Fix My Fall

by Carey Heywood

  Sam’s gaze lands on the album behind us. “Were you showing Spencer the before and after pics?”

  Abby nods, retrieving the album. “I was about to—”

  Connie cuts her off. “But they started kissing instead.”

  Sam and Brent chuckle at that.

  “Go say hi to everyone else and by the time you come back I’ll be done with it if you want to show it to Brent.”

  The room empties and we reclaim our spots on the loveseat. As much as I’d like to kiss her again, I figure looking at pictures will be safer at the moment.

  That doesn’t stop me from wrapping my arm around her shoulder. She settles the seam of the album where our thighs meet, and flips it open.

  The first picture is so surprising, I blink at it.

  Abby’s finger trails down its edge. “I know right. When I first saw this place, I thought it should be condemned.”

  The transformation is incredible. “And they did all the work themselves?”

  “Gideon and I helped out some but for the most part it was all them.”

  “It’s impressive. Seeing this house today I’d never imagine it ever looked like this.”

  “They fell in love fixing this place up together, but Noah says for him it was before that.”

  “When you know, you know.”

  We both glance up to see Noah leaning against the entryway of the office.

  I motion to the album. “The work you both did is fantastic.”

  “Thanks.” He looks over his shoulder. “Finley sent me to see if either of you would like a drink. I think she really wanted me to spy on you.”

  “Did not,” Finley yells from the den.

  Abby presses her forehead to my shoulder. “Were we this bad when you and Finley started dating?”

  Noah laughs. “Did you forget about Eli?”

  “I’m pretty sure he implied Spencer would end up in a shallow grave if he hurt me.”

  Noah smirks. “I heard that earlier.”

  Abby frowns. “How long will everyone be weird like this?”

  He shrugs. “Give us a break. Today is the first time you’ve had to deal with anything.”

  I lift my hand. “I get it and I don’t mind.”

  Noah’s face breaks into a smile. “See he doesn’t mind. Now, can I get either of you a drink?”

  Abby doesn’t miss a beat. “Wine please.”

  13

  Abby

  I squint when the sun begins to peek out from behind a cloud. “Are you sure?”

  “I’m positive. I’d love to show you where I work.”

  We were supposed to meet for coffee like usual but he surprised me by inviting me to come visit him at the university first. “Okay, should I go to the science building?”

  “Yes, I’ll wait for you out front.”

  We hang up and I drive onto campus. Since I was already planning on going to the coffee shop, I’m close.

  As promised, he’s standing out front when I drive past to turn into the parking lot. He doesn’t miss my car and waves as I go by. After I park, I flip my visor and check my makeup.

  Geez, why am I so nervous?

  Flipping my hair, I open my car door. One step in front of the other, I make my way across the parking lot. A group of girls giggle and point at my man’s back, and I can’t say that I blame them.

  Spencer moves closer to the curb as I cross the street. As soon as I reach him, he greets me with a hard and fast kiss.

  Our kiss doesn’t go unnoticed and we’re met with catcalls. “Go Professor Hill.”

  He grins at me. “You look beautiful.”

  I can’t help but smile back up at him. “Thanks Professor Hill.”

  He presses a hand to his heart. “That was hot.”

  I can’t help it, I start laughing. I’ll have to remember that.

  He takes my hand and leads me toward the building. “I have to warn you, it’s not glamorous.”

  “Do you have a giant computer?”

  The corners of his eyes crinkle with his smile. “Huge.”

  “Oh, this conversation is starting to feel like foreplay.”

  He chokes, covering his mouth with the back of his hand as he coughs. “Science talk as foreplay. You might be my dream girl.”

  While I beam up at him, feeling silly for being nervous, he pulls out an ID card to allow us into one of the hallways off the main one.

  “Did you ever have any classes in this building?”

  I shake my head. “Any science classes I had were in the Wilson building.”

  He nods. “They have better bathrooms.”

  I scrunch my nose. “How are they different?”

  He shrugs. “I’ve taught in both. The bathrooms in Wilson have more stalls. If you weren’t one of the first ones in there after class, the wait sucked.”

  “Makes sense. I don’t remember issues with waiting.”

  He stops in front of a door. “Lucky.”

  “Hi Abby,” Duncan greets loudly as Spencer opens the door.

  The room is larger than I imagined since I knew it was the shared space for just Spencer and Duncan.

  The biggest computer screen I’ve ever seen almost entirely covers the far wall. Stairs like those in a movie theater led down to it. There are two large desks each with three computer monitors at the top of the stairs.

  Halfway down the stairs on either side are two more desks. These with only two monitors on them.

  I laugh at his enthusiastic greeting. “Hi Duncan.”

  He waves me over. “Come look at my desk.”

  “Are you going to let me show her my desk first?” Spencer asks.

  Duncan pretends to think about it before saying, “Nope.”

  I’m almost to Duncan’s desk when Spencer asks, “What did you do?”

  Duncan starts laughing. “I decorated for you.”

  Turning on my heels, I backtrack to Spencer’s desk. Before, when I glanced at it, it was only that, a glance. Now, taking a longer look I see what made Spencer react the way he did.

  Covering the low walls of his large cube are pictures of me, lots of pictures of me, all from my real estate marketing.

  “Oh geez.”

  Spencer starts pulling down the pictures. “I swear I didn’t do this.”

  I help him. “I know but you could leave one up if you wanted.”

  His fingers hover over the picture hung between two of his monitors. I smile inside when he leaves that one there and moves on to the next.

  Duncan pouts by his desk. “You’re ruining all my hard work.”

  Spencer straightens and points at him, clump of papers still in his hands. “You better not have used the color printer here.”

  Duncan lifts both of his hands, showing us his palms. “I know how picky they are about using up the color ink. I had them made at Kinkos.”

  Spencer shakes his head. “You paid for all of these?”

  Duncan nods proudly. It would be creepy if he wasn’t so goofy.

  “I still have a bunch.”

  “Not cool man. Give them to me.”

  Duncan frowns. “I took them home.”

  Wait, what?

  Spencer presses his fingers to his temple. “Why do you have pictures of Abby at your house?”

  Duncan’s frown morphs into a smile. “So I can decorate more of your stuff.”

  Okay, less creepy than wallpapering his house with pictures of me but still weird.

  Spencer drops his hand. “Bring all the extra pictures you have tomorrow and give them to me.”

  “I changed the screensaver on your computer too.”

  Spencer’s eyes widen. “You need my password to do that.”

  Duncan’s brows come together. “I thought you made it so easy on purpose because you wanted me to know it. I mean it’s—”

  “Don’t,” Spencer shouts.

  Duncan presses his lips together.

  I wonder what his password is.

  Spencer cringes and
meets my gaze. “So this is where I work.”

  I bite back a laugh. “It’s great.”

  “Want to see my desk now?” Duncan asks.

  “I have to be honest, I’m kinda scared to.”

  He laughs. “It’s normal I promise.”

  For some reason, I’m not sure if I believe him.

  My eyes lock with Spencer’s. “Do you think it’s safe?”

  One side of his mouth tips up and he nods. I move over to Duncan’s desk and am relieved to see it is fairly normal. He does have a surprising amount of Funko Pops.

  “I like your Pops.”

  “You should dump that one and date me instead.”

  I tilt my head to the side. “I thought you were married.”

  Spencer moves behind me and wraps his arms around me. “He is. Want to see my desk?”

  Turning in his arms, I smile up at him. “I pretty much saw it when I helped you take down all the pictures.”

  “Alright, want to see a supernova?”

  My brows go up as my mouth falls open. “Did you find one?”

  He shakes his head. “It’s an old one but it’s still pretty cool looking.”

  “Lead the way.”

  We walk back over to his desk and he pulls out his chair for me.

  I smooth out the wrinkles on my skirt. “Thanks.”

  He leans over me, his arms on either side so his hands can reach his keyboard. After typing in a few commands, the image on the large screen changes from a static Wood Lake University emblem, to what looks like a giant pink, purple, and blue iridescent bubble in space.

  Air escapes my chest in one whoosh of an exhale. “It’s beautiful.”

  “I agree.” He’s close enough that I feel the warmth of his words against my cheek.

  There’s a squeak as the door opens behind us. Spencer straightens and I turn my head to look and watch a gorgeous woman walking toward us.

  Her eyes aren’t on us, but on the file in her hand. “I only have five minutes before I have to—”

  She stops what she was saying the moment she sees me, and asks, “Are we having a tour?”

  Duncan motions to me. “Dr. Hudson, this is Abby. She’s Spencer’s quark.”

  Twisting my neck to look at him I ask, “quark?

  He taps his chin. “Yep, you’re inseparable, which makes you his quark because quarks are never found in isolation. There are always at least two, a charm and a strange. You are the charm, for obvious reasons so I guess that makes him the strange.”

  Speaking of strange, I’ll have to ask Spencer to translate later because I have no idea what any of that meant.

  Dr. Hudson clears her throat.

  When I look back at her, she’s pressing her files to her chest, her back stiff. “His girlfriend?”

  Turning the chair, I stand and offer her my hand. “Hi. I’m Abby Thompson.”

  Her shake is limp. “I’m Dr. Hudson.”

  When she pulls her hand back, she wipes her palm on the thigh of her pants and shifts her gaze to Spencer. “I didn’t know you had a girlfriend.”

  I’m not sure if he saw her wipe her palm or not but I can’t help but relax when he reaches for my hand.

  “Abby and I have known each other since high school. We reconnected when I moved back and have only recently started dating.”

  Her gaze drops to my cute heels and slowly moves up until it settles on my face. “What do you do for a living?”

  My brows come together but I answer her question anyway. “I’m a realtor.”

  Her posture relaxes as she smirks. “A realtor. How is the housing market these days?”

  Is this an interrogation?

  “It’s warming as Spring approaches.”

  “Do you have a degree?”

  Spencer squeezes my hand and before I can answer her, he does. “She has a Bachelor’s.”

  She seemed taken aback by him answering, and gulps. “Where’d you go to school?”

  I let go of Spencer’s hand and fold my arms across my chest. “I went here.”

  That briefly shuts her up.

  Spencer settles his arm around my shoulders. “I wanted to show her where I worked.”

  She finds her voice again. “What was your degree in?”

  “Communications,” I reply.

  Her earlier smirk returns. “You must feel out of place here in the science building.”

  I blink at her. “Why on earth would I feel out of place?”

  “The science requirements for a communications degree are minimal.”

  What a bitch.

  I cover Spencer’s hand with one of mine. “I guess I’m lucky a science degree isn’t a prerequisite to Spencer, aren’t I?”

  Her smile in response to my words looks forced. “Yes.”

  “Was there something you needed Dr. Hudson?”

  I’ve never, not once, ever heard Spencer go so glacial before.

  “We’ve been invited to speak at a conference. What does your calendar look like for May?”

  His thumb moves up and down my arm, possibly to reassure me. “Could you email me the dates? I’ll let you know.”

  She doesn’t say anything.

  “Was there anything else I can help you with?”

  Her eyes move over me once more before she swallows and takes a step back. “That was all.”

  The room is silent as we all watch her leave. The moment the door closes the oppressive sensation that began when she opened her mouth, lifts.

  Turning my wrist, I look down at my watch. “Wow. It’s later than I thought. I have to go.”

  “I thought we were having dinner together tonight.”

  I shake my head and speed toward the door, lifting my hand to give a distracted wave to Duncan. “Bye Duncan.”

  “Goodbye Dearest Abby.”

  Spencer’s footsteps echo as he follows me. “Can I at least walk you out?”

  I don’t want to look at him. I’m still beyond mortified from the exchange with his colleague earlier. I’ve never felt more stupid in my life. I wouldn’t be surprised if she wasn’t looking up my GPA from my years here right now.

  There’s no way I’m ever coming back here. She’ll most likely be lying in wait somewhere ready to pop out and test my IQ.

  The cool metal of the doorknob is a balm against my heated skin. “You need to finish up your work.”

  “Abby—”

  “I meant to tell you earlier that I had to meet Sam. Text me once you’re done here and maybe we can meet up later.”

  The echo of his footsteps stops. “Maybe we can meet up later?”

  The uncertain pang of hurt in his voice tugs at my heart. What he can’t understand is I need to get away from this place right now. I need to be someplace comforting. “I’ll text you.”

  The sound of his footsteps begins again. No matter how fast I walk, his long legs eat up the distance between us before he reaches for my hand. I don’t fight his hold, especially since he makes no move to stop me, instead only moves with me.

  “I’m sorry she was so rude. I have no idea what that was about.”

  For a genius, he’s pretty dense.

  “Why is she Doctor Hudson and you’re Professor Hill?”

  He blinks. “Well, she could technically go by Professor but since she doesn’t teach, she prefers to go by Dr.”

  “Isn’t Professor cooler though?”

  He gives me a cautious smile. “Cooler?”

  I roll my eyes. “Aren’t all Professors already doctors?”

  He nods. “They are.”

  Interesting.

  “She shouldn’t have said what she did.”

  I pull in a breath, still pissed, but not pissed at him. “Don’t worry about it.”

  “But you seem upset.”

  It would be impossible to miss that.

  “You don’t have to walk me to my car.”

  His hand squeezes mine. “I know that. Besides, since Duncan already knows my password it’s n
ot like I have to run back and lock my computer screen.”

  I can’t help it, I laugh at that, some of the tension leaving my body. “You might want to change it.”

  We reach the door leading out onto the main hall. There are students coming and going. Shuffled into the sea of them moving out of the building, our conversation stalls.

  Once we’re outside, he restarts it. “I’d still like to see you tonight.”

  I can’t tell him it’s not only the building I was fleeing, but him. “I’ll text you.”

  Earlier, when I arrived, he waited by the curb for me. Now he walks beside me all the way to my car.

  Reaching into my purse, I search for my keys. The moment I find them, I press the familiar groove of my key fob to unlock my doors.

  It’s Spencer’s hand and not mine that grips the door handle. “I’m sorry.”

  An impulse I cannot ignore pulls my gaze up to meet his. “You didn’t do anything wrong.”

  “You were happy and now you’re upset. It happened on my watch so no matter what, I’m responsible.”

  Opening my mouth to argue my point further, I’m surprised to find his lips on mine before I have a chance to utter a syllable. With our mouths already open, he wastes no time in deepening our kiss. I’m conflicted in ways I never anticipated. Sure, my emotions are already running high, but the intensity of this kiss makes my eyes wet with tears I have to blink away. It’s over all too soon, and even worse it’s my fault.

  “I have to go.”

  His hand hesitates on my door and I briefly wonder if he’ll fight me on this. After a beat, he pulls open my door for me. He doesn’t close it once I’m inside. No, he stands in the doorway to prevent me from closing it.

  “Spencer.”

  He tucks my hair behind my ear, a gesture I’m quickly becoming addicted to. “Please drive carefully.”

  A comment like that could have the potential of coming off as bossy or fatherly. Somehow it doesn’t. There is nothing but concern in his tone and in the gentle way he looks at me.

  “I’ll be careful,” I promise.

  My drive home is a blur and I sag with relief when I see Sam’s car in the lot.

  I’m out of my car and through our door in a flash. “Sam?”

  She wanders out of her bedroom, a mud mask on her face. “Avvy?”