Chapter 9

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This was one of my favorite chapters to write so far, so I hope you enjoy reading it. (:

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The Edgewood Motor Court was the only decent motel Rosewood had. That was saying something. When Toby got to his room, he immediately noticed his room was out of clean towels. He tried to call the lobby to bring him some, but the room phone didn't work. Toby put on his shoes and walked over to the check in office. A short, bald guy who was mining the desk was talking to a woman when Toby walked in.

"I'm sorry, miss, but I'm afraid we don't have any more rooms available."

"Great," the woman rolled her eyes. She buried her face into her hand, "I can't go back to that place and stay for the next two days. I just can't do it."

Toby's head turned around as soon as he heard her voice.

"Spencer?"

Spencer turned around, her eyes spread open with embarrassment, "Toby. I—I hi."

"Hi," He stepped up. "What are you doing here? I thought you were staying at your parents' house."

"Well, that plan fell through the cracks," she said, forcing a laugh. "Looks like I'm all out of luck here as well."

The man behind the counter stuck his head up, "we have no more rooms available."

"It's fine, it's fine," Spencer waved the man off. She pulled out her phone and shook her head. "I should've known better. I should have planned for a room ahead of time. Maybe I can still call a friend or something."

"Or, you can stay with me," Toby said the words before thinking about it.

Spencer looked at him. She shook her head, "oh, no. You don't have to do that."

"I insist," said Toby. "Look, it's only one bed, but I can sleep on the floor, or I can go next door and sleep with Caleb. I heard he likes to cuddle."

Spencer laughed, for real this time, but she shook her head, "are you serious?"

"About rooming with Caleb, sure," said Toby. Spencer smiled. "Look, it was my fault for not making sure you'd have a place to stay during this trip."

"Well, how could you possible have known that I'd have such a complicated relationship with my parents?"

Toby shrugged, "because I can relate to that."

"Okay," Spencer gave in. "Are you sure it's, okay?"

Toby nodded, "yes."

"Thank you."

Spencer shouldered her little to-go bag and followed Toby back to his room. Why did the thought of sharing a motel room with him cause her tummy to do flips? Nothing weird is going to happen. He is her boss. They were professionals. This is a completely casual thing.

The motel room was small, but clean. The walls were yellow with ugly brown carpet and floral bed sheets and blankets on the bed. Black framed paintings of flowers in vases hung on the wall above the bed. A wooden curtain was the door to the bathroom.

Spencer looked around the room. "Maybe we should do a makeover of this place instead."

Toby snorted. "I've seen worse."

"You don't have to room with Caleb," said Spencer. "I'm fine with you being in here. I'm intruding on your space, so you shouldn't have to leave."

"Thank you," said Toby, smiling. "He's snores.

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