Chapter 4!
As the stranger made his identity known, Spencer felt her face begin to heat up more as she cleared her throat and shook his calloused hand. Of course. She mentally face palmed herself as she thought about the fact that he definitely saw her ogling him through the glass doors.
"Oh, I'm so sorry. Nice to meet you too," she begins, forcing herself to smile. "Come in, Hanna's in the back."
As he walked inside, her nose was instantly hit with his woodsy scent and what was that…mint? Oh, get a grip, Spence.
"Hey, Toby!" Exclaimed Hanna with her usual enthusiasm as she walked past Spencer and gave Toby a friendly hug.
"Hey, Hanna." Toby replied with a smile after they both parted.
"So, I take it you've met Spencer…" Hanna asked as she looked between the two with raised brows and a smirk choosing to ignore the death glare Spencer was sending her way.
"Yeah, I did." Toby replied looking from Hanna to Spencer with an unrecognizable glint in his eyes.
"Great! Well, there's no need to take you on another tour of the place." Hanna began with a light chuckle as she turned to walk to the back of the store, Toby and Spencer trailing closely behind. "We can go over the ske-"
The increased sound of the hustle and bustle that was NYC caused all three inhabitants of the boutique to turn their heads towards the newly arrived guest as the door shut behind him.
"Morning, Spence. "Caleb greeted with a light nod as he placed a greasy fast food bag on one of their display tables.
"Hey, Rivers." She replied with a wrinkled nose staring at the bag on top of the lingerie.
"Babe, not on the teddies." Hanna scolded as she briskly walked over to him and picked up the bag before walking into his open arms and planting a kiss on his lips.
Quickly turning around, Hanna looked at the two with a smile, almost resembling a Cheshire cat.
"Spence, why don't you take Toby to your office and get started. I'll join you two in a quick minute." Her eyes narrowed as she stared at the blonde, judging by how wide Hanna was grinning she doubted that they would be joined in a minute. Maybe not even a century. Oh, she was definitely going to town on Hanna's leftovers from her date with Caleb at the Cheesecake Factory when she got home. She deserved to feel real pain.
But she was also curious to see what ideas for remodeling he came up with and how well he incorporated her and Hanna's ideas.
Turning around to a waiting Toby who stood by the back hallway with his hands in his jeans, she smiled as she walked in front of him.
"We can look over the sketches in my office." When Hanna gave him the tour of the place and allowed him to take pictures, they never reached back here since his main job was remodeling the store section. He only suspected this is where they kept their offices after he received the blueprints of the building from Hanna.
Passing Hanna's bubblegum pink office, Spencer walked into another door just a couple feet away with Toby trailing behind her.
Walking around her glass desk, Spencer took a seat in her ergonomic chair and gestured across from her for Toby to have a seat as well. Toby instantly became a little nervous as he realized that this would be a lot more formal than any meeting he conducted with Hanna. Well, he had been living with Caleb for a couple weeks when he first arrived in New York and she was over quite often, so they definitely knew each other better. But still, he would be lying if he said the beauty in front of him didn't make him a little self-conscious. He attempted to distract himself by looking at the many photos on her walls and desk.
She watched his blue eyes wander around the room before he slipped his bag off his shoulder and took a seat across from her.
Her office wasn't the biggest but to her, that's what made it more homey and easier to do her classwork or mountains of paperwork that came along with comanaging a business.
The walks were painted a soft gray with the black occasional picture frame adorning it. Pictures of her and her friends were majority of them, with only a couple being a captured moment of her sister, Melissa, and her at Spencer's high school graduation and a photo of her parents and her at the graduation as well.
A long mahogany table was located behind Spencer with even more pictures, a couple containers with labeling on them, and a small coffee machine.
Following Toby's gazes, Spencer chuckled and pointed to the white frame on her desk of four smiling girls. He instantly recognized two out of the four girls as much younger versions of Spencer and Hanna.
"Our other best friend, Aria," Spencer clarified as she pointed out the raven-haired girl with the large eyes, "loves to take pictures. She's known how to work a camera since she was in diapers." Spencer added with a giggle. Spencer rarely ever saw Aria without her camera. They came in pairs like shoes or Vodka and a toilet.
"She's talented." Toby replied with a warm smile. "They look beautiful." He stated as he looked down at a picture of Spencer in a lavish dress at what most likely was her high school prom. Following his eyes, an instant blush appeared on Spencer's face as she interpreted his statement.
Surprising himself with his forwardness, Toby awkwardly cleared his throat as he reached down into his bag. If she hired you, she could just as easily fire you for inappropriate conduct, you horny dumbass, Toby thought to himself as he pulled out the manila folder.
"Even though Hanna insisted I draw up two possible designs to show you both, I wanted to do a third, so you could really see your options." He said as he placed the folder into her hands careful not to accidentally touch her fingers.
"Well that was generous." Spencer replied genuinely with a warm smile as she looked at him through her long lashes.
She didn't know much about architecture, but she knew it didn't take a short amount of time to whip up three completely different drawings of the future for Allure.
When she opened the folder, she immediately gasped as she took in the detailed drawings.
"Toby, these are amazing." She praised as she spread the three onto the glass desk.
Shifting uncomfortably in the actually very comfortable chair, Toby let out a quiet "thanks" as he tried to conceal his embarrassment quickly deciding to pull out the building's blueprints out of his bag as well.
Upon hearing his faint reply, Spencer looked up with wide eyes and a smile. "No, I mean it. These are really good." She said locking eyes with him. "You're really talented."
With a toothless smile, Toby leaned forward slightly to examine the pictures.
"So, I've been thinking about the need of more natural lighting and with those high ceilings, we could make something work…"
Toby, Spencer, and after Caleb left, Hanna spent the rest of the morning deciding which design they would want to see come to life. After settling on a design that they all agreed on, Spencer happily lead Toby to the front of the boutique to go over the final details and open the store for the day as Hanna spoke to some employees.
Spencer and Hanna's employees had trickled into the shop one by one and were now all throughout the store setting up and stocking the cash register.
"Good Morning, Ms. Hastings." A recent hire, Janelle greeted as she moved past Spencer with a box of hangers in tow.
"Just Spencer, please." She chuckled as she smiled at the young girl.
Toby released a sigh in awe as they made it to the glass doors at the front of the store. "It's amazing what you and Hanna built together fresh out of college."
"Thank you, we definitely busted our asses to get here." Spencer replied with a chuckle as she turned towards Toby.
Glancing down at his watch, he noticed it was almost a couple minutes until ten.
"My team and I should be back here on Monday to get started. Everything should be cleared out by then."
Spencer nodded in understanding. Allure wouldn't be open during the reconstruction therefore that weekend, all Hanna, Spencer, and an upset Caleb planned to do was pack up the boutique and move the items to a temporary storage room.
Although Spencer was aware of the financial hit, they would encounter by not being open for a large amount of time, her and Hanna had run the numbers almost a year ago when they first decided to remodel the boutique. Since then, they lengthened the store's hours and opened it on the weekends to ensure they wouldn't lose a drastic amount of money and still be able to pay their small number of employees and bills.
"I'll see you Monday, Toby." She said with a faint smile on her lips. Gosh, she would never grow tired of hearing his name on her lips.
"Goodbye, Spencer." Toby replied with a toothless grin as he opened the door and walked onto the busy sidewalk of the city, turning around quickly to get one more glance of the beautiful Spencer Hastings smiling as he realized she never looked away.
"So, about Jenna…" Caleb began as nonchalantly as he could muster as he plopped onto the couch, a Coke in hand, beside Toby whose eyes were glued to the television.
"Shhh, Eddard just gave Cersei the letter from King Robert." Toby dismissed as he shooed Caleb away with his hand.
Caleb turned toward the TV and watched noncommittedly as who he assumed was Cersei tear the letter into pieces before Toby released a grunt.
"He was King! Yeah, he was an asshole, but he was your King Husband asshole."
"Tob- "
"If Joffrey gets on that throne, I will kill him myself." Toby stated with a frustrated sigh looking at Caleb as if he put this Joffrey on whatever throne he was talking about it.
"Tob-"
"Come on Ned, don't be a bi-"
Grunting with annoyance, Caleb grabbed the remote off the coffee table and turned the screen off.
"What the hell, man?"
"You see that," Caleb began pointing to the envelope Jenna left for Toby that made its way to the corner of the loft. "We need to talk about that."
"I don't want to talk about that. I want to watch my show in my loft, drinking my soda." Toby said with pointed eyes towards the can in Caleb's hand as he stood up and moved towards the opposite couch. Caleb rolled his eyes at Toby's theatrics.
"Okay fine, let's talk about Spencer."
"What?"
"Spencer Hastings. Let's talk about her."
"Caleb, I would rather shoot myself in the foot than tell you anything I feel towards Spencer. Anything I say will just go right back to Han." Toby said reaching for the remote.
"Hey!" Caleb exclaimed, snatching the remote out of Toby's reach. "I would like to think our friendship is stronger than that." He said dramatically.
"I'm missing Daenerys." Toby replied simply with an outstretched hand.
"You can see Dinosaur another time. I'm setting you up for a fun night on the town. Tomorrow night. You, me, Han, and Spence. Trilly's Bar." Caleb exclaimed.
"Only people over fifty say 'night on the town', Caleb." Toby retorted as he stood up, walking towards his room. "But I'm in." He replied with a small smirk, giddy over the fact that he would see Spencer sooner than Monday.
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