"Watch your step"
You smile a little up at Toni as you start walking up the stairway in her apartment block. You're glad to be out of the cold.
"I know how to walk up stairs," you laugh nervously.
"Yeah but you've been drinking and I'm used to Kevin falling up here," Toni giggles.
"Hey!" Kevin says in defense, slapping Toni on the arm.
"I'm not drunk trust me" you grimace, thinking momentarily back to embarrassing, hazy drunken memories, most of which involving tears or vomiting or often both.
You follow behind Kevin and Toni till you reach the end of a hallway on the third floor and she opens the door to room 25. Toni flicks on the light as she walks through to the living room; Kevin pushes by and collapses on the sofa on his front.
Shit. It's really cold in here.
"Crap, my heating must have turned itself off again" Toni groans and opens the door to the kitchen. A familiar lab comes scampering out and runs toward you, twirling around your legs.
"Hey there," you smile down at Hot dog and stroke over the smooth hair on her head. She wags her tail excitedly in response.
You look around and it's a decent sized flat, the living room is pretty big and is decorated in cream and teal colors. There is cream sofa's set up to face the TV on the wall, there's a chair in the corner where you see colorful balls of thread and other knitting material. You smile imagining Toni knit all sorts of clothing there. There are a few dog bones and squeakers lying on the floor and a bookshelf with an assortment of weird ornaments. You note the lack of pictures though. There's not any and it doesn't make the place seem as homely as it could be. You think about your own place, it has lots of photos of you and your parents, you and Reggie on holiday, even one of you and Veronica.
You hear a kettle come on from the kitchen. "Hey, you guys want hot chocolate?" Toni's voice calls through.
"Yes," you and Kevin both say in unison. You laugh a little as Hot dog runs through to the kitchen like she wants some too.
"Geez Toni, polar bears could live in here" Kevin calls through and you see him shivering. You decide to walk over past the coffee table and sit in the lone seat across from him.
"That was the plan," Toni calls through and you hear her stirring the drinks, "but so far none have showed up at my door, weird right?"
Kevin rolls his eyes and shakes his head; you on the other hand giggle and sigh feeling giddy. She's so fucking cute; worst part is you don't know what you love more, the fact that she might be kidding or the fact she might be serious. You can't really tell. She's cute and magical either way.
Toni comes in and puts Kevin's drink on the table, then hands you yours. You notice the way her lips twitch when her fingers slide along yours briefly as you take the cup from her.
You blink and smile bashfully back up at her, "thanks," you mumble quietly.
She smiles at you then all too quickly she's gone back through to the kitchen.
Fuck. You're really glad Kevin's here. You don't know what you might do otherwise.
You sit in the comfort of the living room and love the way the steam from your hot chocolate raises from your cup and heats your face. You glance at Kevin, who's all but collapsed on the sofa; he's barely got one eye open.
"T, we're going to die in this cold" he mumbles, his words muffled as his face is mashed up against the surface of the sofa.
"Sorry guys," Toni says coming in from the kitchen with her own hot chocolate and sits by Kevin's feet. "My heating has been weird recently, I've been meaning to get it fixed, but I've put it on now and it's working OK, it may take a while to heat the place up though"
