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XII. A Calling

He braced himself as he dialled her number and waited for the call to connect. The dial tone did nothing to ease his nerves. He had rehearsed - extensively so, to make sure he doesn't say anything wrong - what to tell her. It'll be simple and quick - they'll need to talk face to face for the remainder.

Just ask her out to dinner. Everything else can wait 'til then, he reminded himself.

"Hi, Morning."

"Hi, Lei."

"I didn't know you changed your caller ID on my phone. When did you do that?"

He laughed. He had done that quite a while ago, and had forgotten about it completely.

"Quite a while back. I can't even remember."

"Shows how often we actually call."

He doesn't speak, guilty because a long, long time ago, he was never contactable and Lea had, as a result, given him the sole autonomy to call her instead.

"How old are you again?"

"I haven't gotten a day older since the day I changed all your contact names to mine."

It was her turn to chuckle.

"I'll never forget that one! I wanted to kill you! I opened up my contact list and had no inkling of which number belonged to which person! But now, thinking back...now, it's actually funny."

"Glad you like my antics."

"What did you call me for, anyway?"

"Oh, about that, uh..."

Damn, what happened to rehearsed? I can't remember a single thing, he thought, completely flustered.

"Want to have dinner together, tonight?"

And for once, flustered but not embarrassed, he sighed in relief.

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She knew why he wanted dinner - she had expected it. So when the question was finally popped, she wasn't taken aback.

"Sure," she replied without hesitation.

"Any place in particular you'd like to eat at?"

"I'm good. You can call the shots."

"Then I'll pick you up tonight."

"No, it's fine. Just text me the address and I'll drive myself there."

"You just said I could call the shots!"

"I'm almost regretting having said that right now."

"Just get your ass into the shower, put on something nice, and wait for my phone call in 2 hours."

"Please don't make me wait too long, I'm warning you! If you're a few hours late, I'll definitely give you a piece of my mind."

"I'm sure you'd hand me my ass as well."

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A/N:

A short update for now! I pinky promise that the next chapter won't take so long.

Vote, comment or share if you've enjoyed this story thus far!! Thanks loads for all your support, writing has been really gratifying because of you all. :)

With loves,