#myaawposts

Seth was in the middle of preparing his dinner when his ring tone sounded and his cell phone on the counter beside him began to buzz, signaling an incoming call. When he paused to look at the screen he groaned aloud as yet another unrecognizable number appeared on it.

Ever since getting this new "upgraded" pay-as-you-go phone a few weeks ago he'd been bombarded with all sorts of calls asking for one Sami Callihan. The calls ranged from random dudes, to girlfriends, to angry ex girlfriends, to bill collectors. Based on the type of people calling for him, Seth could only guess that this Sami Callihan was an unsavory character.

The risk of using inexpensive phone plans was getting assigned an existing number, but living on wages a retail job provided meant that pay-as-you-go was all he could afford. At least he was able to get a relatively shiny smartphone.

After a few weeks of all these calls, when an unknown number popped up Seth simply ignored them or went the more favorable route of declining the call to stop the annoying ringing.

However currently his hands were decidedly occupied, sticky after forming patties from raw ground beef. He carried on, hoping that the caller would give up. The phone rang incessantly – nearly driving Seth up the wall – before it finally stopped. He blew out a sigh of relief and just as he was going to continue, his cell started up again.

He sighed, an edge of a growl tingeing it with frustration.

Seemed like ignoring this caller just wouldn't do the trick, so after quickly washing his hands, Seth pressed decline then went back to his task. He only got as far as starting up the burner underneath the skillet when the ringing began again.

"God damn it." Seth snatched up his phone in such a grip that it was a wonder he didn't crush it in his hand. He hit accept and through sheer will managed not to yell when he answered.

"Yeah?"

His ear was assaulted with the obscene sound of chewing.

"'Bout time you picked up asshole," said a deep, raspy voice that quite frankly caused a flush of heat to rise on Seth's cheeks. He pushed his shift of emotions down to properly address the situation.

"Excuse me?" Seth growled.

"There's no excuse for you, Sami fuckin' Callihan," the man on the other end replied matter-of-factly, "why were you ignoring my calls? And why do you sound all nasally? You sick or something?"

Seth's scowl deepened. He did not sound nasally.

"There is no Sami here. You got the wrong number, pal."

There was a muffled rustling as though the man had readjusted the phone; the obnoxious chewing became clearer as did his voice.

"You're just playing another one of your games again, aren't ya? Like that one time I called and you claimed to be Wong's Chinese Take-Out. That little game was fun for awhile, but now it's just getting old."

Seductive voice or not, Seth so did not have time for this. His stomach was practically eating itself.

"I said I'm not Sami," Seth half snapped, and against his better judgment – he blamed it on his hunger – he asked, "Who is this?"

There was a sharp snap on the other end of the line then the chewing resumed. Definitely gum.

"It's Dean, just in case that fever has gone to that head of yours. So...who are you pretending to be this time, Sam I Am?"

"Oh for the love of God!" This time Seth did shout. "I am not Sami!"

The line went silent to the point that he suspected Dean had hung up – good riddance.

Then there was an even louder pop of gum.

"Alright, alright. I get it, chill man."

"Good," Seth bit out, "Bye."

"So what's your name?"

"What? What's it matter? Wrong number, remember?"

"Hey you're the one that asked for my name. Isn't it common courtesy that you'd tell me yours?"

Once again he made a stupid decision – it was because he was hungry and couldn't think straight (those Snickers commercials were so accurate) – and answered.

"Seth. Now I've gotta—"

"Whatcha up to, Seth?"

Seriously? What was this dude's deal? Did he just randomly call people to make conversation?

"It's really none of your business, but I'm cooking dinner, or was until you interrupted."

What the hell? Why was he still talking to this…stranger?

"What're you cooking?" Dean's interest sounded piqued.

Seth continued playing right into his hand by keeping the conversation going when it should have ended long ago. He couldn't help that it felt easy, almost natural to keep talking to this guy. Like they were long lost friends or something.

"Cheeseburgers, homemade."

By now Seth had taken the time to balance the phone between his ear and shoulder so he could finally place his patties into the well-heated skillet. He washed his hands once more.

The steady chewing of gum on the other end suddenly became frenetic in pace and the other man sucked in a breath.

"Care if I join you?" Dean rumbled.

The question caught Seth so off kilter that he stopped all movements in his effort to keep himself from slowly toppling over. At the same time his insides became utter goo at Dean's suggestion. His silence seemed to cause Dean's annoying chewing to cease altogether.

"Too far?" he asked, the certainty in his deep voice becoming almost hesitant.

It certainly was too far, yet Seth could hardly quell the small excited part of him bubbling with anticipation at the prospect of getting Dean at his dinner table so he could see the man behind the attractive voice.

But he wasn't completely stupefied to all reason, be it from hunger or said sexy voice.

"Yeeah…" he drawled out his reply.

Dean cleared his throat and tentatively resumed macerating his gum – it was a wonder that it wasn't reduced to nothing by now.

"Yeah…sorry about that."

Did he sound sheepish? Based on the short time he'd taken to talk to Dean, Seth couldn't imagine the guy being sheepish or caring much what anyone thought of him. Yet he'd made this ruffian he barely knew sheepish.

Weird.

"Nice uh…talk, Dean. Gotta go."

"Yeah," Now the guy just sounded dejected (Seth was not about to feel sorry for him), "Guess I'll talk to you later then."

"Yeah, bye."

"Bye."

It was only after Seth had sat down to enjoy his dinner that he realized his ultimate mistake, assenting to Dean calling him again.

"Damn it," he muttered then took an angry bite of his cheeseburger.

Still, try as he might to stamp out that eager little part of him that was utterly charmed by Dean in the five minutes or so they had conversed, it wouldn't stop pulling at his mind, begging for his attention. The pull was strong enough that he gazed across the table at the vacant spot where Dean would sit had he accepted the strange man over, imagination running wild at what he might look like, what other things they might talk about.

'He's a damn stranger. You did the right thing.'

The part of him that was intrigued by Dean pouted and childishly called his conscience a party pooper.

He finished his dinner in a silence that was only interrupted by his dog Kevin begging for table scraps. He showered, let Kevin out for his last minute potty break, then got dressed for bed.

After crawling into bed Seth got into his favorite, comfy position and closed his eyes, ready for sleep to claim his tired body. Instead of overtaking him gently, sleep came stubbornly and only after much tossing and turning, staring at the ceiling, and finally glancing briefly, but with mild longing at his cell phone.

************************************

The next few days Seth kept his guarded attention on his cell when possible, expecting another call anytime from Dean He didn't know whether he was anticipating the call or apprehensive of it. Either way it affected his work and his daily routine.

While working out at Crossfit, he was taking longer to complete workouts that he commonly could perform so well that he might as well be doing them blindfolded. And he found himself often taking time to glance over at his phone.

At his studio apartment he was restless, unsure of what he wanted to do to keep himself busy. Should he relax and play video games or should he get housework done for the day? He ended up going back and forth awkwardly between the two. Then he forgot to take Kevin out regularly and the little yorkie had to get his attention himself. At least he remembered to feed and water him, but those big innocent eyes begging him for attention still made him feel guilty.

And then at work he began getting suddenly flustered while cashiering when he was usually perfectly fine dealing with people and handling money. That lasted for two days and Seth was amazed neither day resulted in him being written up.

On the third day he ended up grabbing three boxes of toys amongst the boxes of kitchenware he was supposed to be stocking in the household aisle. He wasted time making a trip to return the toys and grab more of what he really needed to stock his shelves before the end of his shift. He then toppled down onto the floor coming off the stacks of boxes in the storeroom he normally was quite agile in climbing. Several boxes followed him down and he had to cover up to avoid the full brunt of their impact.

"You okay, man?" Marek asked, concern written all over his face as he helped Seth back onto wobbly feet.

"Yeah," Seth muttered quickly, not quite looking his best friend and co-worker in the eyes.

"Go to the break room. I'll clock you out and handle this," he gestured to the mess of boxes on the floor.

Seth didn't argue and went to the break room to catch his breath and check himself over more thoroughly. The fall was a nasty one, but he managed to come out of it relatively unscathed.

'You need to get this guy out of your head,' his conscience scolded, 'He probably won't even call you back anyway.'

As if on cue, his phone began ringing and vibrating in his pocket, causing him to jump in his seat. He blamed that tiny part of him that was still interested in Dean for fishing his phone out and without looking at the screen, answering with an essentially eager "Hello."

"Hey Seth," came that gravelly voice that he would now recognize anywhere.

"Dean," he returned, forcing a bit of coolness into his tone. Not like the guy needed to know that he had distracted him all week.

"You remembered."

Seth could visualize a smile on the other man's face. A face still clouded by speculation.

"Hard to forget a guy who tries to invite himself over for dinner after calling the wrong number."

"Technically it wasn't the wrong number," Dean argued in a fashion made it hard to disagree, all calm and collected, "Didn't know Sami let his phone expire."

Seth kept his tone firm and disapproving anyway, "Still, you insinuated yourself into a stranger's business."

"Don't flatter yourself, sunshine," the voice on the other end became a touch rough, "I wasn't asking you out on a date or anything. I was interested in your food. How dare you tempt a starving man with homemade cheeseburgers? Didn't ya know hunger makes you do stupid, desperate things?"

Seth blinked.

"Oh," he said distantly.

Did the other man not care at all for the conversation they'd had? He felt a tad deflated.

"Sami, that little fucker," Dean rambled on. Occasionally a whooshing sound almost drowned him out and Seth had to strain to hear him. He imagined Dean was talking on the phone outside. "He's my roommate, helped pay the bills and buy groceries…or at least he was my roommate, until he up and fucking left a few days ago…probably to avoid some drug dealing assholes he's been running with…had to sleep with a baseball bat next to my bed…oh and the little bastard had the nerve to empty the fridge out. I had to wait two days for payday until I could get anything to eat. I was so tempted to call you back and repeat my request, but it sounded like I freaked you out last time. Figured I'd let you calm down."

Oh damn…

His idea of Sami had been fairly spot on, definitely unsavory. Seth almost felt sorry for Dean. Almost, but not quite.

Dean didn't sound too innocent of a guy himself after all.

"So is that the only reason you're calling me right now, to bother me about food? I'm not some charity food bank for bums, ya know?" Seth said, a real sense of irritation lacing his words.

"Bum?" Dean repeated curtly, "Just because I may dress like a bum, does not make me a bum, Sunshine. I work hard for the honest money I earn," Seth flinched at that as though it was yelled and not calmly but firmly stated, "And to answer your little question, one of my best friends no longer has a phone I can bug him on. Hell he may be dead for all I know. 'Sides I did say I'd call you back."

"Yeah before I got the chance to tell you not to," Seth fibbed, hoping the guy would buy it.

"Liar! You had your chance to tell me to fuck off, but you said "yeah" to me calling you again," Dean retorted, mimicking his voice horribly.

"You distracted me and I was hungry. You're right, it makes you stupid," he admitted begrudgingly, before snapping, "And I don't sound like that."

Dean chuckled, the sound making Seth's stomach do somersaults.

"You sound like you have a perpetual cold."

"Yeah well you sound like someone who operates some sex hotline."

It was out before Seth could think and formulate a better come back.

Shit.

There was a small pause followed by a cacophony of full on belly laughs. A furious blush rose in Seth's face and he was glad that Marek or anyone else who might see his embarrassment were not around.

Finally the laughter quieted and Dean said, "I admit it…I lied…it all wasn't just about the food. You're damn entertaining to talk to. I liked talking to you the other night, Seth. That is why I said I would call back and why I've called you now. And what you just said proves you're still fun to talk to. I like this. I like you. We should hang out or something."

His conscience screamed a resounding 'What?!' while that little part of him that liked having Dean's voice in his ear started a little happy dance.

Seth didn't know how to feel or what to say, so he settled with a nonchalant, "Whatever." That seemed like a safe answer.

"So what're you up to tonight? Dinner?" Dean sounded like he was salivating at the prospect of what meal Seth might tell him about this time.

Suddenly Seth was thrown back into his surroundings and he looked around at the break room. He pouted at the fact that he had to get back to business in place of chatting Dean's ear off about things relevant or irrelevant.

"No…I'm at work. Just took a fall off an eight foot stack of boxed kitchenware before more boxes attacked me for good measure."

"Ooh…sounds nasty," that deep voice lowered an octave and Seth's stomach went back to its nervous exercising, this time back flips.

Though warmth flooded his cheeks, Seth mustered the courage to throw a teasing insult back at the other man.

"You sound nasty."

That earned him another deep chuckle then Dean said, "I am nasty."

Seth became breathless in that moment and he had to swallow to alleviate his heavy tongue. He had to think for a second before he could say what he really needed to say, but didn't want to.

He opened his mouth tell Dean he had to go, but was cut short by a tap on his shoulder. Marek was there again (how had he snuck up on him?), eyeing him warningly for being on his phone on the job.

"You better get off your phone before Bob catches you," he hissed, referring to their manager.

Seth nodded at his friend then said to the man on the receiver, "I gotta go now."

"Alright, I know when I'm not wanted," Dean replied, but Seth though he caught some underlying unease in his tone.

"I'll call you after I get off my shift at Monty's," he quickly offered on a whim, "If you don't mind a waiting up late."

"Monty's General Store huh?" Dean asked then continued as though he never asked him anything, "Oh, don't worry, Sunshine, I'll be awake."

"Goodbye, Dean," Seth, said feigning irritation at the nickname the other man had taken to calling him.

"Later, Seth."

The moment the call ended, Seth was quick to save Dean's number then stowed his cell safely back into his pocket.

"Told Bob you took a fall, he said for you to cashier the rest of your shift," Marek explained.

"Got it."

Seth got to his feet and checked his balance before leaving the storeroom.

************************************************

An hour passed without incident or distraction. Seth felt like he had gotten back into his groove old again.

There was just thirty minutes left in his shift and he was ringing up a tall, scruffy fellow in ragged jeans, and a tattered shirt and leather jacket.

Seth had said his usual greeting, but the man just nodded in return. Not much of a talker then. All he bought was a couple boxes of Now And Laters, a bundle of Blow pops, and a single box of Nerds.

"$4.22," Seth announced the total.

The man silently paid exactly $4.22 in cash then took his bag of candy. He opened the plastic sack and looked inside leaving Seth to wonder what mistake he hoped to find.

"Have a great—Oh—" he was cut off by the man taking out the box of Nerds and handing them back to him. "What's—"

"Here, these are for you," said an unmistakable deep, raspy voice. "Sounded like you needed these, after that nasty fall and all."

Seth looked down at the Nerds then looked up at the man in front of him, really looking at him for the first time, taking in the mop of copper curls that tumbled down into a engaging face, the dusting of a five-o-clock shadow.

But what caught Seth's breath in his chest and started his heart galloping within his rib cage were the sparkling blue-green eyes that were fixed so solely on him and the irresistible line that dimpled his cheek so very perfectly when one corner of his lips curved into a smile.

Fuck.

Seth could only stare at him and for his part Dean wasn't making it any easier to figure out anything to say. In fact he suspected the crafty little shit was enjoying watching him stand there like a speechless twit.

"Heellloo?!" called the annoyed old lady waiting in line behind Dean.

The other corner of Dean's mouth lifted revealing another matching dimple then he lifted his hand next to his ear and mouthed, "Call me."

Seth was well and truly fucked.

"My shift's over in twenty-five minutes!" he practically squawked at the leather clad ruffian as he reached the doors. Shit, he did sound nasally.

Dean shot him a thumbs-up over his shoulder then exited the store, perching himself on the front curb outside like a sentry. How a man of that height was able to fold himself up into that sitting position, Seth had no idea, but it was a wonder in and of itself.

Taking a deep breath to slow his racing, giddy heart, Seth forced a smile for the grumpy, impatient old woman before him.

"Hello, did you find everything okay?"

***********************************************

"Hey asshole," Seth directed only half heatedly towards the man waiting for him.

Dean turned to face him, a cigarette sticking out of him mouth and smoke curling around his face, much like his unruly hair.

"Wow, I thought those Nerds might cheer you up, but then again I haven't the foggiest what candy you like. You do like candy, right?"

"I'm not big on candy, thank you," he replied upon sitting himself down next to Dean, "and if you think candy is going to make up for the fact that you embarrassed me at work, you've gotta another thing comin', pal."

'And for distracting you to the point of nearly killed yourself,' his conscience piped up, but he didn't add that aloud.

Even so, the Nerds were securely pocketed in his jacket. He might have some later.

Taking a careful drag on his smoke, Dean seemed to eye him speculatively.

"Then what do you like, Sunshine?"

"Coffee," Seth answered with little pause.

Dean hummed appreciatively, "Coffee sounds like a good start to me. Mmmm…and bacon too." He stamped out his spent cigarette, then stood and offered Seth a hand, "Wanna take a field trip to Waffle House?"

A growl erupted from the vicinity of Seth's midsection, appearing to make Seth's mind up for him. Besides he really wanted some pancakes smothered in syrup.

'You don't know this man!' his conscience flailed helplessly.

"As long and you're paying."

He'd already placed his hand in Dean's, a marvelous thrill of electricity flowing from the contact all the way down his spine.

Screw his conscience, nothing that felt this good could be that bad.

Dean sucked in a breath, eyes intensifying beneath the fringe of his hair, before he hoisted Seth to his feet.

"As long as you don't mind using the ol' foot mobile."

"Not at all," Seth replied, offering the other man his first smile since their unexpected meeting.

The smile Dean returned was unlike the devious, teasing one he had unleashed on him in the store. No this one was open and earnest. Seth's acceptance was like a catalyst, lighting up that roguishly attractive face.

Dean's hand tightened minutely around his before they both reluctantly let go for favor of walking side by side into the night in a natural companionable silence.

This is based on my own cell phone experience of having a number somebody else had and I was getting lots of calls asking for this dude, and bill collectors, and from credit card companies. Never had anyone like Dean though, but thought it would be funny if Dean bugged Seth like so. Also Seth's job is based on some of my own work experience. Hope you enjoyed~