Chapter Text
“Behind schedule?”
“Afraid so,” Ekko said, grimacing apologetically as he presented a clipboard with some paperwork attached. Vi snatched it out of her crewleader’s hand and began flipping through the pages. Her eyes landed on a bright red “delayed” stamp at the bottom of the second sheet. She swore and shoved the clipboard back into his arms. A delay was not a good look for the company - and definitely not for her, as the crew’s foreman.
“What the hell is going on out there? I thought you and Mylo were pouring the house’s foundation yesterday.”
Ekko shook his head. “The cement never got delivered - we ended up waiting for three hours before they had the decency to call us and tell us they weren’t coming. Nearly got frostbite sitting out here after dark.”
Vi rubbed the side of her temple in an attempt to stave off the rapidly forming headache that had begun as a dull throb behind her eyes. This was not the start to her week that she’d been hoping for. She exhaled slowly, her breath clouding in the cold morning air.
“Okay. That’s… fine,” she sighed, trying to convince herself just as much as Ekko. “We can still get back on track. Take the guys and have them block out the detached garage today. If we get everything marked out ahead of time, we can just pull a late shift and pour everything at once. Are they coming with the cement today?”
“The dude I talked to said he would be here at seven this morning.”
Vi rolled the sleeve of her coat back to check her watch. The hands pointed decisively to 7:49. Great. Vi glanced back up at Ekko, who smiled sheepishly and shrugged his shoulders. She sighed.
“Give me the damn number, I’ll handle it. Gotta do everything myself around here…” she grumbled, but kept her tone light enough that the man knew she was only teasing. She was the foreman, this was her crew - she assumed responsibility for any of the fuck ups that happened on the job site. Plus, she wouldn’t mind giving the cement guy a proper earful for letting her employees sit in the cold for hours. It was only a few degrees above freezing this time of year in Piltover and she didn’t have the manpower to cover them if someone caught a cold. Plus, it pissed her off that they’d been put in potential danger, minimal as it may have been. She cared about her crew… a lot. Not that she’d ever admit that to them - she’d be teased right off the job site if she did.
Ekko pulled a pen from his jacket and then patted around the rest of his pockets before frowning. “Damn, I don’t have my notebook on me. You got any paper?”
She let out another exasperated sigh before she offered her hand to him. It would be filthy by the end of the day, anyways. He sheepishly thanked her before scrawling out a series of digits across her palm. She quickly retreated her hand back to the warmth of her pocket when he was done. It was too damn cold and she’d forgotten her gloves in the truck.
“Alright, get to work. I’ll let you know what they say.”
Ekko saluted her in a goofy, roguish sort of way before hustling back towards the rest of the crew. Mylo, Claggor, and Sevika, the company’s field engineer, all waited for him near the work trucks. They were short staffed, as always, but this job had the potential to turn things around for their little team. It was a big client - some fancy architect who had recently moved to the city and was dishing out big bucks for a house built to his exact specifications. He’d purchased a prime piece of land right smack in the middle of the city center. He had money, money. Powder- her sister and the company’s superintendent- had practically tripped over herself to set up a meeting with him. Vi had begrudgingly come along at her insistence. He’d been a nice guy - reserved, but friendly. Viktor something-or-another. Talis, maybe? Vi frowned, frustrated at how slowly her brain was working this morning. Between the delay and the cold air, she felt like she was starting off on the wrong foot. She needed some damn coffee if she was going to see this day through.
“Oi!” She shouted, cupping her red-tipped fingers around her mouth. “I’m going for coffee, text me your orders!”
A tired cheer went up from the small group. She waved over her shoulder before popping up the collar on her coat and hustling off towards the nearby coffee shop. It was only a block away - so close that she could see the glow from the shop’s sign lighting up the still-dim sky. It had only opened a few months ago, and in Vi’s opinion, was the best thing that had ever happened to the city. Even with the walk being so short, her teeth were chattering by the time she stood outside of Piltover’s Finest Coffee.
She pushed open the front door and almost groaned with delight as the warm air rushed to greet her, settling across her shoulders like a thick blanket. The aroma inside the shop was positively delicious, and she felt her mouth immediately begin to water at the scent of baked goods, coffee, and chocolate. Her phone buzzed in her pocket, startling her out of her reverie. She fished it out with numb fingers and clumsily opened Ekko’s text with the crew’s order. She snorted in amusement at Sevika’s request before getting in line.
Even at such an early hour, the shop was absolutely packed. It took her almost ten minutes of waiting in line until the green-haired barista called her up.
“Good morning!” The woman greeted with the overenthusiastic cheeriness of a stressed-out service worker. “What can I get you?”
“Mornin’. Can I do four large, black coffees - one with room for cream. And then,” she chuckled before reciting Sevika’s order. “A large, caramel, oat-milk macchiato with a double-pump of hazelnut syrup, a dash of cinnamon and whipped cream on top. Basically, throw every ingredient into a cup and make it hot. Sorry about that.”
The barista let out a legitimate laugh as she tapped the screen in front of her. “Don’t worry about it - happens more than you’d think. Plus, my shift is over in five minutes. The boss gets to handle the rest of the morning rush.”
Vi thanked her, then tucked a few dollars into the tip jar and retreated to the back of the shop to wait on her order. A throng of students burst through the front door, filling up the small shop with raucous laughter and overlapping voices. It became noticeably louder and she grimaced as each burst of chatter sent another throb through her skull. She grit her teeth and tried not to let the teenagers put her in a foul mood. She really needed caffeine.
As she waited, her mind wandered- as it always did- to work. If they did a good job on this build, they had a decent shot of making a real name for themselves. That meant no more shitty jobs for shitty pay. They could afford to hire another person, hell, maybe Vi would even be able to move out of her cramped one bedroom apartment. Go somewhere that didn’t have paper thin walls. That would be nice. But the delay could complicate things. Suddenly her slow-moving brain latched back onto the stress that she’d almost forgotten about. The damn cement!
Swearing under her breath, she pulled her phone back out and opened up her palm to read the number. Ekko’s handwriting was flat-out awful, and the ink had smudged somehow. It made the numbers a blurry mess of blue and Vi swore again, louder this time. That earned her a disapproving glare from a nearby businessman. She bit back her temper at the last second, barely restraining herself from telling him where he could shove his opinion. Instead, she busied herself with squinting at the near-illegible scrawl and forcefully tapped each number into her phone, as if hitting the numbers harder would make them correct. She pressed “dial” and held the phone up to her ear.
“Order for Vi!”
Just as the phone started to ring, the barista began waving at her from behind the counter. Vi pushed through the crowd awkwardly, trying to keep the phone tucked between her shoulder and her cheek as she accepted the precarious pile of drinks from the green-haired woman.
“Hello?” A voice on the other line surprised her so suddenly that she almost dropped her drinks. She’d barely heard the call be picked up over the clamor of the coffee shop’s crowd.
“Yes, hello? Is this Piltover Concrete Solutions?” Vi replied, trying to balance the drink carrier in one hand as she held her phone in the other. “This is Vi Mason, from Mason Construction.”
“-Concrete? What - this - ?” The other voice came again, but Vi could barely hear herself think with all the commotion.
“Fuck, yeah, hold on,” she snapped, her frustration beginning to be evident in her voice as she tried to maneuver around the crowd of oblivious students. She nearly covered herself in coffee three times before she burst out of the shop and back into the cold. She took a sharp breath in, steadying herself.
“I’m sorry, Vi, was it? Are you still there?”
The first thing that Vi noticed about the voice once she could properly hear was that it was decidedly feminine. Not a “dude” like Ekko had reported. The second thing was that it was fucking hot. A clipped, posh accent made the woman’s annoyed words sound positively sultry. Vi swallowed hard.
“Uh, yeah. Yes. I’m here,” she paused for a moment, struggling to recall why exactly she’d even gotten on the phone. The silence on the other line was pointed. In a flash, she remembered. The cement. The delay. Her crew outside in the cold. All at once, her previous annoyance surged back and she was almost able to ignore that damned sensual voice. She began walking towards the job site to burn off her sudden energy. “You were supposed to deliver a truck with 11 cubic yards of ready-mix cement to my build site yesterday. You never showed up - my guys were sitting out in the cold for like three hours. We rescheduled for this morning and you still haven’t delivered the truck. I mean this is ridiculous! If this is how you do business, then I think you ought-”
“I’m sorry, I think you’ve got the wrong number,” the woman cut her off.
Vi felt her face go so hot she was sure that it was visibly steaming in the winter air. Of course it was a fucking wrong number - just the cherry on top of an already shit morning. She struggled to conjure up some sort of apology. Instead, what came out was, “Oh. Well, thank god, because I was feeling really bad about yelling at someone who sounds so sexy.”
As soon as the words left her mouth she wished she had a spare hand to cram them back inside. She was considering just abruptly hanging up when a breathy chuckle filtered across the line.
“Awfully bold for someone who’s ranting about cement to a stranger at eight o’clock in the morning.”
Vi’s embarrassment began to fade in the presence of her sudden curiosity. Who in their right mind continued a conversation after they were yelled at and then flirted with in rapid succession? Someone who was exactly Vi’s type, apparently.
“You think that’s bold, just wait until you find out what I get up to at midnight,” Vi wasn’t fully sure what had come over her, but she couldn’t seem to stop. This had to be some sort of repressed, underfed piece of her libido bursting forth. She hadn’t been on a date in months. Her sex life had stagnated over a year ago.
“You’ve certainly got a mouth on you, don’t you Vi?”
“Haven’t had any complaints yet,” Vi quipped back immediately.
“And you’ll find none here,” the woman returned, her voice low and amused.
A curious shiver worked it’s way up Vi’s spine when she realized this mystery woman’s voice had dropped an octave. Interesting. She decided to test the waters, just a bit longer. “I do live to please.”
The woman on the other line made a tutting sound before she said, “So bold. I could be married, for all you know. Or straight.”
“Are you?”
A beat, and then, “No.”
Vi could hear the smile in the woman’s voice and a matching one slid sneakily across her own lips. “So I’ve committed no sins, after all.”
“Mmm, that remains to be determined.”
Suddenly, Vi recalled the bad attitude she’d started the conversation with. She cringed, remembering of her distinct lack of apology, and rushed to remedy any remaining ill feelings this velvet-voiced stranger may harbor towards her. “Anyways - sorry for coming in so hot earlier. Had a late night and a bad start to my morning. I shouldn’t have been so snappy.”
The woman’s laugh was airy and musical. “All was forgiven the moment you stroked my ego.”
“Thank God, for a minute there I was worried you were going to call the cops. Guess I wouldn’t have blamed you. But I would’ve been kicking myself for missing my chance to tell you how hot your voice is.” Vi had long since arrived back at the job site. She stood at the entrance, stalling for just a few more seconds on the phone with the alluring stranger. She could barely even feel the cold anymore.
The woman laughed again. “Do you make it a habit to flirt with every wrong number you call?”
“This is a first for me, believe it or not.”
“First time dialing a wrong number or first time flirting with one?”
“Funny. The latter. I’ve dialed plenty of wrong numbers in my life.”
“And you don’t typically tell them how sexy they sound?”
“Can’t say I do, no.”
“I’m flattered.”
“Hm,” Vi suddenly found herself reaching for something, anything else to say that would keep the other woman on the line. “Then again, when I call a wrong number, they don’t usually flirt back.”
“Maybe that’s because you start out by yelling at them.”
Vi groaned, her embarrassment returning. “I’m sorry, it was just a shitty morning - I’m not usually that grumpy.”
“For what it’s worth, I was also having a bad morning until you called. I find myself in a far better mood now.”
It was Vi’s turn to giggle like a star-crossed schoolgirl, and she almost choked on the ridiculous sound. Every inch of her body felt warm and tingly. God, she’d been out of the game for way too long.
“Well, I’m glad I could brighten up your day.”
“Me too,” the voice was softer, warmer now. “Well… I do unfortunately have to get back to work. It’s been a pleasure, Vi.”
“Wait!” Vi yelped, her ears straining for the sound of the woman hanging up. It didn’t come.
“Yes?”
“I didn’t catch your name.”
There was silence for a few painful seconds.
“But isn’t the mystery of it all just so lovely?”
Before Vi could come up with a witty response, the dull beeping tone on the other line signaled the end of the call. She pulled her phone away from her ear, trying hard not to feel disappointed. The screen reported that the call had only lasted a grand total of six minutes. She felt like she’d been talking for at least an hour. Stupid. She shook her head and shoved the device back into her pocket just as Mylo bounded up to her.
“Oh hell yeah, thanks boss!” He grabbed the drink container from her, which she gratefully relinquished. She couldn’t feel her fingers anymore. “What’s the update on the cement?”
Reality came crashing back down for the second time that morning. The damn cement.
“Fuck!” She snapped, running her freezing hands through her hair in exasperation. “The numbers smeared when Ekko wrote them down. I called a wrong number.”
“Wait, wait, wait,” Mylo held out her coffee to her, a look of bemusement on his face. “You spent five minutes on the phone… talking to a wrong number?”
“It was not that long! I just explained the misunderstanding and hung up,” Vi said defensively, feeling the unmistakable heat of a blush on her cheeks as she snatched her coffee from his hands.
Mylo barked out a laugh. “Nuh-uh. We could see you standing out here, grinnin’ and chatting. Claggor timed you - he was worried his coffee was going to get cold. Fess up, Mason, were you talking to a girl? God, it’s been a long time since you’ve had one of those, huh? Like a year, right?”
“Oh, fuck off, all of you,” she grumbled, pushing past him and walking towards her truck. She was going to make this stupid call in peace and quiet - and the comfort of her truck’s heat.
Ten hours later, they had a completed foundation.
It had taken a few choice words and a threat of legal action until the guy from Piltover’s Concrete Solutions relented and drove his ass over to the site. Now, he was sourly packing everything back up as Mylo and Claggor poked fun at the hat he was wearing. To be fair, it was ridiculous- fuzzy and plaid with ear flaps and a big, white pom-pom on top. But more so, the jackass deserved a bit of shit for his laziness. He’d had a terrible attitude throughout this whole ordeal, and had sat in the warmth of the cement truck’s cab the entire time her team had poured the concrete.
Vi made a mental note to tell Powder never to use his company again.
She gave a sarcastic wave as he pulled out of the driveway. He responded with a middle finger in his rear view. She let out a grim chuckle before letting her hand fall.
“Back on track, eh?” Ekko appeared at her side.
“Yup,” she grunted, a wave of relief crashing over her. If she weren’t so completely exhausted, she could’ve jumped for joy. With how fast they’d managed to fix the problem, Viktor probably wouldn’t even find out. Powder, on the other hand… She was probably going to get an earful from her later.
Almost as if he’d read her mind, Ekko said, “Oh, I called Powder by the way. She said to tell you good job for the quick fix.”
Vi stared at him like he’d grown a second head. “She- what? Powder? Are you sure you didn’t call someone else?”
Ekko snorted. “Oh, like you did? You never did tell us who you were on the phone with this morning.”
“I told you- it was a wrong number. Now pack up your shit. It’s freezing and I was supposed to eat dinner three hours ago.”
“Bullshit. C’mon, I’m your best friend! You have to tell me. It’s like the law.”
“Wrong number!” Vi said again, in a sing-song voice this time.
“Fine, be that way,” Ekko grumbled, crossing his arms. “You never want to talk to me about anything personal.”
“I’m being honest, but if you really want to talk - why don’t you tell me why you’ve been calling my sister so much recently?”
Suddenly, Ekko became very interested in packing up his tools.
By the time Vi turned the lock on her door and shuffled into her apartment, the sun was a distant memory on the horizon. She flipped on the kitchen light and tossed her toolbox and coat into a heap by the door. It took her a few more moments to untie her concrete-encased laces and add her boots to the pile. She’d need everything bright and early tomorrow - no sense in putting it away neatly.
Her stomach growled insistently, but she passed by the fridge. First order of business was a shower. As she trudged towards the bathroom, she slowly peeled off all her clothes, and left them in a meandering trail down the hall. She’d pick them up tomorrow… Maybe.
Her muscles- well defined by years of labor and rigorous exercise- ached so fiercely that she could think of nothing other than needing hot water to soothe the pain. She’d been working shoulder to shoulder with the crew all day, pouring and spreading the wet concrete. As a result, she was absolutely crusted in cement. But, it was important to her that she did the hard jobs alongside the rest of the team. Some foremen liked to sit on their asses while they barked orders and collected their paychecks - but that would never be Vi. She had too much pride for that.
The moment she stepped into the shower and the water hit her skin, a satisfied groan tore from her lips before she could bite it back. The neighbors probably heard. She couldn’t bring herself to care. The hot water felt fucking euphoric. It stung when it hit her wind chapped lips and cheeks, but the pain was warm and welcome. The water ran a disconcerting brown for a while until she had finally combed all the dirt out of her hair. It was back to it’s typical shade of red.
As she scrubbed her hands across her shoulders, she found her mind replaying - not for the first time - how her conversation had left off with the wrong number woman. She wondered what her name was. Something posh and proper, based on that accent. But, with the way things had been left, it looked like Vi would never know.
“The mystery of it all,” she scoffed aloud to herself. “So silly.”
Yeah, her neighbors definitely thought she was crazy.
After Vi finished her shower, she reheated her dinner in the microwave and scarfed it down in about ten seconds flat. Then, she dozed in front of the television until exhaustion finally dragged her off to the bedroom.
The last thought she had before she slipped into a dream was to idly wonder how far away the mystery woman was right now, and if maybe she was falling asleep wondering about Vi, too.