I lie in bed staring at the ceiling. I know that if I look at the clock it's going to read some God-awful time like 4am. No matter how hard I try, I can't sleep. I hate wasting money on coffee from shops, but I'm definitely going to need something stronger than what I have here to make it through the day. Definitely not a latte, though. Stupid ooh-la-latte girl. And here I go again. Judging and insulting some woman that I've never met just because she brought Spencer some coffee.
I suddenly remember the text that I never read earlier. It's probably Mr. Costano trying, once again, to get me to give Anthony a "tour." I roll over and grab my phone, and just like I suspected, it's 4:15 am. I grunt and type in my passcode. My phone tweets again while I'm holding it and I almost drop it on my face. I do that far too often. I go to my messages and freeze momentarily. I take a deep breath and select his name, but I only allow myself to read one at a time.
《Spencer: Sorry I had to go earlier. My work schedule can be a little crazy sometimes.》
Did he just apologize for not being able to talk to me earlier?
《Spencer: I just got off work and I'm sure you're asleep, but I just wanted to say goodnight.》
Oh my God, he's so cute.
《i'm not asleep :)》
《Spencer: It's 4 o'clock in the morning. Why are you up so late?》
《couldn't sleep.》
《Spencer: That is a pretty common problem, actually. You should try taking some melatonin.》
《i'll have to look into that.》
《any suggestions in the meantime?》
《Spencer: There's always counting sheep.》
《i think counting the amount of hours you spend at work would work, too.》
《Spencer: Sometimes it's not so bad.》
《Spencer: I do miss a lot of meetings, though.》
《exactly. and a lot of nights eating terrible food but great pie.》
《Spencer: And a lot of nights not seeing you.》
I freeze. And then I read it over and over. Probably 50 times. And then something inside me takes over and I type back something that I'm almost positive will make me never be able to look him in the eye again.
《and a lot of nights of me not seeing you, either.》
《Spencer: Unless something comes up, I should be there next week.》
《you only come for the pie.》
《Spencer: Guilty.》
It suddenly occurs to me that if he's off work, that must mean they solved the case. I dig for the remote and turn the TV on.
"It really is amazing," the news anchors are saying. "And definitely a blessing that 2 of the 7 missing children were found alive and well. Unfortunately, 2 of the bodies were found in trash bags on the premises, and the other 3 bodies were the ones found by investigators partially buried in various parks. Agent Jareau of the FBI's Behavioral Analysis Unit provided a statement on behalf of the Bureau and the family of the victims."
"Today, we take comfort in knowing that these families have closure and that justice will be served. Thank you," Agent Jareau is saying in the tiny part of the clip that the news station aired.
Agent Jareau is the pretty blonde that I saw on the news earlier. I'll bet she's the ooh-la-latte girl. Before I can remember that I didn't respond to Spencer's last message, I turn the TV off and fall asleep.
I walk into the firm the next morning and barely make it to my seat when I hear my name being called.
"You're late," Mr. Costanzo says when I make it to the doorway of his office.
"I know," I answer. "Didn't get much sleep last night."
"Well, I'll be damned," I hear from behind me.
I cringe.
"Hello, Anthony."
"It's been awhile," he grins, leaning against the doorframe.
"2 months is hardly awhile," I roll my eyes as I push past him to get to my desk.
"Seems more like 2 years."
"No, not really," I respond as I grab my purse.
"Where you goin?" He asks, following me to the elevator.
"I'm going to get coffee," I yell to Mr. Costano.
"Let me come with you," Anthony says.
"It's a free country," I sigh, "you can go anywhere you want to. That's one of the perks."
I step into the elevator and press myself into the corner. He stands near the doors, but I'm still the first one out of the elevator. I walk past the nearest coffee shop with him trailing behind me. I walk a little faster, trying to put more distance between us as I pass yet another coffee shop. I finally make it to the shop I had in mind, but as I reach to open the door, a hand beats me to it. I swear there was more distance than that between us. What did he do, run to catch up?
"Thanks," I mumble as I step inside.
The line is longer than I'd like it to be, but I join the back of it and try to focus on anything other than the man standing abnormally close to me.
"Nice place," he comments. "Small, quiet."
"I do like it quiet," I remark.
"You don't seem to be that quiet," he says in such a low tone that if he wasn't nearly touching me, I never would have heard him.
"And that means what?"
I can feel the scowl that's threatening to overtake my face as I turn around.
That scowl quickly turns into astonishment.
"Kairhyn?" the person behind Anthony says.
"Spencer," I take a deep breath. "Hi."
"Hi," he smiles.
"Anthony Costano," Anthony interrupts and extends his hand.
"Dr. Spencer Reid," he replies and very lightly shakes Anthony's hand.
He is visibly uncomfortable.
"Do you have your own practice?" Anthony asks.
"Spencer isn't that kind of doctor," I cut in. "He has three PHD's."
"Impressive," Anthony says in a condescending tone.
"Anthony is my boss's brother. He's from Maryland," I say to Spencer.
I glance over my shoulder and see that I'm next in line.
"He's not very familiar with the area," I add and then quickly step up to the counter.
As I order my extremely strong drink, I can hear Spencer giving Anthony statistic after statistic, just as I'd hoped he would. When I finish ordering, I step back over to the guys.
"Anthony, you're next in line," I gesture to the annoyed-looking employee at the counter.
"Oh, right," he nods and goes to order.
"He's actually more familiar with the area than you think," Spencer comments.
"Oh, yeah," I pause to take a drink, "I know. I just needed to have him preoccupied so I didn't have to listen to him anymore."
"You don't like him?" Spencer questions.
"He's nice," I nod, "but also annoying. My boss keeps trying to force me to go out with him. I should thank you."
"For what?" He looks perplexed.
"For saving me," I laugh.
We step up to the counter and Spencer orders a bunch of different coffees, no doubt for his colleagues, off the top of his head. Anthony is down at the bar waiting for his drink. I see one of the workers hand it to him and he hesitates before coming back over to us.
"I'll see you back at the office, Anthony," I say as soon as he's within earshot. "I'm just gonna wait with Spencer and then I'll head back."
"Yeah," he clears his throat, "okay."
The hidden look of defeat almost makes me feel bad. It's not my fault, though, that neither he nor his brother will give up. I wait for him to walk outside before I breathe a sigh of relief.
"You, uh," Spencer clears his throat. "You look very nice today."
"Thank you," I smile widely at him.
"What are you doing all the way overy here?" he asks. "There are 5 coffee shops within 4 square miles of your office."
"I was trying to get away from him," I roll my eyes. "Is this the coffee shop that you always come to?"
"If I'm not in a different state, yes," he says simply.
"Why do you have to travel so much?" I boldly ask without actually meaning for the words to come out of my mouth.
"It's really unavoidable," he answers literally.
I stand there next to him quiet for a few minutes. Just as I'm about to come up with a new subject, his order is ready and it's time for us to both head back to work.
"So I guess I'll see you later," I say as we head out the door and are about to part ways.
"Next week," he smiles and nods, even though we both know that's probably not the truth.
I make my way back to the office slowly. I'm in absolutely no hurry to get back so that Anthony can be at the door waiting for me like a puppy that was left outside in the rain.
"Kairhyn," Anthony stops me outside the building when I finally make it there. "Can I speak with you for a moment?"
"Sure," I groan internally.
"I really don't appreciate the way I've been treated today."
I almost choke on my coffee.
"I feel like you've just been leading me on. Acting like you're interested one minute and not the next," he folds his arms. "I don't like being toyed with."
"Well," I say trying to regain my composure after dying of laughter on the inside. "I can assure you, I am not toying with you. I have done everything in my power to get the point across to you. I am not interested. I never have been. I never will be. I'm not trying to be harsh, but the fact that you feel it's okay to confront me outside of my office, claiming that I'm leading you on, quite frankly, it pisses me off. So, if you don't mind, I am going to go back to work and you need to go wherever it is that you need to go so you can come back to planet Earth and not act like a huge douchebag."
I turn away and walk inside, throwing my coffee away on the way to my desk - suddenly it doesn't taste very good. I can't believe that jerk. Did he seriously accuse me of leading him on? Maybe I should accuse him of stalking me. That accusation would actually be accurate.