Chapter 52
Amanda and Juan were staying at the home of some friends while in New York. Juan drove them, as Amanda crocheted the almost six hours they were in the car. It was noon by the time they got to the home of their good friends. Juan got their bags as Amanda took Reed to go to the bathroom.
Their host for the afternoon was Brian, an attractive man in his early forties. He was the same man that the team saw Amanda with on the night they were introduced to her. He kissed them on the cheek as they entered and showed them to their room in the two bedroom and condo. Reed was off exploring, his toy in his mouth.
"You were awfully quiet on the trip. How did your date with Dr. Boyfriend go?" Juan asked, while they were unpacking.
"I'd rather not talk about that right now."
"That bad? What did you two do to botch it up? I planned a great date."
"Don't be blaming me, I didn't do anything. Neither did he. That was part of the problem. Can we talk about this later? I want to have lunch and then take a nap."
Juan rolled his eyes but let her have her way. He was hungry and tired as well, and Brian would be waiting for them. When they were finished unpacking, they went to find Brian. He was sitting on the living room floor playing with Reed, when they found him. They left some food and water out for Reed as they all headed out to lunch.
Amanda seemed out of it as the dined. She kept replaying the date in her head; thinking about what was said and done, what was not, and what should have been. She was beginning to think that it was her fault, as she was the one that had dragged him out to the rink in the first place. The fact that she was spacing out didn't go unnoticed by Brian and Juan. She did not even notice that they were whispering to each other about her, as she slowly picked at her lunch.
Reed was waiting by the door for them when they returned. He followed Amanda and Juan as they got ready for their nap. They were folding down the bedspread when Juan looked over at Amanda's sullen face and sighed. "I feel like this is going to be a doozy of a story we're going to hear," he said to Reed as he picked up the dog and crawled into bed.
Juan sat Reed down on the bed and got comfortable. He looked over to his best friend who was looking ever so sad, like a child who had lost its way, and he pushed her hair away from her face. He scooted himself closer to her and put his arm around her. He was angry and upset with Spencer and did not even know why. He pulled her in as close as he could as they drifted off to sleep.
Brian made them coffee for after their nap. The three of them sat around the living room as Amanda explained what happened that night with Spencer. Brian and Juan looked at her wide-eyed as she finished her story of their date and the mystery woman.
"I hope you have a better part of that bimbo's face underneath your fingernails," Juan said after mumbling Spanish curse words under his breath.
"I've never been in a fight and I wasn't about to start with her. She isn't worth my time or energy."
"I would have at least chewed Spencer out. I don't care who you are, that was just downright rude," Brian shook his head.
"He did apologize; I will give that to him. I'm really not mad at him. I'm more upset with her and the situation. I should have never dragged him out to the rink," Amanda sighed, completely upset with herself.
"Now, don't go blaming yourself. There was absolutely no way you could have known. If I was you, I'd send him a naughty text or something and the minute I got home I'd start with the heavy kisses and then move the party for a little more fun. He wouldn't know what hit him, but he'd be really happy and would definitely, totally not be thinking about some skank," Juan said with a smirk and a raised eyebrow.
Brian chuckled and turned to Amanda. He pointed to Juan and said out of the corner of his mouth, "Talk about a skank." He then sweetly smiled at Juan, who fluttered his eyelashes. This got a meek smile out of Amanda.
"I'm not going to do that. But, thank you for the visuals," she said. Juan shrugged before taking a sip of his coffee.
"We'll go out shopping tomorrow. That should clear your head. I'm sure everything will work out just fine. Don't worry that pretty little head off, you'll get wrinkles. Why don't the two of you get out of your jammies? We'll take Reed out for a walk, get some dinner and then go to the bar. Anthony won't be home until early morning, since he's at the club tonight, so he'll join us tomorrow," Brian said patting her knee, trying to comfort his dear friend. She kissed his cheek as they got up to get ready for the crazy night ahead of them.
The next day after lunch Brian, Anthony, Juan, and Amanda all went shopping. After chatting with the boys and going over everything a thousand times over in her head, she decided to completely put the incident behind her. She trusted Spencer and could not wait to get back home to see him. She still thought he had handled the situation wrong, and that she had as well. She was ready to forget the whole thing and was really starting to miss him. She could not help but smile when she thought of him: the crinkle in his forehead as he read to her, the passion in his eyes and voice as she rambled off facts and statistics on some random subject, his perfectly messy hair, the softness of his lips, and the warmth of his hands… just everything about him. She knew that all would be well and that she could very easily fall head over heels for him.
Amanda had only been gone for a couple of days and Reid had fallen back into the routine he had perfected before he had met her. The team, though, had noticed that he seemed a bit downtrodden and that he missed her. When this was brought up to him, he decided to do something to get his mind off of her being gone. He did truly miss her, he just did not realize just how painfully obvious it was to everyone else.
That day after work, he made the trip down to Washington, DC. It was nearly seven o'clock by the time he had arrived to his destination. He sat in his car, tapping the steering wheel and thinking for a few minutes before getting out. He walked through the parking garage and into the building before making a phone call.
As he went up several floors he pursed his lips nervously. He was not exactly sure why he was nervous, he thought this was the right and best thing to do. He stopped in front of a door and knocked. He closed his eyes and took a deep breath, trying to muster the courage he would need when the door finally opened.
