Chapter Four

*RING* “Hello Marco” Spencer said when she recognized her best friend and roomie on the caller ID.

“Spencer…wow she’s a hottie!” Marco whispered back to Spencer.

“What? I can barely hear you Marco! Why are you whispering?” Spencer saw Ashley’s eyebrow rise a bit in curiosity.

“Turn around and look towards the fountain.” Spencer turned her head and spotted her roommate wearing a big camoflauge coat, dark sunglasses, and a large camoflauge sombrero hiding behind the fountain. “Can you see me?”

“Marco what are you doing? You look completely ridiculous. Get your butt over here.” Spencer hung up her phone before Marco could reply.

“What was that about?” Ashley asked after Spencer put her phone away.

“Oh it’s my roommate Marco. He’s an art professor here and for some reason he was trying out his detective skills. I swear that man has a screw loose.” Spencer laughed as she saw her roommate approach still wearing his outfit.

“Ladies! What a wonderful day!” Marco turned to Ashley and extended his hand. “Marco Gutierrez. Pleased to meet you.”

“Ashley Davies. What is with the outfit?”

“Oh well. I was working on this new project…I want to title it ‘Love is in Bloom’. But in order to get this project finished I needed to just take in my subjects from afar to fully understand and build upon their interactions with one another.” Spencer looked at Marco with a hard stare wondering what he was talking about. She suddenly realized that she and Ashley were his subjects.

“Excuse me Marco. Can I speak to you for a moment…alone? I’m sorry Ashley we will be right back.”

“Excuse us. You know you really are very pretty like Spen…” Spencer grabbed Marco and dragged him away around the corner before he could finish his sentence.

“Whoa there Xena Warrior Princess! What is up with you? I was just trying to help you out a bit.” Marco whined to the blonde.

“Help me? With what Marco? You show up in this ridiculous outfit and spy on me with Ashley. I told you that I wasn’t looking for another relationship. I just want to see how things develop with Ashley and so far they have been going really well…” Spencer smiled.