Phone Tag (Shidge/Klance)

Chapter 12

It had been a longer day than most—or maybe a week in general. Katie'd been waiting impatiently for Takashi to call over the last few days. For some reason or another, he'd been calling less and less.

"Hello, this is Pidge Gunderson at Altea Tech. How can I help you?"

"Pidge, it's Takashi."

She nearly exploded out of her chair, but she forced every muscle in her body to stay still. "Long time no talk, Takashi! How are you?"

"I'm doing great, actually. I adopted a cat... well, cats for now, I guess. That's been keeping me busy. Tell me about you."

Katie puffed out her chest. "I'm great, too. I have a date tonight, so I'm looking forward to that."

"Seriously?" Katie couldn't tell if he was in complete shock—to him, a nerdy IT girl finding someone worth dating might be a shock—or if he was excited for her. "I have a date, too. We're going to an arcade."

Her jaw dropped. What were the odds of Takashi and her being at the same arcade location? There were only a handful in the area—but only one of them doubled as a bar. Not a bad place to celebrate a (slightly belated) twenty-first birthday. "W-well, depending on the arcade, you might owe me a drink."

"A drink? That's the very the least I can owe you. If I somehow manage to find you, then you can count on it."

"Sounds like a plan," Katie said. "Who should I look for then?"

"Don't look. Just listen for my voice. See you later, Pidge."

She gave a sharp salute. "Yes, sir! Have a good one. Can't wait to see you." Beep beep beep. She ripped off her headset and pranced over to Lance's cubicle. "Hey, Lance, I have a—"

"Date. Say no more. I'm gonna make you look like a fucking queen."

Katie rolled her eyes skyward. "I was going to say request before you so rudely interrupted me."

"Which was going to lead to an explanation of the event, which is a date. Unless you're going to correct me that it's not a date. So, you're going with Takashi, right? Keith, you owe me two drinks!"

She drew her lips back into an awkward grin. "Actually, it sounds like you owe Keith two drinks. I'm going out with someone else."

"Why the hell would you do that? Date with a guy you don't like?" Keith's brows furrowed in thought.

Lance waggled a finger at Keith. "She's doing what's called 'playing hard to get,' Red Rover."

"What's so hard to get?"

Her hand slid down her face. Wrong, wrong, wrong. They were both so wrong. Keith wasn't exactly the most socially aware person. But she wasn't playing hard to get, either. "I'm trying to make him jealous, that's all."

"That's all?" Lance whistled. "You're playing a dangerous game, Pidge."

Golden eyes targeted Lance. "I could say the same for hitting on every lady here in the office." Her gaze shifted to Keith. "And Red Ranger over here."

"That's Red Rover to you, Pudge," Lance snapped. "Ouch! What the hell, Keith?"

Keith had tugged Lance's ear a little. "I can fight my own battles, Lance. And this isn't one of them."