"Okay," Spencer said, "Sure." Spencer leads her back into the line to get coffee. Luckily there were only a few people before them. When they got up to the front of the Line the women took charge.
"I'll have an iced mocha latte," She said then looked back toward Spencer.
"I'll have the same, but hot," Spencer said. As they waited for their coffee Spencer got a better look at the woman, she was about 5'8" taller than average, he noted in his mind. She was wearing a simple outfit, a pair of black jeans, a black sweater with a white turtle neck peeking out from the collar of her shirt, and a pair of black doc martins. She had three layered necklaces but he couldn't get a good look at them without looking creepy. Altogether, she looked lovely. Spencer was brought out of his stooper when they called out their coffees.
Spencer led them to his usual table he uses to grade papers, slightly larger than needed for one person but it's good for spreading out his papers. She follows him to the table and sits down across from him.
"I should introduce myself," She started, she set down her coffee and held out her hand. Spencer looked at it for a second but having a baby makes you a lot less scared of germs so he takes her hand. "My name is Gabrielle," She says as she shakes his hand.
"Spencer" He replies, then drops her hand.
"I just want to say sorry again about spilling my coffee on you," She says as she picks at her nails, glancing up at him, and wrapping her hands back around her coffee.
"It's okay," Spencer says again and then chuckles, "I am used to getting stuff spilled on me,"
Gabrielle gives him a questioning look, and Spencer hurries to explain.
"I have a two-year-old daughter," He says, "and she's clumsy like her dad" He finishes with a fond smile on his face.
"Oh," Gabrielle says, a slight frown subconsciously appearing on her face. "Is your wife home with her now?" She asks, giving Spencer a look he couldn't quite decipher.
"No," He says as he plays with the lid on his cup, picking at it, "No wife, no girlfriend, no anything," He says rushing his words, unsure of why he feels the need to over-explain himself. "My daughter is at daycare now, so I am just here to grade papers," He finishes off, patting his bag with papers in them and then glancing into Gabrielle's green eyes.
"Oh," Gabrielle says, a little too happy with this knowledge, "Are you a teacher?" She asks.
"Yes," Spencer says, " I teach part-time at George town. What do you do for work?" He asks her deciding not to explain that the other part-time is working as an FBI agent digging into the most disturbing minds the world has to offer.
"I am a special education teacher," Gabrielle explains, a smile appearing on her face as she starts to talk about her job. "I work with elementary-aged students."
"That's great," Spencer says. "Special education is a very important field, and elementary students are hard work. I am not sure if I could teach students younger than college-aged."
Gabrielle threw her head back and laughed, "Well I am not sure I can teach anyone older than ten," She said.
Spencer laughed at that. He enjoyed her laugh, and how joyful Gabrielle seemed to be. You could just tell that she laughed often.
"Well, I guess that is why we are where we are," Spencer said
"I believe God gives everyone different gifts so that we can do different things and then change the world." She said staring into Spencer's eyes. "I believe I am exactly where I need to be,"
Spencer looked back into her eyes, feeling a deeper meaning behind her words. Too overwhelmed to speak he just took another sip of his coffee.
"Well," Gabrielle said, and points to his bag bursting with papers to grade. "It looks like you have a lot of work to do, so I'll let you go." She stands up grabbing her coffee and purse.
Spencer frowns at this, looking not unlike a puppy that just got kicked. Even though it started with coffee spilling down his shirt he ended up really enjoying his conversation with Gabrielle.
Gabrielle grabs a napkin off the table and a pen out of her purse and writes something down on it and gives it to Spencer. Spencer looks down at the paper and notices it's a phone number and just looks up silently at her.
"It's my number," She explains unnecessarily. "If you ever want to get coffee or talk again." Gabrielle finishes braver than she felt.
"Definitely," Spencer says staring at the number and then back up to her. Gabrielle gave Spencer a shy smile and then turned and left.
Spencer sat there in shock for a good five minutes before he put the number into his phone and put the napkin in his bag. He got the papers he needed to grade and put them on the table and set his bag where Gabrielle had just been sitting. He just started at the papers for a while still in shock and trying to process what had just happened. He tried to sort out in his head what he even thought about Gabrielle. Of course, she was a beautiful woman and he had a great time talking to her. However, he didn't know if he would be able to go get coffee with her again. if it would be a date, or did she just want to be friends with him? He didn't think so, he was pretty sure she was interested in him. If the way her eyes dilated or her body language were any indications.
He picked up his papers and finally started to grade. He wasn't really paying much attention to them though, he just kind of worked on autopilot. Spencer wasn't sure if he could even be in a relationship, with how broken he was. With everything he has been through, he felt like he was damaged beyond repair. He started to justify to himself why he wouldn't call her, he needed to be present for Eleanor, and he couldn't let a relationship distract him any, he already was a single parent he couldn't let some girl distract him from his duty to his daughter. He then went into a darker rabbit hole, would a woman even want him if they knew what he had done, what had been done to him, he wasn't even sure if he could be intimate with a woman anymore. He still had nightmares of that hazy time in Mexico when he had been violated in the worst way possible.
Before Spencer even knew it he had finished grading his papers and it was time to pick up Eleanor. He gathered up his papers, threw away his cup, and headed out the door of the coffee shop. He walked the few miles home, he didn't mind the exercise or the time to think, once he got home he went straight to his office and set his bag on his desk. He grabbed his car keys from the bowl on his desk and went out to the garage and got into his car and headed toward the preschool.
Once Spencer got to the preschool, which was only a 10-minute drive from his house he walked into the front and showed his ID to the front desk lady, and let her know he was there to pick up Ellie. In just a couple minutes the door opened and Eleanor came running up to Spencer, He picked her up and gave her a big hug. It had only been a few hours but he missed her. He missed her every minute he wasn't with her. He placed her on his hip and thanked the daycare workers and went back out to the car.
When the Reid's got home Eleanor immediately asked if they could color, and of course, Spencer said yes. He set her down at the island in the kitchen and got her colors and paper out of the drawer in the living room designated for her color stuff and set it in front of her.
"while you color Ellie I am going to make us lunch. What would you like?" Spencer asked.
Eleanor got this look on her face that Spencer thought was the cutest thing in the world, where her whole face scrunched up and she put her finger on her chin. Elanor called it her "think face". She made her "think face" and hm'd for a second.
"I know," She says excitedly, "I want a PB&J with chips!"
"Okay baby," Spencer said and started to pull out the stuff for peanut butter and jelly sandwiches, "You got it"
That night as Spencer went to bed he couldn't help but think of the women he met that morning. She was so beautiful and so intriguing to him. He wanted to call her but he just wasn't sure if it was a good idea. Before he could change his mind he picked up his phone and dialed it.