Normal People - Strange Encounters Book Two

Chapter 25

"Will you just let me-"

"I said no! Now stop it, Doc" Amelia scolded Spencer.

He rolled his eyes as he watched her struggled to hold both of their bags while unlocking his apartment door. He knew her leg was still hurting her from the way she walked, but she refused to let him carry more than a coffee cup. As the door swung open she immediately dropped the bags in a heap on the floor before draping herself on the couch. 

"I told you, I could've carried mine" Spencer admonished as he closed the door behind them.

"It's not the bags, it's the three flights of stairs. What a fucking day for the elevator to break" she mumbled as she squeezed her eyes shut. 

"Your leg?" He watched as she nodded silently. "I'll get you some ice, baby."

He went into the kitchen, searching for an ice pack he swore he had in the back of his freezer but settled for a bag of frozen peas. He walked back into the living room as he wrapped them in a towel, and saw Amelia standing near the bookshelf looking around.

"You should be sitting, Lee."

"I didn't think it was possible for you to fit more books on these shelves" she said quietly. It hit Spencer that this was the first time in over three months that she'd been in his apartment. He watched as she studied the small changes, the additions to his bookshelf and the bluetooth speaker he'd bought and put on the coffee table. Where he'd hung the photos she'd given him before she left, right on the wall near his entry way, so he could see them every morning before he left his apartment.

She picked up her bag and walked into his room, and he followed suit. As she set the bag down at the foot of the bed, her eyes were drawn to a new picture frame on his nightstand. She realized it was a photo of her on Gladys' property, not looking at the camera.

"Where.. how'd you get this photo?" She asked, her confusion evident. 

"It, ah, was inserted into our file when uh, Tommy hacked us. Penelope emailed it to me and I, uhm, printed it out. I'd assumed you had included it.." He watched as her jaw clenched when he'd said Tommy's name. They hadn't talking about him, and he didn't want to bring it up yet, but didn't want to lie about the photo either. She stared at it, running her finger gently across the glass. 

"He took this. Said one day, when everything was settled and back to normal, I'd have this to remember him and Maine by.. I didn't realize he had put it in the case files." She looked up at Spencer, tears in her eyes as she spoke. "He always asked me about you. I think he was trying to remind me of.. why I was doing what I was doing. One day, I was getting all these dead ends on Chris, I threw a fit and said I was giving up. He sat me down, made me spicy ramen, and said 'Liza girl, why don't you tell me about the minute you knew you loved that mysterious fella of yours?'"

Spencer settled onto the bed.

"What did you say?" He asked quietly, watching as as she gave him a small, sad smile.

"Remember that night in the hotel, after.. after he'd broken into my apartment?" Spencer nodded. "You let me sleep in your bed even though you hardly knew me. You talked to me about city hall until I fell asleep. You had ran your hand through my hair, and I grabbed it.." She watched as Spencer looked out the window, knowing he remembered the night as vividly as she did. "That's when I knew I loved you. And recalling that night.. it made me realize I had to keep doing what I was doing."

"He sounds like an amazing guy, Lee."

"He was."

Spencer stood up, standing behind her as she looked out the window. He wrapped his arms around her, settling his cheek on the top of her head. He felt her hands lightly grip his forearms as they stood there, looking at the sun setting over DC.