Seconds passed, ten or, maybe, fifteen, before Spencer responded, the quality of her voice, yet again, strangely distant, “Maybe.”

“So, you’re interested…” Kevin tried, watching Ashley absent mindedly pluck at the guitar he kept in his office.

“No…” Ashley said slowly, “I just find her interesting”

“So, I’ll see you next week, Spencer?” Martha asked, getting up to shake her hand. She had decided it was time to leave.

“You always do,” Spencer replied coolly, slinging her purse over her shoulder.

Suddenly, Spencer was very close to Martha’s face, her right hand gently, almost tortuously inching up the hem of the older woman’s oxford, “I’ll assume,” Spencer began wickedly, the fingers of her left hand crawling a trail down the woman’s right arm and towards the file she cradled there, “You’ll be keeping this between the two of us?” She asked, nuzzling her head caressingly into the crook of Martha’s neck.

“We wouldn’t want mother to find about last week, would we?” Spencer finished, reveling in the quickened pulse she felt there.

“Of course not,” Martha muttered, out of breath and tripping over her words.

“Spectacular,” Spencer replied simply, walking past the woman and out the door, sarcastically exclaiming, “That was excellent. We should do this again, Martha!”

The therapist could only stand there stationary, knees weak, holding onto the wall to keep from crumbling to the floor.

Spencer and Kate were out at Gregory’s, partaking in their Sunday tradition of Ice Cream Sundaes—Ice cream was their religion and they were quite devout.

“So, she left this morning?” Spencer asked, faking indifference as she removed the cherry from the top of her Sundae, placing it on the napkin to her side.

The cherry was her favorite part and she always saved it for last.

“MmHmm,” Kate concurred, concentrating on swirling her ice cream into a thick, more easily digestable, soup.

Spencer looked on disgusted, “Kate, I love you. But that’s gross.”

“So, is your sexual appetite, but I still hang out it with you,” the other girl parried, “What happened with you two last night, anyways? You both seemed pretty upset when I got back to the car.”

“Nothing,” Spencer said coolly, “She’s a whore.”

Kate choked on her ice cream, bringing her napkin to her face as she struggled to control her laughter.

“What’s wrong?” Spencer asked, instantly concerned her best friend was choking.

“I’m fine, I’m fine!” Kate said, shooing Spencer, who had gotten up to give her some fucked up version of the Heimlich Maneuver away, “It’s just,” Kate laughed, “You can call her a lot of things, but definitely not a whore.”

“And why’s that?” Spencer asked, swirling her cherry around in the remnants of her dessert.

“Because she’s a virgin.” Kate said simply, very much interested in Spencer’s reaction.

“Really?” Spencer asked slowly, popping the cherry in her mouth before slowly sucking it off its stem, “That is interesting.” And she meant it. She was very, very, interested.

“So, what are you going to do?” Kevin asked as he stood up, watching Ashley get ready to leave.

Ashley considered his question before slyly replying, “I don’t think a few more days in Weston would hurt.”

AS ALWAYS, please, leave comments. also, did the formatting of this chapter make sense? i tried to make what was going on (in terms of the two talking to their therapists at the same time) as clear as possible, but i don’t know if i really succeeded–let me knooow. and a huge thanks for all the great and encouraging feedback. you guys are fucking awesome