“It's too early for this,” she complained.
“Well, you're answering my calls, so either you're really hungover, or you've forgiven me.”
“Neither,” she sighed, pushing herself upright. “I just realized if I spent the rest of my life avoiding your calls, I'd probably go insane and have to give up phones.”
“Took you long enough. We're going to breakfast, get dressed.”
She burst out laughing.
“No, we're not.”
“You don't kiss me yesterday and then act like nothing happened today, Tocci.”
“Um, you kissed me, and I can do anything I want, Stone. Speaking of which, I have a message, I have to go.”
“What? No, we're not done. We're going -”
Katya hung up on him. She stared at the screen for a minute, then laughed out loud. She could just picture his face. Incredulous, staring at his own phone, unable to believe that someone would have the audacity to hang up on him – let alone meek little Katya Tocci.
She really did have a message, so she thumbed open the app as she climbed out of bed. It was from Gaten, he'd spoken to his electrician friend and they were both able to come over that afternoon and check out her broken oven. She was typing a response when her phone started ringing again. Her thumbs kept moving and accidentally opened the call.
“Did you actually fucking hang up on me?”
Wulf's voice sounded exactly like how she imagined his face looked.
“Yes. I'm busy, Wulf, I don't have time to play with you right now,” she told him, trapping the phone between her ear and shoulder as she rifled through her closet.
“Who the hell am I speaking to? Because you sure as shit aren't Katya Tocci,” he said.
“Oh, yes I am. The new and improved Katya Tocci, specially modified by Wulfric and Liam. Don't like this new model? You only have yourself to blame,” she sighed, yanking out a shirt and tossing it onto her bed.
“Cut the bullshit, I don't like playing games.”
“That didn't just come out of your mouth, did it?” she laughed, settling on a pair of pants. “I'm not playing any games. I'm getting dressed, I have someone coming over at noon. I told you, I'm a very busy person.”
“Busy my ass, Tocci. And who's coming over, on a Sunday of all days?”
“Just a neighbor.”
“Oh jesus.”
“Gotta go, Wulfy.”
“If you ever fucking use that name again, I will -”
She hung up again and tossed her phone over her shoulder, onto her bed. She couldn't contain her smile and all but skipped into the bathroom.
*
Katya sat back against her kitchen table, watching while Gaten Shepherd watched another man poke about her stove. They'd unplugged it and moved it out from the wall, and the new guy – Tad something or other – was examining it and using interesting gadgets to prod around.
“Yeah, it's not good,” Tad sighed as he crawled out of the oven.
“Really?” Katya groaned. She'd been hoping it was just a heating coil or something.
Tad threw a bunch of technical jargon at her that she didn't understand. What it boiled down to, he finally explained to her, was that her oven was kaput. He could fix it, but it would cost less to just buy a new stove.
“Which your landlord or super can arrange for you,” he finished. Katya snorted and Gate laughed.
“You would think,” she grumbled. “Well, thanks for looking. How much do I owe you?”
Before she could even grab her purse, Gate stepped forward.
“Oh no, this was a favor from me. My treat,” he assured her.
“No, Tad came all the way down here, I'd feel weird -” she started to argue, but both men held up their hands. She frowned.
“Seriously, it's fine. I didn't do anything except move your stove around. I do have an appointment at one o'clock, though, so I gotta get going if I want to beat traffic. Katya, great to meet you. Gate, see you at the game?” Tad checked, grabbing his jacket and tool belt as he headed into the hallway.
“Yeah, I'll be there tomorrow. Thanks for coming down!”
“Wait,” Katya tried to argue. She didn't want to be indebted to some random dude. “Really, I should at least pay for some-”
The sound of the door shutting cut her off before she could finish her sentence and she was left staring after him. Gate chuckled and turned to face her.
“Sorry, that's the way me and my friends are,” he said.
“I still feel weird, getting like an in-home check up for free,” she replied.
“Okay, well how about you buy me dinner, and we call it even?” he suggested.
Katya's gut reaction was to say no. She had enough men problems, and as much as she liked Gaten, she wasn't about to add him to the equation. But just then, there was another noise from the hall. She thought maybe Tad had forgotten something and had come back for it. As she glanced out the kitchen doorway, though, she realized she wasn't that lucky.
“Call what even?” Wulf asked, adjusting his cuff links as he strode into the kitchen as if he owned the place.
“Oh, sorry, I didn't know you were expecting someone,” Gate said quickly.
“I wasn't,” Katya sighed. “Gate, this is Wulf – his company manages the buildings. Wulf, this is Gaten, he lives in the building next door.”
Gate smiled and made a move like he was going to offer his hand, but when Wulf didn't move at all – didn't so much as twitch his lips – Gate held still.
“Charmed, I'm sure. Now Tocci, we're running behind schedule,” Wulf continued speaking to her.
“Oh geez, I didn't mean to make you late,” Gaten said, glancing between them.
“You didn't, I never confirmed. Besides, we're not done here. You said something about dinner?” she asked, turning her back on Wulf. Gate glanced at the other man for a second, then focused on her.
“Uh, yeah. I know a really relaxed place, not too far from here. I could pick you up after work?” he offered.
“I'll meet you there. Seven?” she took charge of the date.
“Sounds good. See you then. Nice meeting you, uh … wolf,” Gate said, nodding his head before walking out of the kitchen. Wulf and Katya stared at each other until the front door opened and closed.
“Have you eaten?” he asked.
“How did you get in here?” she ignored his question and asked her own.
“I have access to the keys for every building we manage. Are you really meeting that thing for dinner?” he asked again.
“Okay, first of all, 'that thing' is a seriously good looking, very successful, and ridiculously nice man – a man who has yet to lie to me and use me,” she pointed out.
“Key word being 'yet'.”
“And second of all, I know for a fact my lease states you have to give me twenty-four hour notice before you just barge in here. If you come in again without my permission, I'm gonna file a complaint,” she warned him. He laughed. Actually laughed. Something Wulfric Stone didn't do very often. She took a deep breath and looked away from his broad smile.
“Please do. I'll direct my HR department to hand deliver it to my desk so I can deal with it personally.”