The Price of Happiness || Spencer Reid

Four

The second your class ended at 2:55, you were sprinting across campus to the staff parking lot. You'd agreed to let him drive the two of you to a mall about thirty minutes away, and your stomach was fluttering with anticipation and nervousness at the thought. There were stores nearer of course, but after what had happened last time you'd been together off-campus, you didn't want anyone seeing you. Iris thankfully wasn't in your last class, because she definitely would have questioned the frantic exit, and that was a conversation you just were not in the mood to have. You stopped at the entrance of the car park as you scanned around to see if you could spot him, and sure enough, he was standing exactly where he said he would be. He was leaning against a vintage-looking Volvo looking down at some files with a coffee cup precariously placed on the top of his car, he was so focused on his reading he didn't notice you walking up meaning, when you stopped in front of him it took almost a minute to realise you were there.

He jumped a little when he finally noticed your presence which resulted in a few papers flying out of his hand, the startled reaction made you giggle, "Sorry I didn't mean to scare you." You said before bending down to pick up the papers he'd dropped, it was an innocent action, just you trying to be helpful so when you straightened back up and turned to hand them back to him and saw his face was flushed pink, you were more than confused. "Are you okay?" You asked, slightly concerned and completely oblivious to what you'd just done. In your defence, by this point in the day, you'd completely forgotten about the outfit you were wearing which meant you were unaware of the way your tiny skirt had left Spencer with a completely unrestricted view of the adorable pink panties you had decided to wear that day, the same panties which were about to be the sole reason for sending him into a cardiac arrest.

"M-me? I-uh I'm fine." He stuttered out in a flustered state, his hands were clammy as he reached out to take the papers from your hands and he silently prayed that you weren't able to tell. "Thank you for uh...helping me." He slightly waved the papers in the air as he let out an awkward laugh that in all honesty sounded more like a choked cough.

You narrowed your eyes, not completely believing him. "No problem..." The two of you stood there for a few moments, just staring at each other before you finally spoke up. "Nice car."

Nice car, you thought to yourself, how fucking lame are you Y/N...nice car god you loser.

Spencer, however, didn't think it was lame at all, he smiled at you before speaking, "Thank you Y/N, it's... it was a gift." You could hear a slight change in his tone, and his demeanour shifted to one of slight sadness as a distant look crossed his face, as though he was thinking deeply about something... or someone. He didn't dwell on it for long though as he quickly looked back up at you and began walking to the other side of the car gesturing for you to follow him. He reached for the passenger side door and opened it up for you, "Here you go...feel free to adjust your seat how you wish." He moved out of the way to allow you to sit down, which you tried to do as gracefully as you could, even at the grand old age of 22 you still hadn't mastered the art of getting into a car without struggling for at least a few moments.

"Thank you." You said as you finally managed to settle into your seat, he smiled down at you before closing the door and running back over to his side, he placed the papers on the backseat before getting into the driver's seat and placing the keys in the ignition. You felt as though you were forgetting something and as you looked around at your things you realised what it was.

"Uh, Dr Reid...?" You said, he let out a small 'hmm' as he checked all his mirrors and adjusted his seat. "You uh... you forgot your coffee."

"What?" He asked as he turned to you in confusion. You simply pointed up to the roof of the car and watched as the realisation washed over his face, "Oh... right yes hold on." He quickly got out of his car and grabbed the cup that was still sitting on top of the car before placing it in the cupholder and looking at you with an embarrassed smile. "Sorry about that..it's been a long day." It hadn't been that long if he was being completely honest, but there was just something about being in your presence that made his brain turn into mush.