Chapter Twenty
As Spencer finishedhis dishes, his phone buzzed on the table.A call from Misty was coming in, and he rushed to answer before it went to voicemail.At the sight of the FaceTime request, he answered it with one hand and flattened his hair with the other.“Hey!How’s it going?”
Misty’s slightly blurry face filled his screen.Her hair was up again, giving him a flashback to their earliest days, and she was wearing a soft-looking t-shirt.“Not bad.We pretty much took over a Hampton Inn near the training facility—I’m rooming with Tish—and had a welcome dinner tonight.The real work’s going to start tomorrow.”
“You’re ready for it.This is what you’ve been training for, and now you get to put it all into action.”
She bit her lower lip.“I hope I am.There’s more of us than I expected, everyone else introduced themselves as these super-elite athletes—”
“And you're at their caliber,” he said before she could get down on herself.“You had to pass the same tests and do the same exercises they did, and you’d never have been accepted if the officials didn’t think you could hack it.”
She paused before speaking again.“You’re right.Thanks for the reminder, and for everything else.”
Before he could think of what to say next, she kept going.“That includes this morning.I can’t believe I let all that get away from me.No excuse except that I wanted as much time with you as I could before it was time to go.”
Spencer softened.“I’m glad we had it.”
“Me too.”
They sat on the phone in a companionable silence that could get awkward if it went on for much longer.Was this her way of saying goodbye?Were they going to be able to keep whatever they had going while she was away?How could he ask without sounding needy?
“Tell me more about it,” he said instead.“What do you see out your window?How cold is it?”
He couldn’t believe he was asking about the weather, but Misty humored him by bringing the phone to the window to show him the trees while complaining about how it was twenty degrees colder up there.
He squinted at his screen.It could’ve been another result of the somewhat crappy signal, but...“Is it snowing?”
“It’s too soon for that!It’s still October.”
“And you’re practically in Canada.It could very well be.”How could they be in the same state and yet so far away?
She leaned closer.“Crap, you’re right.I’m not used to seeing it start this early.”
The whole time she spoke, he was struck by how normal this whole thing sounded.They didn’t talk like this when he was training her or when they’d started hooking up.Instead, it reminded him of the night at the restaurant when they’d talked about anything and everything.
“I’d better get to bed, but I don’t know how I’m going to sleep.It’s so quiet.”
“You’ll—” The sound of a siren cut Spencer off, proving her point.“You know what?Sleep in peace for those of us who can’t.”
She laughed.“I’ll try, and I’ll text you tomorrow.”
“Sounds good.Good night.”He smiled at the screen.
“Good night.”Misty smiled softly at him, but didn’t disconnect the call.They just sat there drinking in the sight of each other’s faces.
She broke the silence with a giggle.“I haven’t acted like this since I was a teenager.”
“Me either.”It brought Spencer back to memories of being on the phone with his first girlfriend and conversations ending with things like, “No,youhang up first,” or agreeing to end the call on a count of three.“But we’re grownups, and I’ll let you go.Night.”
“Night.”Nevertheless, he found himself lingering a bit before ending the call.
Spencer plugged in his phone and went to get ready for bed.He opened the bathroom door to see that the apartment explosion he’d come home to hadn’t been limited to the studio’s living space.There weren’t any towels hanging up, but there were clothes all over the floor.
He bent to pick them up and saw a few articles that definitely weren’t his: a t-shirt from the New York Recreational Kickball League, a sports bra, and a pair of leggings with a pair of panties stuffed inside.He gathered the clothes, pausing a moment to inhale the scent that clung to them, and wondered what he’d gotten himself into over the past few weeks.How had he let this woman blow up his apartment, not to mention his life?
