Spencer POV
I really hope Maya comes back from where she is soon. I'm so sick of listening Emily cry over her. And if, Lord forbid, Maya were to turn up dead, Emily would completely lose it. She'd never be the same again. I just need Maya to come back and for her and Emily to be ok. I sick and tired of treating Emily like some fragile, broken hearted, teenage girl. She's an adult, she needs to act like it. I'm so sick her. I love her to death, she's one of my best friends and the mother of my niece and nephew, but right now, I could almost kill her.
"Mommy, Mommy, Mommy!" Chloe cries, snapping me out of my thoughts
"What is Chlo?" I ask
"Aunt Ari's here!" she exclaims
"What are you talking about?" I question
"She just pulled up in the driveway. Her car is outside." Chloe explains
A knock at the front door quickly confirms Chloe's words. The six year old girl grabs my arm and pulls me up off the couch and towards the front door.
"Chloe, calm down, it's just Aria." I laugh, as she continues to drag me to the front door
I wiggle out of my daughter's grip and reach to unlock the door. When I reach to open it, Chloe nearly rips my arm off so she can open the door herself.
"Ari!" She squeals, running to her hug and nearly knocking her over in the process
"Chlo Chlo!" Aria laughs, tightly wrapping her arms around the little girl
"Hey! Where's my hug?" I pout, crossing my arms across my chest
Aria attempts to pull back, but Chloe smirks and holds onto her tighter.
"Alright Chloe, you know I love you baby girl, but you gotta let go now." Aria tells her, desperately trying to pry Chloe arms off of her
"Chloe, seriously, you need to let go now. We get it, you love Aunt Ari's hugs, but all good things must come to an end." I tell her, pulling her off my poor friend
"Hey Chloe, I wanna tell Brandon and Abby 'hi' too. Can you go get them please?" Aria asks once she's out of my daughter's death grip
"Ok." Chloe sighs, slowly making her way towards the spiral staircase
"Hey Spence." Aria says, wrapping her arms around me once Chloe's finally out the room
"Hey Ar. How have you been?" I ask, hugging her back
"Good." she says, pulling away
"So, what brings you by?" I ask while motioning for her to take a seat on the couch
"I've something you'll be glad to hear. Maya's back!" She's grinning from ear to ear
"Really?" I ask, a little hesitant to believe her
"Yes. Her and Emily just came by to pick up the kids. She's really back Spence." She tells me
"Oh thank God!" I cry, "I was so sick of listening to all of Emily's whining and bitchiness."
"And I was really sick of covering for her and picking up all her slack as well as Maya's at work." Aria says
"About work, there's something I've been meaning to talk to all of you about," I start
"What is it?" she asks
"I thinking about stepping down. I made a huge mistake starting up this company. Aria, I hate my job." I confess
"Really? I thought I was the only one." she sighs
"You're thinking about quitting too?" I ask
"I wasn't just considering it. I was gonna tell everyone at work on Monday that I was leaving." she says
"Do you think everyone else feels the same way as we do?" I ask
"I don't know, but I'd really hate to see anyone else running our company. You and Emily built S&E from the bottom up. I would be a shame to see some ruin all that hard work." she says
"I think I have a plan where that doesn't have to happen, but first, I need to know how the others feel about their jobs." I say
Monday Morning
"Alright, now that everyone is here we can get begin." I start
"Ew, Spencer, why are you talking all professional?" Maya asks, making a face
"You know, I liked you better when you were gone." I snap
"Excuse me?" she questions
"Yeah I said, because you are immature, unprofessional, lazy, childish, you run anytime things gets tough, and you think it's strange for your BOSS to be professional! You are one of the main reasons why I'm about to do what I'm about to do!" I shout
"What are you talking about? What are you about to do?" Alison questions me
"I'm stepping down. Me and Aria both. We've decided that working here, at this company, is not where we want to be. We're stepping down from our position's at S&E and we advise you all to do the same." I explain
"Have you two completely lost your minds?" Emily asks seriously
"Look Emily, running a business is not where any of us should be in our careers." I tell her
"She's right Em. It was my dream to be a fashion designer. The only reason I'm here because when I was in college all I wanted to do is party and blow all my father's money just to stick it to the son of a bitch and because of that I flunked out of school. Then Caleb proposed and I decided I wanted to design my own wedding dress because I couldn't find one that was right for me. Soon I had dozens of women asking me to design and dress for them. I decided to make a career out of it with the help of you and Spencer. Then me and Maya teamed up and start planning weddings. Then I somehow I ended up here. But I don't want to be here. I want to be a fashion designer and that's what I'm gonna do." Hanna says, taking mine and Aria's side
"We all know that I suck at my job. I don't know I want to do, but I shouldn't be here." Alison agrees
"Em, you know I love you, but you're not being honest with yourself. You hate this job. We all do. Let's just end it. Let's just sell the company so we can all live out our dreams." Maya says. trying to talk some sense into her
"But me and Spencer built this company from the ground up. I can't stand back and let someone destroy it all." Emily argues
"I agree. That's why we're not selling the company." I tell her
"Then what hell are we gonna do?" She questions
"What if we all stepped down and appointed someone else to do our jobs. We could all have the careers we really want and still have the company in our names. We still get a say. We can make sure all final decisions are made by us and we still get a huge cut of what the company makes." I propose
"That's not a bad idea. We get out of doing all the work but we still get the final say and the money. No one can ruin what we worked so hard to build. It's brilliant!" Alison agrees
"So, Emily, are you in?" I ask
"Let's do it." she reluctantly agrees
Line Break
After work is finally over for the day I go home to tell Toby the news. I'm not sure how he'll react, but this was the best thing for everyone. He'll get on board eventually.
We lie in bed for about and hour discussing the matter. I thought he might be a little angry that I made the decision without discussing it with him first, but he was really supportive.
"So, if you're not gonna work at S&E anymore, what are you gonna do?" Toby asks, playing with a lock of my hair
"I'm not sure yet. Maybe I'll go back to law school. I bet I could get the rest of my credits in a year then I could take the bar and start up my own practice like I was always meant to do." I say
"You studied criminal law right?" he asks
"Yep. But I'm not so sure I really want to be a criminal defense attorney like my parents were." I sigh
"You could always become a prosecutor and work in the D.A.'s office. Then we could work together. I'll catch the killers and you can lock up. We'd be like Bonnie and Clyde, except instead of committing crimes, we'd bring the criminals to justice." he says
"That would be amazing, but are husbands and wives aloud to work together?" I ask
"Well I'd be solving the cases and you'd be presenting them to the court. There's nothing wrong with that." he says
"The defense would try and argue that since my husband was investigating the case he falsified reports and crazy stuff like that to make the defendant look guilty in order for me to win my cases. If I work in the D.A.'s office I can't go anywhere near any of the cases the you work." I argue
"I guess you're right, but I know who all the best detective are and whose cases you should take the most serious." he says
"Toby, why are we talking about work when you could be kissing my right now?" I question, with a smirk plastered across my face
"Is this what you want?" he asks, slowly peppering kisses along my neckline
I push him away and shift positions from my side to my back and pull him down on top of me. He holds back, his lips hovering dangerously close above mine.
"Toby!" I whine, upset with him for being such a tease
He leans down to whisper something in my ear.
"I need a shower." he whispers, climbing off of me
"What?! Now?!" I cry
"Sophie has a dance recital tonight and we promised we'd promised we'd be there." He reminds me
"Fine. There's room for two in that shower." I smirk
Line Break
Me, Toby, and the kids take out seat next to Jason, Aria, and Hadley in the crowded auditorium.
"Wow, this place is really packed for the dance recital of a bunch of kindergarteners, first, and second graders ."I whisper to my brother sitting next to me
"I know, but Caleb said all the age groups, kindergarten through 12th grade are performing tonight and each class is pretty big. He also said there's a bunch a scouts here recruiting girls for all kinds of fancy dance schools across the country. Tonight's a big night for a lot of girls here." he says
"Wait a second, kindergarteners and high schoolers are all in the same class?" I question
"No," he laughs, "It's one big program, but there's a division for kindergarten-2nd grade, 3rd grade-5th grade, junior high, and high school." he explains
"And they're all performing tonight?" I ask
"Yep. I'm glad Sophie's division goes first so we don't have to sit here and watch a bunch of other kids, waiting for her chance to perform." Jason says
"Shh, it's starting." Aria scolds us
The curtain drops, and a group of about 50 little girls dressed in pink leotards and tutus fill the giant stage.
"I thought Sophie quit ballet and switched to hip-hop." I lean up and whisper to Hanna sitting in the row in front of us
"No, she decided to finish out the couple of weeks in the program then she's signing up to do hip-hop with another program next month." Hanna explains
"I wish could get Chloe involved into something. Brandon's in baseball and Abby's still too young for anything, but Chloe could really use something to get into." I sigh
"I bet Chloe would make a great little gymnast. You should consider that." Hanna says, the turns back around to watch the performance
"Ty's starts martial arts in a couple weeks. We could bring Chloe along to check it out sometime. She might be into that." Jason suggests
"Yeah, ok, I'll talk to her and Toby about both options." I tell
"Hey, would you shut the hell up already! I'm trying to watch my daughter perform but I can't focus with all your yapping!" The man from behind whisper shouts
"I'm so sorry Sir. You won't hear another word from me." I apologize
Line Break
After Sophie's group finishes dancing we all gather out in the lobby with the family and friends of the other girls, waiting for them to come out.
"There she is." Ali says, pointing to the blonde-haired, blue-eyed little girl standing at the other side of the room, desperately searching for a familiar face
"Sophie!" Hanna calls, trying to the little girl's attention
"Sophia Grace Rivers!" Caleb shouts, waving his arms back at first
Sophie spots immediately after hearing the use of her full name and comes running over.
Everyone congratulates her on an amazing performance and she exchanges hugs with us as well as several of her friends.
In the midst of all of our conversing, a young woman, most likely in her upper 20s or early 30s, with long, curly, dark brown hair and brown eyes approaches us.
"Hi, I'm Erin Winters. I run a school for young dancers in L.A. and I'm very interested in Sophie. Which two of you are her parents?" the woman asks
"We are." Hanna and Caleb answers
"Mr. and Mrs. Rivers, your daughter is very talented and we'd love to have her in our school. We have a top of the line academics program as well as our dance program. I think Sophie would fit in very well. You should stop by and do of tour of the school." she says, handing them her card
"We'll do that. Thank you Ms. Winters." Caleb says, shaking her hand and taking the card
Once the woman is out of earshot Sophie and her friends immediately start jumping up and down squealing.
"Sophie they want me at the school too!" her friend Bella squeals
"Yay! We can go together!" Sophie cheers excitedly
"Calm down girls, we haven't decided whether or not we're gonna let Sophia go to that school or not and neither have your parents Bella." Hanna tells them
"Well to the offer, why don't we all go out for ice cream?" Toby suggests
"Yeah, and we're buying." I add
Well I don't have a lot to say this time, but anyways, I hope you liked the chapter. I got really bored with the whole running a business thing and the girls all need separate careers so this is the end of S&E, but it's not like any of the girls are leaving the story or anything. Just because of the ending the next chapter will probably be in Hanna's point of view. Oh and I'm sorry that was so short. I'll try and make the next one longer but no promises.
Until next time. Don't forget to ~Stay Weird