A/N: Hey guys! Thanks for being patient. Again – this chapter is on the "shorter" side and I apologize for that, but knew you wanted updates!

Thanks everyone for the generous comments and adds! I really appreciate your support. I thrive off of feedback, so please let me know what you're thinking and what you'd like to see more of. I aim to please, to the best of my ability.

Thanks again!

CHAPTER SEVEN

The day seemed to drag on forever once Toby left for his afternoon shift on campus. Spencer immersed herself in school work that was not due for weeks, and played a handful of card games with Hanna and Caleb. When they thought she wasn't looking, she sometimes caught them analyzing her out of the corner of her eye. She knew that there was a million questions Hanna wanted to ask, but would not subject Spencer to it in front of her boyfriend. Caleb's glances seemed to read that he was still immensely uncomfortable about the earlier situation, but was attempting to squelch the painful image burning in his retinas.

When at long last Caleb announced that he was taking a shower, Hanna's eyes lit up; Spencer knew that this meant Q&A between the two girls, as she had been expecting. The door had barely clicked shut before Hanna leapt across one end of the couch to the other to position herself closer to Spencer's armchair.

"You need to explain some things. Immediately," she gushed, making no attempt to hide her delighted smile.

"Like what?"

"Um, what do you think?" Hanna demanded anxiously.

"You'll have to be more specific," Spencer said coyly, flipping off-handedly through pages of her textbook.

"Okay. Fine," Hanna began dangerously, flipping a lock of blond hair out of her eyes. "How the hell did Toby Cavanaugh end up naked in your bed, when yesterday you wouldn't even give him the time of day?"

Spencer chuckled lightly, at last relenting to replace her bookmark and set the text aside. "It's pretty complicated."

"I have time."

"I dunno…I'm not the type to kiss and tell…" Spencer argued.

"I don't think you understand," Hanna pressed insistently. "I want to know every. Sexy. Detail. I don't care how personal it is – you have to tell me."

Spencer sputtered in indignation. "Hanna - "

"You have no choice," Hanna decided, smoothing her skirt. Spencer saw the flicker of mischief in Hanna's eyes. "If you don't tell me, I'll just have to ask him myself."

"HANNA!"

"And you know I will."

Spencer pouted stubbornly. "He wouldn't tell you anything, anyway."

"That all depends."

Silence settled for a moment before Spencer sighed dejectedly and slammed her textbook on the coffee table with a definitive WOMP.

"Fine. You want details? I'll give you details."

Hanna leaned forward eagerly, more excited than a child spying on Santa. Hanna, Spencer had to admit, was the perfect audience member – she "aw"ed, gasped, and laughed at all the right moments as she rehashed the night before. As the story wore on, Hanna's eyes grew progressively wider, until they were the size of teacup saucers. Spencer realized with chagrin that Hanna would never be this enamored in college lectures once school commenced; first and foremost she had always been, and forever would be, a gossip junkie.

"…And that's it," Spencer concluded, feeling completely violated in telling the entirety of the very personal tale.

"Oh. Em. Gee," Hanna breathed. "It's almost like you're in your own version of The Notebook. Spencer, your relationship is like a movie."

It felt nice to be told that she had the best of something. As usual, Spencer felt a balloon of slight cockiness swelling in her heart. "Well, it was pretty amazing," she agreed, knowing full well that the smile that teased her lips was unavoidable.

"I wish Caleb still did romantic things like carry me to the bedroom," Hanna whined, plopping her chin in her hands sulkily. As if on cue, Caleb exited the bathroom in fresh clothes. Hanna sat up expectantly. "Caleb, why don't you do anything romantic anymore?"

Caleb looked like a deer in headlights, his toothbrush still hanging out of his mouth. "Uh…"

"Toby is a gentleman to Spencer," Hanna continued indignantly. "Why don't we ever play board games as foreplay?" Her arguments were coming out in an entirely random sequence.

Caleb looked completely confused. He extracted the frothy toothbrush from his mouth. "Wha – board games?"

"I should go," Spencer decided uncomfortably.

"No, you stay, I'll go," Hanna announced stubbornly. She purposefully knocked Caleb in the shoulder as she passed, harrumphing all the way to her bedroom before she slammed the door.

Caleb stared after her, open-mouthed, then looked back to Spencer inquisitively. "I don't get it."

"There's not much to get," Spencer laughed. "She'll be over it in two minutes."

Caleb sat down on the couch, looking around as though he had woken up in a stranger's house to find that he had grown two additional heads. He was muttering to himself distractedly before turning to Spencer and quietly demanding, "Board games?"

Spencer felt a blush rising in her cheeks. "I don't know what you're talking about," she stated nonchalantly, choosing to cover her face with her textbook as she continued her reading.

A moment of awkward silence befell them as Caleb hesitantly walked away to finish brushing his teeth. A few minutes passed before he emerged, resuming his previous seat. For several seconds he said nothing. Spencer eyed him, bemuse, knowing that he was still trying to process the entire incident.

"It's fine. Trust me," she offered.

He nodded uncertainly before glancing over at her. "What are you reading?"

Spencer knew he was simply making small talk; clearly he knew what she was reading, as her textbook donned bold black letters on the binding that read INTRODUCTION TO PSYCHOLOGY.

"Psych," she responded anyway. "Trying to get a head start."

"How very dedicated of you," he complimented. There was another pause. "When does that party start that you were talking about?" he asked.

Spencer lowered her book, trying to decide whether she was grateful that he continued to carry the conversation or annoyed that he kept interrupting her reading. "Like 7," she replied. "After Toby is off work."

"Ah. Where at?"

"Toby's apartment. He lives there with a few buddies from the army."

"Cool. What do they do?"

She adored Caleb. She really did. But she was becoming progressively more irritated with his persistence. She wished Hanna would get over it already and come out to save their undeniably awkward conversation.

"What do you mean?"

"Like…what's their M.O.S.?"

Spencer stared at him, confused. She had never heard the term before. And admittedly, this embarrassed her.

"Their military specialty," he expanded. "Like, what is their army career?"

"Oh." She paused. She realized she and Toby hadn't talked about it, actually. "I'm not sure."

"Oh."

The ticking of the clock on the far wall announced each uncomfortable second.

"Caleb," Hanna called from down the hall. Finally. "Can you help me change this light bulb?"

"Sure, babe," he replied eagerly, practically leaping off the couch. It seemed as though he was just as anxious as Spencer to find something to do. He made his way down the hallway and shut the door purposefully behind him. Spencer chuckled; they would undoubtedly be engaging in some 'private time' to make up for Caleb's earlier faux pas.

She attempted to immerse herself in her readings, but the squealing and giggling coming from Hanna's bedroom was admittedly distracting. She sighed heavily and resignedly put her book on the coffee table. Other than the romantic sound effects coming from down the hall, the apartment was considerably quiet. Too quiet. The type of silence where Spencer's mind was working at a million miles a minute, giving her the feeling of vertigo.

Perhaps coffee would help her focus. After all, she should at least try to get something done while she was waiting for Toby's party to start.

She began making her way into the kitchen when her phone beeped in her back pocket. It was a text from Toby.

"Been thinking about you all day. Can't wait to see you."

The butterflies in her stomach began doing acrobatics. She grinned and typed her response.

"Same here. Counting the minutes."

After pressing send, she leaned dazedly against the kitchen counter. Hanna, through all of her blunt confrontation, had certainly hit the nail on the head: Spencer had not had the faintest intent of talking to Toby 48 hours ago, and now she was freely allowing her high school emotions to re-emerge. She simply could not help it. He had always been able to understand her better than anybody else. And for that, alone, she would have loved him for eternity.

She lazily thumbed through her phone's pictures. Last night she had taken a photo of him lying shirtless in her bed, looking entirely exhausted and adorable. His beautiful eyes burned seductively, his crooked smile making Spencer's heart melt into molten lava.

She could hardly remember what her life had been like without him. It was as if she had been walking around in a fog for several months, only to finally have it lifted away to properly view and appreciate her surroundings. It was likened to having a near-death experience, and finding that all of the things you took for granted were suddenly significantly more precious. The coffee she was brewing, for instance, smelled sweeter than it ever had. She had even sat at her window for a while earlier to gaze out at the cloudless midday weather.

He made her happy. He made her feel alive.

She glanced at the clock and sighed heavily. It was only 4. How was it that three hours felt like a lifetime without seeing him, when she had gone almost two years? It was paradoxical, to say the least.

"All right, Spence," she muttered to herself, returning to the living room. "Get something done." She sat with her coffee and her text book and prepared to steel her mind to the task at hand, knowing that in the back of her head the clock would nevertheless haunt her for the next few hours.

TO BE CONTINUED