"Hey Spence," Ashley let herself into Spencer's dorm room.
"Hi Ash," Spencer replied absently.
Ashley wrapped her arms around Spencer's shoulder and kissed her neck.
"Ash. Not now. I've got finals next week."
"Fine," Ashley retreated to Spencer's bed, "Well I'm glad I made the right decision."
"What?" Spencer tore herself from her schoolwork and looked quizzically at Ashley.
Ashley sighed, "I'm obviously distracting you. So I've decided to take a 15 month long back backpacking trip through Europe. I won't be back until August 2007."
"What?" Spencer repeated, "2007?"
"I"m not saying we should break up or anything. Its part of my plan not to. I have to make sure we're both here for the long run."
"When do you leave?"
"Monday. Here's the great part though, along the way, I have all these gigs. My dad's manager set up a little club tour."
"Thats a good opportunity for you," Spencer tried to sound supportive. Then she changed her tone, "I have a feeling this is your way or running."
"No, its my way of not feeling like I'm needy or bugging you."
"You don't bug me Ash. You're a diversion."
"Do you think I want to get between
you and your future? No. I want to be your future. We both know
that neither of us are going to be the best person we can be if the
other is always around. We just need to find our own way for a
while."
"I don't want you to be that far away. A year and
three months? Thats so long!"
"60 cities baby," Ashley was excited about the trip, "One a week. And Dad is paying for it all! Says I need to see the world."
"Where do you go first?"
"London."
"Oh," Spencer had always wanted to go to London, "Send me a picture of you on the eye."
"I'll send you ton of pictures."
"Good. Because I'll need my fix of your face."
"I'll take so many pictures, you'll be sick of my face."
"Never gonna happen," Spencer
assured her as they kissed, "And Ash?"
"Hmm?"
"I understand why you want to do this. But I'm going to miss you like crazy."
"I'll miss you too Spencer."
"Where to after London?"
"Who knows? Dad had his travel agent set this up for me. I'll have directions to new cities sent to me each week and suggestions of things I can do in the city, which I can follow or not."
"Thats kind of cool."
"Yeah. I think so. It was going to be my graduation gift, but I put it on hold."
"Oh."
"Hey, I'm renting a storage locker while I'm gone. You're welcome to whatever is in it. And I know you want this," Ashley pulled a thong out of her purse.
Spencer blushed.
"I know its your favorite of mine. I sprayed it with my perfume for you."
Spencer was at a loss for words. She took the panties, smelled them, an smiled, then set them aside, "Um Thanks."
"And here's the key and directions
to the storage locker," she handed Spencer and envelope, "I'll
let you go back to studying," she got up.
"Ash, when is your
flight on Monday?"
"10 PM. Why?"
"Let me drive you."
"I was hoping you'd say that," Ashley gave Spencer a kiss on the cheek and started towards the door, "I have to clean out my apartment. We need to hang out on Sunday."
"Definitely."
"Bye Spence."
