A/N: I don't own Criminal Minds and make no money from this.
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"So, Reid, how about you?"
Spencer Reid looked up. He'd been watching the bubbles in his beer, trying to confirm a recent study out of Stanford that the bubbles did go down as well as up. He hadn't been paying full attention to the conversation as he didn't think he'd be asked to contribute. "How about me what, Emily?' He knew what she was asking, but getting her to explain in full gave him a little time to figure out how he was going to answer.
Emily just grinned and Spencer briefly reconsidered agreeing to come out with his teammates. But they'd just wrapped up a particularly harrowing case and unwinding with the people who were his closest friends always gave the young genius a chance to get away from the gruesomeness of the job and reconnect with humanity.
"How did you lose your virginity? We've all told our stories, now it's your turn."
Morgan took a sip of his beer and gave him a knowing grin. "Let me guess. Some lovely young bartender just swept you off your feet."
Spencer did his best not to blush. If there hadn't been half a continent between them after he met Austin during that case in Atlanta last year, Derek might have been right. But he just shook his head and tried to smile nonchalantly. "As a gentleman, I was always taught to never kiss and tell."
Emily, Morgan and J.J. laughed at his evasion and changed the topic, much to Spencer's relief, and the discussion turned to the latest movies. No one wanted to make it a late night, so they only had one more round before saying their goodnights and heading to their respective homes.
Spencer declined J.J.'s offer of a ride. His apartment was only a twenty-minute walk and the evening was warm. He secured his messenger bag over his shoulder, tucked his hands in his pockets and sent his feet in the direction of home.
As he walked, Spencer's mind travelled back to the earlier conversation. He didn't want to admit to his friends that there hadn't been a 'first time' yet, even though he was pretty sure his teammates had already guessed. He was still a kid when everyone else in high school experienced the raging hormones of puberty and by the time he was interested in girls, they usually just looked at him as a curiosity.
But Spencer knew his teammates didn't think of him that way and J.J. had even tried to set him up a couple times, not to mention the occasional proposition he received in the course of his job. Some of the opposite sex did find him somewhat attractive, but either he didn't have the inclination or the opportunity to follow up on it.
He smiled ruefully to himself as his mind calculated the odds on how easy it would be to find a partner willing to deflower him during a casual sexual encounter. But if he had to be honest, Spencer knew it wasn't the lack of opportunity that kept him a virgin, it was just that he was an incurable romantic. He could tell himself that he rewatched 'Dr. Zhivago' and 'Casablanca' for the history and their artistic merit, but it wasn't the whole truth. Those classics spoke of love that wouldn't die regardless of circumstances that kept the lovers apart. Even though it might be an impossible goal, Spencer wanted that sort of love but with a happy ending instead.
He thought back to a conversation he once had with his mother on the subject. She told him that there were seven people you would meet in your life that could be your soulmate, but of those seven, only one would be at the perfect time in both lives for that spark to kindle. That statement had stuck with him and Spencer only hoped that he'd recognize that time when it came. He wanted his first partner to be his only partner and was perfectly content to remain a virgin until he found her.