[ WP ] A story where the protagonist is a pretty decent individual by most accounts , but is DESPISED by the narrator .

Nathan walked to the curb, looked over the sea of cabs - yellow and airconditioned and so, so inviting - then went back to the restaurant door. Oh, how he envied those other pedestrians turned cab-riders... Urgh... It was expensive, unnecessary, bad for the environment... he could walk home if he had to... but it was so hot today, he already had sweat stains spreading from his uncommonly sweaty armpits... Usually, to call him indecisive would be like calling a fish wet, but this time he had a good reason! A real one! Cowards always do. 
 
 She had seemed pretty enough in her profile picture - by his standards at least, which was n't saying especially much at all - and they'd both swiped right. The brief messaging spree afterwards had gone more or less decently and so now he was here and, well, just where the hell was she? 
 
 Nathan ( not Nate, Nate was the name of his uncle, the weird one, and enough people had already drawn a close enough comparison between the two of them that he found even a mention of that nickname sent shivers crawling - as his uncle probably would, given the chance - up his spine ) checked his watch: 8:34. One hour and thirty-four minutes late. Okay, maybe he was being a little desperate, but come on! He deserved a chance. Did n't everyone? Even poor, ugly bastards experienced miracles every now and then. How else could they have survived the crib and all those pillows? 
 
 `` Hello?'' 
 
 Nathan looked up. It was her. Up close, she looked... about as appealing as her profile description. Which had been empty. 
 
 `` Are you Nathan?'' 
 
 `` Uh...'' he said with a nervous smile. `` No... Nice to meet you. No, I am not Nathan.'' 
 
 He nodded goodbye, hurried over to the street, and waved his arm like an orangutan in a banana jungle. A taxi immediately wobbled over. The driver rolled down his window, and Nathan leaned in and rattled off his address. The driver nodded with a distinctly understanding air and motioned to get inside. 
 
 Like the selfish shellfish he was, Nathan climbed into the taxi, letting the AC blast him in the face harder than that group of guys had that one unscrupulously drunk night at the bachelor's party ( which he had snuck into ) of the groom of the girl he had had a crush on ( in fact a deep, undying, and ultimately, obviously unrequited love ) for ten years but never so much as asked her out, safe in the knowledge that the environment could take care of itself - hell, it could go *screw* itself, much like he would, himself, later tonight, with himself. By himself. Alone. 
 
 Nathan smiled a smile of a thousand anguished inner tears and leaned further back into the pleather seats. 

