My letters to you - Spencer Reid x OC

22

After the brief closure meeting, Elizabeth walked onto the stage and sat in her seat, next to Alexander Crone. Although there were many questions she wanted to ask him, she refrained from doing so. The final press conference was going to last a while, and she could just about spot Spencer in the back, smiling at her from his seat. She gave him a small wave from where she sat, hoping that he saw it.

There had been very limited questions focused at Elizabeth, however when there were, they were all asking her how she felt about Crone resigning mid game.

The answer of course was diplomatic, "Of course I'm upset about Crone resigning, I would have liked to have played him all the way through. He would have undoubtedly beat me, though I assume he has good reason."

It went on for a while, and because of the controversy that had popped up on some small chess forums, the final Q+A had been cancelled to avoid both Crone and Mills being harassed. Of course, that didn't stop the press from being passive aggressive just in order to get a good story.

The constant "Do you think you deserve to be sitting in first chair?" and "Do you think this will encourage more female players to try harder?" was becoming annoying, not only to Elizabeth, but also for the other players. Their games, being infinitely more interesting than Elizabeth and Alexander's, were being overshadowed by Crone's stunt.

Of course, that wasn't the end of the drama that year. Towards the end of the press conference, someone in the press finally asked the big question, the one that had plagued Elizabeth's mind since the end of her last match.

"Excuse me, Mr Crone, if I may ask, why did you resign your match against Miss Mills when you clearly could have won?"

Crone stood up, taking a deep breath in before speaking. "I resigned in my match with Dr Mills because I had planned to do so with whomever I was going to be playing in the final match. I have been contemplating this for a while, and I have come to the conclusion that this is going to be my official last tournament. I'm retiring, and I figured that whoever I play my final match against should be the winner. I'm glad it's Dr Mills, she's a wonderful woman, and she deserves the position, just as much as anyone else who worked their way to this table deserves their position."

The hall went silent. It was rare for chess players to retire, most just faded into obscurity, slowly letting their ELO drop as new players replaced them. Elizabeth was confused as to why he was deciding to do this. He could have simply stopped going to tournaments and rejected future invites.

The conference soon ended, having the players rushed off stage much of the presses disappointment. Elizabeth was honestly just glad to get off the stage and have the ability to breathe a little lighter now that the tournament was finally over.

She smiled as she waved goodbye to the other grandmasters, all of whom were planning on getting drunk at the nearest bar, while Callum was packing his bags, his flight leaving for Connecticut that evening.

The halls were empty as the curly haired woman left the room, unlike how she'd expected. In all honesty, Elizabeth had expected a much more busy hallway as reporters packed up their cameras or attempted to get exclusive interviews with players. Elizabeth of course took the chance to get away as quickly as possible and meet Spencer at her room, as they'd arranged earlier when Spencer text her that he was late and couldn't find her.

A few moments later, and she could see the tall man standing awkwardly outside of her room, holding a bouquet of flowers. Her heart seemed to flutter as she saw them, yellow tulips, he'd remembered.

"You got me flowers?"

"Yeah, honestly, I wanted to get you some for when you landed, but I figured that now would be a better time. They're yellow tulips, I remember you saying they were your favourite in one of your letters."

"Thank you. That's really nice." She smiled, opening the hotel room door. "Come in, I'm going to put these in water."

Spencer followed in after her, standing by the door as Elizabeth filled up an empty vase that she'd found in one of the small closets in the room. "So, what are we doing today? I have a feeling you have something in mind."

"I figured you'd want to relax today, so I was thinking maybe we could go to my apartment, watch a movie and I'd cook you something? Only if you want to, of course."

"Yeah, I'd like that." She said, placing the vase of flowers on the side before picking up her jacket. "Though I have a feeling I'll be helping you in the kitchen."

"Yeah, based on my attempts at cooking, it would be nice to have you teach me a little."

Elizabeth nodded, smiling as the two went to leave the room. Then the room phone rang, causing her to break eye contact. "One second, let me get this. Meet me in the lobby, I'll be right down."

"Of course, I'll bring the car around, okay?"

"Yeah, sure." She smiled, "I'll be five minutes tops."

Spencer left the room as Elizabeth picked up the phone. "Hello, this is reception, is this Dr Mills' room?"

"It is, is there a problem?"

"No, Ma'am, we just have someone here asking for you by the name Dr Blake. She says she's from Georgetown University."

"Okay, tell her I'll be right down." She said, hanging up and leaving the room. As she entered the elevator, she wondered why a teacher from a university she never even attended wanted to talk to her, maybe to guest lecture?

As the elevator dinged, indicating she was in the reception, she exited, walking towards the front desk. "I was told there was a Dr Blake here to see me?"

"That would be me." A kind voice said from behind her. Elizabeth span around to see an older woman smiling at her. "Dr Alex Blake," she shook the younger woman's hand. "It's great to meet you, I read your dissertation on religious impact in language, very impressive. I recommend it to my PhD students."

"Thank you. I'm sorry, I'm in a little bit of a rush, a friend of mine is bringing his car around."

"Of course, I won't hold you for long. I was actually here to offer you a job as a part of our linguistics department. One of our professors decided to retire this past month and I recommended you for the job."

"Oh, wow. I'd have to think it through, it'd be a big move, across the country."

"Of course, I completely understand. We'd work to support you if you did decide to make the move. I'm supposed to give you the offer letter and prospectus." She said, pulling it out of her bag. "It should have all of the information in there, as well as numbers to call should you need any other information. And here's my card, just in case." Dr Blake smiled. "I should hope to see you again."

Dazed, Elizabeth looked at the book in her hand, flicking through the glossy pages. She took a deep breath before walking out of the hotel, book and letter still in hand. As she got in the car, Spencer smiled.

"So, what was the call about?"

"I just got offered a job."

"Oh, wow" Spencer said, surprised.

"Yeah, that's what I said. I'll have to look it over."

"So you're considering it?"

"Yeah, I mean, it's a teaching position, and it's something new, and they read my PhD dissertation on linguistics. It could be a good opportunity to try something new."

Spencer nodded, "Well, whatever you choose, I'll be there for you."