Heaven Sent (Loki/Asgard Fanfiction - Aislinn's Story)

Chapter Sixty-One

Mrs. Steven C. Molinaro.

Aislinn smiled at the white envelope atop the stack in her hand. Married three days and already receiving mail with her married name.

She liked how it looked. Liked how it sounded.

Too bad it was only junk mail. An offer for a credit card. As if she needed a credit card.

A flick of her fingers and the mail was sorted. All the envelopes that read Mrs. Steven C. Molinaro ended up in the trash. All junk mail. She smiled over the address on them, opened them, and promptly tossed them. Steve's mail went into a pile on the kitchen table. His mortgage statement. Credit cards. Car insurance.

She picked up the mortgage statement. Steve bought the townhouse six years earlier, when he'd been offered tenure, which meant job security. He got it just before the housing market imploded and owed almost eighty thousand dollars on it still. He'd called Linda yesterday, and she'd told them the sellers agreed to come down twenty-five thousand. So Steve counter offered at thirty-three thousand. And now they waited.

If they didn't get the house, she'd be disappointed, but already decided that she would pay off Steve's mortgage whether he liked it or not. Her father couldn't possibly object to it. After all, he'd given Celia and Selig their house and the Mantoloking property cost far, far more than eighty thousand Midgardian dollars. 

Her cell phone buzzed across the table and she smiled as she picked it up. "Aren't you supposed to be in class?"

"Hey, baby," Steve's voice was slightly raised and the background noise sounded like traffic racing by, "I am, but someone pulled the fire alarm, so I'm currently in the parking lot by the wrestling room. You still planning on coming up here for lunch?"

"I was, unless the building is burning down."

"No. Just someone trying to get out of a test or something. It happens all the time. Have you heard from Linda?"

"No. Not a word."

"Well, we only made the offer yesterday."

She sighed softly as she sank into a chair. "I know. I'm trying not to get my hopes too high. You know," she switched the phone to her other ear, "I'm already getting mail addressed to Mrs. Steven C. Molinaro. They work fast."

His chuckle was low and sexy. "Damn, that sounds weird."

"Tell me about it. The first time someone calls me that, I'm going to look for your mother."

"You'll be fine. They're giving the all clear, so we're heading back inside. I'll see you up here around one?"

"I'll be there."

"Good. I'd better go. Love you."

"Love you, too, Steve."

***

Steve tucked his phone into the pocket of his warmup pants and raked his hair back into place as a particularly brutal gust of wind whipped through the parking lot. It was a blustery, October day, with heavy gray skies and a hint of autumn in the air.

"So, tell me," Ellen Sanders fell into step beside him, "is that a new piece of jewelry on that hand over there?"

He glanced down at the ring on his left hand. "It might be."

"And is it what I think it is?"

He grinned. "Again, it might be."

"Are you a married man?"

"I might be."

Bill House joined them. "What's the powwow about?"

"Steve got married."