early after getting a few hours of sleep. He'd slid on a tattered flannel (he owned many) and left it unbuttoned and paired that with a pair of soft pants before getting to work on ordering some room service. His stomach was growling and the food here was good.

While he waited for that, he did pour himself some coffee and wandered over to enjoy the view. It was pretty sweet.

[NFB and for the girl there with him]