Tabula Rasa

Chapter 55

Calina barely stirred as Matt slipped out of her bed the next morning. He was more than loathe to leave the warm, comfortable haven but he needed to get ready for work. So he pressed a kiss to her bare shoulder, pulled the covers up and over her chilled skin, and crept out of her apartment.

He returned forty minutes later, once showered and dressed, with a hammer in one hand and a bunch of nails that he'd found shoved in a box under his sink. This time Calina was a little more alert - and she became more so when he started pounding a nail into the base of her window frame.

"Matt?" she asked, rolling over to face him. "What are you doing?"

"Fixing what I broke last night." He hammered in another nail to keep the window shut. It wasn't the neatest job, but it would do until he could arrange for the building Super to mend it.

As long as she was safe in the meantime.

"You came through the window last night?" She sounded befuddled.

"Well, I didn't have a key to your front door."

"Oh. Sorry."

He placed his tools on the window ledge and sat on the edge of the bed, trying to hide his smile. He loved sleepy, confused Calina - he'd missed seeing this side of her.

"No need to apologise, sweetheart. Why don't you get some more rest?"

She relaxed back against the pillows. "Mmmm, okay. Thank you."

"For the suggestion, or for the window?"

"For last night," she explained, stifling a yawn. "I didn't meant to mess up the whole 'going slow' thing."

"We can go slow tonight."

She smiled, even as her eyes fell shut. "Mmm, tonight. Our date."

"That's right. Our date." He leaned over and kissed her, feeling her smile against his lips. "See you then, sweetheart."

"Mmm."

He smiled at her response - barely more than a hum of noise as she slipped back into slumber - then crept back out of the apartment. As he made his way to work, he searched his phone for possible restaurant options for that night.

And soon realised he'd made a huge mistake: he'd over-promised on this date, and was going to massively underdeliver.

"Shit," he muttered under his breath as he shouldered his way into the main office, his concentration still locked on his phone.

"What's up?" Foggy asked.

"Everywhere decent is booked up."

"Huh?"

"I'm trying to arrange dinner for me and Calina for tonight, but everywhere's booked."

"Okay, first of all, I'm glad you two worked things out. Secondly, what did you expect, man? You can't leave these things to the day of. You gotta plan in advance."

"What's going on?" Karen asked, emerging from the conference room.

"Matt's trying to find a restaurant for him and Calina for tonight."

Karen sucked in a breath. "Good luck. Its crazy these days - you have to book weeks in advance if you want somewhere good."

"I didn't know in advance," Matt replied through gritted teeth. "We only sorted things out between us a few days ago."

"So what's the rush?" Foggy asked.

"I already told her we'd do something tonight, and she's excited about it. It's our first date."