supermarket flowers ⇢ s. reid

xxxi.

It was October. Melanie's favorite month during her favorite season - fall. There was nothing she loved more than the changing colors of the leaves and the crisp autumn air. And of course there was Halloween. Who could ever dislike the feeling of dressing up? But there was something new she was ready to celebrate on this glorious month: Spencer's birthday.

Although she knew that Spencer hated birthday parties or anything related to his birthday, she wanted to make it a special day for him. It was gonna be their first time celebrating his birthday together and she wanted to at least do something for him.

The two people she could ask on how to make Spencer have the best party ever were JJ and Penelope. JJ just because she's his best friend and Penelope because she's good at planning (but also terrible at secrets). Melanie invited the two girls over at her apartment to begin the planning. There was only a couple of days to plan the celebration considering the team had been swamped with cases.

"You don't think he'll get mad at me for doing this for him right? I know how particular he is about his birthday and how he feels about celebrating it." Melanie sighed as she tapped her pen against the pad of paper she had in front of her.

The two girls laughed softly at their friend.

"Mon amie, Spencer is in love with you! He'd appreciate this more than the birthday parties we've either thrown him or try to throw him." Penelope assured her friend.

Melanie chuckled softly. She thought about the time Spencer told her how the team got him a cake and placed trick candles on it, meaning the candles always stayed lit no matter how hard you tried to blow them out. Ever since that day, he became wary about his birthdays coming up. He of course appreciated the team for trying to throw him parties but he always felt awkward about being the center of attention.

"Ooh Mells Bells! Can this also be a house warming party? You never did get to have one due to Spencer being in prison." Penelope added.

That hit Melanie a bit. It was still a sore subject for her. She wanted to forget that her boyfriend was ever locked away. He was obviously innocent and cleared of any wrong doing but it was just the lies that ended up with him in there and the argument the two had after he had gotten out.

Trying to push her feelings aside, Melanie nodded at Penelope's suggestion.

"Yeah! Maybe he won't suspect anything if I told him it was a house warming party. Or hell, maybe I won't tell him at all. Spencer's smart. He'd think something was suspect if I said there was a house warming party on his birthday." Melanie said.

"Let's get this planning then! We only got a couple of weeks and with cases just piling up, it's gonna be impossible to try and continue with planning." JJ told her friends.

With glasses of wine out, take out, and ideas sprawled on a pad of paper, the girls began planning what they wanted to do for Spencer's party as well as the house warming party. It dawned on Melanie that Spencer didn't have much, or even any, friends outside his work but who could blame him? Most of the time he was out of state on cases or worked late nights. The communication was always up and down. On days off he just liked being at home reading a good book. He was never the type to go out unless it was with his team - which was sometimes rare the team did go out and have drinks since they always were exhausted from their jobs.

Maintaining really good relationships with people in your lives was always hard in this line of work, especially relationships that include having a significant other. One has to find someone who is patient and willing to be patient. Melanie already knew what this was like before Spencer came into the picture. She was always upset when communication with Luke wasn't as consistent as it used to be when he joined the military. After he left and joined the Fugitive Task Force, she thought things would've changed but it stayed the same. She eventually got over it after realizing that her job should be her main focus. She was blessed to have started out a friendship with Spencer first before pursuing a relationship with him. She had gotten used to him being away and not talking to him for days on end, even it sometimes now she wished the FBI was more flexible with work hours.