Spencer suddenly looked up, catching my eye in an intense gaze that answered my question for me.  “About the proposal, I mean… not about us.”

“Us?” I asked, my heart beating erratically.

“Well, our history,” she clarified, keeping eye contact with me for a second before breaking it.  “Jesus!  What are we gonna do?”

“Suck it up and think of another one… an even better one?” I suggested.

“Gee, thanks,” she said sarcastically, supporting her head with a single hand on her forehead.

“Spence, you know I loved your idea,” I said honestly, “but now we have to get over it and start a new one or we have no chance!”

“Why don’t we sue?” she suddenly cried.  “Take fucking H&W to the cleaners.”

I was taken aback – Spencer hardly ever swore, so it was certainly a serious matter to her, not that that was surprising.

“We can’t,” I frowned.

“Why the fuck not?” she questioned, almost scaring me… almost.

“It’s just… DJC’s had some… problems, recently,” I rolled my eyes –  PNG wasn’t so much a ‘problem’, rather a death wish, for DJC,  “and taking this to court could lead to an investigation that may unearth some shit that could potentially ruin our reputation.”

“What problems?” Spencer asked.  “I’m not risking my career by working at DJC if they’ve been involved in some dodgy stuff.”

“It’s fine now, really,” I insisted, “we’re just watching our back for a while… keeping on the straight and narrow.  It’s just not worth challenging H&W over this.  No one else knows about the whole Carrie business, and I think it’s best they never do.”  Especially Aiden.

“Okay, I understand,” Spencer sighed, picking up her Espresso, that was no doubt on the cool side by now.  “Man, when did things get so complicated?”

“Right about the time you showed up,” I joked, deep down knowing it the truth.  Right about the time you showed up in my life five years ago, more like.

“Seems so,” she laughed, meeting my eyes again and making my skin tingle all over.  My pulse quickened and my fingertips burned with the need to touch her somehow.  I placed my hands under my thighs in a bid to stop them wandering anywhere near her.  I needn’t have worried, though, as Spencer crossed the distance between us herself, only to place her hand lightly on my knee.  “It’s been good to have you back in my life, though, Ash.”

“I never thought I’d be agreeing with you on that,” I winked.

We sat in silence for a moment, just watching each other, still in time as life moved on around us at normal speed.

“Actually,” I began, clearing my throat, “I wanted to ask you something.”

“What?” she asked, noticeable in how quickly she’d responded.  I smiled.

“Well, I wondered if…” I paused, suddenly feeling shy, which took me off guard because I never felt shy… Spencer was the only person who’d ever made me feel shy, ever, and she did it without even realising.  “I wondered if you’d… celebrate my birthday with me in a couple of weeks?”

“The 24th of March, right?” she asked.  I was amazed she’d remembered.

“Yeah, a Saturday,” I said pointlessly.

“I’d love to,” she beamed.

“Excellent,” I smiled, trying not to jump out of my seat and up onto the coffee table that lay before us to perform a happy dance.  She smiled back, her cheeks reddening a little.

Score!!!!