“This old thing?” she asked, holding out her arms and looking down at herself.
“Yeah, that,” he said, unabashedly checking her out. “Jesus, I'm a little under dressed. Where are we going for dinner?”
After Wulf had stomped away and she'd come up with her evil little plan, she'd called Liam and had a brief chat with him. Asked him what he was doing that evening, and when he'd said nothing, she'd told him to dress nice and that dinner would be on her. Of course, he'd accepted the invite without question.
Which was very, very good for her.
“It's a surprise,” she said, then winked at him and stepped off the curb, heading to the cab she'd ordered.
They made idle chit chat in the car. It was awkward at first – weeks without speaking to each other had done its damage. He would reach out to touch her, rest a hand on her thigh, brush her arm, then pull away abruptly. Obviously remembering that it wasn't allowed anymore, regardless of how she'd behaved at the wedding.
Not that her actions had gone unnoticed, though.
“So the wedding. What was all that about, anyway?” he asked, paying the taxi driver while she climbed out of the car. Not an easy feat in the kind of dress she was wearing.
“I was just … I wanted to have fun, you know?” she offered, watching him as he got out behind her.
“Fun?”
“Yeah. I'm tired of being mad at you, it's exhausting. I was dancing with you, and we were having fun, and I wanted to have more fun, and frankly, I also knew it would piss Wulf off,” she explained, standing still so he could hold open the door to the restaurant for her.
“Huh. So kissing him, was that to piss him off, too?” he grunted, glancing down at her. She smiled.
“Did that bother you?” she asked.
“It sure as shit didn't make me feel good.”
“Oh, that's too bad. Then you're really not gonna like tonight.”
“What? Why? Oh god, what do you have planned?”
But she didn't need to answer. She'd been striding through the restaurant, ignoring a hostess' plea to help her. Wulf wasn't hard to find, he'd stood up as soon as she came within sight of his table. Liam recognized him at the same time Wulf recognized who was following his would-be dinner date.
“You know,” Wulf started, not bothering to look at her, only leveling a glare on Liam. “I'd figured you were gonna try to pull something, Tocci, but I have to admit, I'm impressed. I did not see this coming.”
“Liam,” she said in a prim voice, holding up a hand in front of him. “This is Wulfric Stone, we used to live next door to each other and recently ended a very strange relationship. Wulf, this is Liam Edenhoff – we currently live next door to each other and recently ended a very strange friendship.”
“You're not funny,” Liam said, glancing down at her.
“Really? Cause I'm having a hard time keeping from laughing,” she replied.
Everyone stared at each other for a few long seconds. Then, when Katya went to pull out a chair, both men were jolted into action. Liam was closer, so he was able to help her get seated, but that also meant Wulf was given the chance to change seats. They were at a four top, and he'd been sitting opposite her chair. He switched it up, sitting in the chair to her right, no place setting laid out in front of him. Liam went to go take the empty chair to her left, but a waiter was walking by right then, and Wulf snapped his fingers.
“Yes, Mr. Stone?” the young man responded instantly.
“We won't be needing the fourth chair.”
And just like that, Liam's chair was yanked away and was being carried off through the restaurant. He had no choice but to take Wulf's old seat – across the table. He glared as he sat down, then grabbed Wulf's left-behind wine glass and drained the contents.
“Now then,” Wulf said as he adjusted his suit jacket. “What's the plan here? Are Eden and I supposed to fight? Challenge each other to a duel? Write you love poems?”
“Uh, that wasn't my plan, but now that you've said it, I would die to see the kind of love poem you'd write,” Katya replied. He gave her a tight smile.
“You can go ahead and hold your breath while I write one.”
“I'm sorry, angel cake, but I'm siding with Wulf on this one. What is your plan here? Because I don't feel like sitting through three courses with this asshole,” Liam added his two cents. Wulf didn't even flinch at the insult.
“I thought,” she took a deep breath. “This would be a good time to lay some ground rules.”
There was a long silence.
“Ground rules?” Wulf finally asked.
“Yes.”
“For what?” Liam asked.
“This.”
“This what?” Liam glanced between her and Wulf.
“Us,” she continued.
“Us … what?” Liam tried some more.
“What's going on,” she said. Liam went to ask another question, but Wulf finally leaned forward.
“More bullshit. I told you before I wasn't going to come here just to waste my time,” he snapped. “I don't have time for your games.”
“Really?” she asked, turning in her seat to face him. “You had plenty of time two months ago. Days and days and weeks of playing games. But now you can't spare an hour? I guess it's not so fun when the other team gets to make the rules.”
“Truce!” Liam called out before Wulf could snap back. “Alright, we're assholes, and we deserve any kind of torture you want to subject us to. But the sooner you can tell us what our punishment is, the sooner we can get to it.”
“Okay then,” she said, sitting back in her chair. “Wulf invited me to dinner. I assumed he meant as a date.”
“You assumed correct,” he said.
“And Liam, you've been trying to get me to go out with you ever since the big fight,” she said, glancing across the table at the other man.
“Yes.”
“You know, it's funny. You both worked out this whole big secret. All these lies and pretenses, when it was all unnecessary. Was it the thrill of lying that made you do it? It had to be, because I was completely open and honest about being with both of you. You could've admitted from the beginning that you knew and worked with each other, and it probably wouldn't have changed anything. I still would have gone out with you,” she said, staring pointedly at Wulf for a second before turning her gaze to Liam. “And I still would have slept with you. So. Now I'm going to give you two the opportunity you never gave me.”
Both men glanced at each other briefly.
“I'm not sleeping with him,” Liam said loudly. Wulf rolled his eyes.
“You should be so lucky.”
Katya laughed.
“No. If you two want to see me, then you're both going to be fully aware of it. Both active participants,” she explained.
“What, like … a threesome?” Liam asked.
“You wish,” Katya snorted. “You two had so much fun playing around with me, think of how much better it will be this time around. You won't have to meet in secret to talk about our dates, we can have conference calls together, if you want.”
“You want to date both of us,” Wulf stated. She shrugged.