February 2013

Renee tapped on her phone nervously, biting her lip. She almost put it down again, but a shiver ran down her spine that forced the issue. Taking a deep breath she hit call and pressed the phone to her ear. It rang for what felt like hours, until a gruff voice answered on the other side.

"Hello?"

"Hey, Dean, any chance you're home right now?"

"I am, actually. Sorry," the smirk in his voice came through loud and clear, "who's this?"

She rolled her eyes, "it's Renee. You said to call if I ever needed anything?"

"So I did."

"Well the super's not picking up and the thermostat is freaking out. It's freezing in here. Will you take a look at it?"

"Inviting me over to your apartment? I mean that's forward but I'm into it."

Renee chuckled, "if you could just tell me if I'm missing something-"

"What number are you?"

"Sorry?"

"Your apartment. What, you think I know where you live?"

"Oh, right, 407."

"Be right down."

A few minutes later, Dean was making his way down to the fourth floor in jeans he'd pulled on. He was just glad he was actually in town and able to help her. Though, maybe, if she knew the Bella Twin's schedule, she might've known he'd be home tonight. Maybe she even broke the heater herself to get him over there. Probably not, but he could dream.

She opened the door wrapped in a large fluffy open sweater. The neckline of the tank top underneath was low and lacy and he had to remind himself to keep his eyes level.

"Hey, thank you,"

"My pleasure,"

"So the thermostat over here," she gestured for him to follow her over to the kitchen, "it's set to 76 but it's only pointing at like 70,"

"Yeah and it is way colder than that in here,"

"Right? So I don't know if something's frozen or broken or what-"

He studied it for a minute and then looked back to her, "where's the wall unit?"

"Uh over here," she walked over to the other side of the small living room, against an exposed brick wall that was lined with twinkle lights. "And it's cold."

Dean followed her across the plush lilac rug. He felt it for a second, sure enough, t hadn't been producing heat for hours. She probably had just gotten home from work, that's what normal people did, right? They worked until 6 and then dealt with their annoyances. He tried adjusting some of the nobs, looking for a way to reboot it. After no success, he bit the inside of his mouth, looked down at the unit, and gave it a swift kick with his boot. Renee jumped but it whirled on, hot air starting to pour from the grate.

He smirked, "there you are."

"You have got to be kidding me."

"Yeah classy place, huh? I had to replace all the mechanical stuff in my place after I moved in cause it was all a piece of shit."

"Well, thanks,"

"Any time."

"I'll buy you pizza sometime."

"I could go for pizza," he smirked.

"Right now? Okay, what do you want?" she asked sorting through her menu drawer.

"Pepperoni? Thanks,"

He toed off his shoes and placed them by the door. Sitting down on a short sectional, he looked around the room, trying to take in all the little pieces of Renee. On the other side of the sofa, a decorative throw pillow said "No coffee? Ugh. Depresso," and a large knit blanket lay gently over the cushions. The coffee table was a mess of books, plants and little decorative items. Behind the small TV there was a patterned pastel tapestry hanging from the ceiling to the floor. He craned his neck to get a glimpse into the room to the left, and could make out an unmade bed in a teal bedspread and deep pink sheets, but the rest was beyond his grasp.

"Okay 20 minutes," she said, plopping down across the sectional from him and moving her long blonde hair to one side.

"Great,"

"So I hear you're quite the interesting character, Ambrose."

"Oh yeah? Where'd you hear that?"

"Daniel Bryan."

"He's been spendin' too much time with those Bellas, getting gossipy."

"He says you're known for bloody work?"

"You could say that. I'm a bit out there compared to most of the WWE crop, but out in the rest of the bis, I'm not the toughest guy by a long shot."

"What's the craziest thing you've ever done?"

"Oh, buzzsaw to the forehead hands down."

"What!"

"Yeah it was a rough night. What about you?"

"As a sports journalist? Uh been to a couple of wild afterparties but other than that…"

He laughed, "fair. Nikki said you're on Channel 6?"

"You talking to Nikki about me?"

"Nikki is talking to me about you, there's a difference."

"Gooot it."

"Did he uh, did he tell you anything else…about me… and my past?"

"Like what?"

"Well I just, uh, I," he gnawed on the side of his mouth, debating how to get out of the hole he just dug himself into, "I had some trouble…when I was younger. Booze and drugs and all that."

"Oh,"

"I'm better now," he said quickly, "got my head back on straight."

"Oh, good, that's good."

"So like, no drug deals going down in the lobby of your apartment building."

She laughed nervously, "good to know. I'm sure management would not appreciate that."

"Hey speaking of management, I'll give 'em a call tomorrow for you."

"Dean you don't have to do that, I can call."

"They'll listen to me, trust me."

"Because you've got big intimidating man voice?"

"Something like that. Just let me make a complaint for you, they wanna charge luxury prices and then not even have working equipment, it's wrong. An' I pay waaaay too much for that nonsense."

"Well, okay then. Thank you."

A heat settled in between them as she looked down, not meeting his gaze. For a moment, he let his eyes run over her cheeks, and the long lines of her lashes. He had that nagging feeling that he couldn't sake, a wanting to lean in and press his lips to hers.

Her phone began to rang and it snapped him back in to reality.

"Food's here," she smiled, standing up and leaving him alone in her cozy, twinkly apartment to think about how the hell he was going to make a move.

XXX

The after-dinner crowd at Starbucks was always a little solemn. Mostly coffee dates and students, Renee felt out of place in the corner with a caramel macchiato and her laptop. Maybe most people would assume she was just another over-studious med student, but she knew she just didn't have enough going on in her personal life to be anywhere else on a Friday night. Her podcast wasn't going to research itself, she justified, and plus once she got through this prep for tomorrow, she could curl up with Love Actually and some popcorn.

She saw him from the moment he came in, but he didn't seem to see her. So she kept her eyes straight ahead on her screen as she typed quickly.

"Double shot Americano? You're a doll, Casandra."

Her fingers were typing vigorously, trying to focus on her work and not droll over him. From the top of her vision, she saw him with his back towards her waiting for his coffee. He glanced around and over his shoulder.

"Hey!"

She looked up at the sound, he smiled as she met his eye.

"Hi. Late night buzz?"

"Driving to the airport, gotta be in Dallas in the morning."

"Oh wow,"

"Yeah and it's a long ass tour, I'm glad you caught me when you did."

"WrestleMania stuff, right?"

"See, you know," he chuckled, "I put an angry call into management, call me if you have another issue."

"While you're working?"

"I can answer a phone call. Especially one from you."

"I'll let you know,"

"Good." He almost looked disappointed as his coffee came, "I'll uh, I'll see you in a week."

XXX

He wasn't sure what came over him, sitting in the airport lounge, maybe it was boredom, or curiosity. It wasn't hard to find his way through Channel 6's site to their sports podcasts. Before he knew it, he had downloaded all of them. On the plane he settled into his seat with his oversized headphones and clicked play.

"What is going on guys, I'm Renee Young, this is Channel 6 Sports Quick Hits and today we are talking to the one, the only, Chip Kelly, and he's gonna give us, with as much brevity as possible, the secret to coaching the Eagles. Sound good? Sounds good."

Dean smirked to himself, she could make anything sound exciting and worthwhile. He closed his eyes and listened to the sound of her voice. Was that creepy? She was a public figure after all, her voice was out there, free for any shmuck to download. If that made him a creep, well then, he supposed he was a bit of a creep.

XXX

Mondays were early days, but at least it gave Renee the rest of the day to herself. Of course, that usually meant that she got over ambitious about how much she could do, grocery shopping for the week and cooking and cleaning every inch of her apartment and also shoe shopping and now she was exhausted. She plopped down on her couch with a box of crackers and stretched out her tired feet. Flipping through the channels, she paused for a moment on Monday Night Raw, she recognized the set instantly. She really only watched when Nicole or Brianna had some sort of big match, but tonight, she was intrigued. A few minutes had gone by, and she was already fairly bored, considering finding something else. But then there was a familiar audio that stopped her.

"Sierra, Hotel, India, Echo, Lima, Delat, Shield!"

Three men started making their way down the stands again and Renee chuckled to herself. It was a little ridiculous, but she couldn't help but keep her eyes on Dean's confident scowl. That, and his sleeveless vest that showed off his biceps rather nicely. He rolled his neck and got hyped up, and although she had a pretty remedial understanding of what was actually going on, she found herself enjoying watching him work in the ring. Dean was fast and sneaky, his eyes were wild and it always looked like he was having just a bit too much fun. It was nothing like the guy that had shown up at her doorstep to fix her heat, but maybe that's what she liked. There was that possibility that she was getting both.

Not that she was getting him or anything, that was a stupid idea, and she shook it off. His life was crazy, even if he made a move, how would that work? He was a sweet guy, she wasn't about to try to deny it, but as she sat there, she slowly but surely talked herself out of the idea that this might actually happen. Maybe he liked her, he had laid it on pretty thick, but she would be a fool to put all her eggs in a basket labeled Dean Ambrose.

XXX

It was late Friday night and all Dean wanted was to lay his head down on his pillow. But of course, the world, namely the road to WrestleMania, had other plans for him. He only really had the one day off, he'd have to be in New York Sunday afternoon for another live show. Dean grumbled to himself as he rode the elevator down to the fourth floor, pissed that he'd managed to forget his keys. Still, he was determined to make the best of it.

Knocking gently on 407 he held his breath. He had no idea if she was home tonight, it was a Friday after all. Or she might be in bed already, she said she worked most Saturdays too. But after a minute, the door opened slightly and her green eyes met his.

"Hey, uh, sorry I know it's late, I just locked myself out like an idiot and I…" he trailed off, his eyes settling onto the shadow of her in the darkness of her apartment. She was dressed in an oversized flannel t-shirt and her hair was just a bit tussled. Dean closed his eyes, feeling the awkwardness, "you are on a date."

"I-sorry. Do you need to call?"

"Nah I got juice I was just hoping to wait it out, they said 15 minutes which means 30..."

"I'm sorry," she said again.

"Don't, don't be sorry."

"You sure you're okay?"

"I'll wait downstairs, I'll be fine. Go back to your date, have some fun, Renee."

She blushed and looked at him through those long lashes. He tried to resist the urge to run his eyes over the skin of her legs, though it wasn't getting him very far.

"Goodnight," he said firmly, standing out here while some other dude was in her bed was going to make him feel any better about the situation.

"Goodnight, she called after him, a hint of disappointment in her voice.