Past and Present

Chapter 8

The next morning I woke up with Reid's arms hugged around my torso and his head buried in the crook of my neck. During the night we had both been lying awake for awhile and eventually turned to face each other, snuggling up without even saying anything.

It was weird, this thing that Reid and I had, after such a short period of time. I mean in all honesty, we barely knew each other. But there was something about him, I don't know if it was his cute mannerisms, his passion, or the fact that we may be the same person, but lying there next to him just made sense.

However, I couldn't stop thinking about Noah. He had come to my apartment in the middle of the night, expecting me to be there at his beck and call, ready to talk through all of our problems. And problems we had. Throughout our relationship, Noah had always been super stubborn and while I could be that way too, he took it to extremes. Whether it was jealousy or even getting upset when something didn't go his way, he was always complaining about something. He even tried to convince me that I shouldn't become a profiler because of how long I'd be away from him, which was really the reason we ended things. Despite all of that though, he was my only real previous relationship. Like I mentioned earlier, I don't know if I loved him, but I think I might have. The real question was, was I ever really in love with him? Sometimes I imagined a happy future with him, kids and all, yet sometimes I felt like we had no future whatsoever. But again, despite all of that, we did have a lot of positives in our relationship. He, like Reid, was super book smart and while he was no genius, he was someone I could always have conversations with without getting bored, which I valued a lot. Noah was a doctor, usually lecturing around the U.S. on weekends, (which had also become an issue in our relationship). He got along with my family extremely well though, always buying gifts for mom and grandma whenever he came to visit with me. I don't have any siblings so there was nothing really there for him to play along with, but my mother and grandmother really did love him. He was sweet and polite and that's honestly all your family ever wants.

But that was the past. I didn't want what me and Noah used to have, mess up something new and better for me. But was it better? Ugh, I hated this so much.

Although my head was racing with thoughts, I nudged Reid, causing him to open his eyes slowly in response.

"Good morning," he said with a quiet, sleepy voice.

"Good morning," I smiled, god I wanted to kiss him again.

But I couldn't yet, I needed to figure things out with Noah.

He smiled back at me, staring into my eyes. Before he got the chance to make a move and blurted out,

"I'm making pancakes!!"

He laughed and I jumped out of bed with way too much energy. I quickly grabbed one of my favorite kimonos from my closet and put it over my baggy t-shirt and sweats, really pulling my morning outfit together.

"You wear kimonos?" he asked, suddenly super excited.

"Yes, I love them!" I  responded walking out of the door. He followed.

"Me as well, I have five at my apartment, I always wear them when I wake up."

"Doctor Reid, we are way too similar," I said smiling as I took out a pan and began looking for ingredients.

"You're making them homemade?" Reid asked, making himself at home by starting up a pot of coffee.

"Spence, is there any other way?" I said with a laugh.

"I wouldn't know. I am not the world's best cook. You know it's funny, with an eididic memory, people expect me to be great at everything, but truthfully, I am quite the spaz in the kitchen," he said with a silly expression on his face, chuckling.