Breaking Barriers - S.R.

17

Diana was finally settled in and seemed to be doing well with her new nurse, which meant one thing: Spencer and I were finally having an overdue date night. He had gone back to work a few days ago, sticking around town to do paperwork and consult on a current case from home, and everyone was on a routine that was working so far. I had even convinced him to take a night off and have his nurse stay with Diana so he could spend the night at my place. He was hesitant at first, but considering it was just down the hall, he agreed. Things finally seemed to be looking up after a pretty significant rough patch.

"What are you planning on wearing for your date tonight?" Sophia asked over the phone, her voice booming through the speakers of my car.

"I don't know, probably what I'm already wearing." I replied.

"What are you wearing?" She pressed.

"The yellow sundress." I said casually.

"No! Come on Liv, have I taught you nothing? Set the mood for tonight, wear something sexy!" She whined.

"I'm not wearing lingerie to dinner." I joked. "Besides, it's Spencer. He's not exactly high maintenance. He won't care what I'm wearing."

"Maybe not, but it'll make the night a lot more interesting if you wear something that makes his eyes bulge out of his head." She laughed.

"We've barely been able to see each other in weeks, much less have any alone time. I don't think we will have to force the mood." I laughed along with her as I stepped out of my now parked car and made my way through the parking garage.

"All the more reason to go all out." She pushed. "When was the last time you guys even had sex? Has it really been that long?"

"Yes." I sighed. "He's had a lot going on. More than usual."

"That sucks." She stated. "I guess you'll just have to make time when you can."

"Yeah." I muttered. "Hopefully things will calm down soon. He's been exhausted. I'll be surprised if he doesn't go straight to sleep when we get back to my place."

"I can almost completely assure you that will not happen." She laughed.

I laughed lightly with her, but stopped short as I passed by Spencer's apartment and heard commotion inside. "Hey, Soph? I'll call you later."

"Let me know how it goes tonight!" She replied.

"I will." I said, before we quickly said goodbye and hung up.

I stood quietly outside Spencer's door as I listened to the sound of two voices on the other side of it. It was loud enough that anyone passing by could tell they were arguing, but it was too muffled to really understand any words they were saying. It was the third time this week that I had come across this. My heart was starting to break for Spencer. There's no way he could keep living like this. His mother needed full time care, but it really wasn't my business to push him on it, even though I could see the toll it was taking. I thought about knocking for a moment, but quickly shook off the thought because I knew how hard Spencer was trying to keep me from seeing the worst of what he handled daily. So  I reluctantly trudged forward, continuing to my own apartment.

Diana's nurse would be showing up at 6:30 tonight, so while I waited for Spencer, I took that spare time to clean up my apartment a bit and change into something different like Sophia had suggested. I went for the typical little black dress look, picking the one I owned that hit just above the knee and had a little bit of a lower neckline than I usually wore. I slipped on a pair of black heels to go with it and was touching up my makeup when Spencer knocked on the door.