Always Us

snack break

Walking towards the office side of GAU's stadium, Olivia typed furiously. She had ten minutes to see Spencer, and she didn't want to waste a single second of it on work stuff. Even if it meant that she had to strain her thumbs trying to break the record for most words per minute on an iPhone.

"Hey, pretty lady. Lemme holla at you."

"I have a boyfriend," she mumbled, her eyes darting back and forth across the screen as she reread her last paragraph.

"Damn, it's like that."

Stopping short, she turned on her heels as the voice finally registered. "I'm sorry," she blushed, "I was typing this email, and I guess I was just in the zone."

Spencer stared her down from his spot against the concrete barricade, his arms crossed against his chest and nothing but amusement written on his face. "It's all good. At least I know I'm not about to lose you to one of my teammates."

"Really?" She stopped walking and raised her eyebrows.

"I'm messing with you," he grinned. "Why would you go to one of them, when you have all of this."

She shook her head, dropping the subject. "How's afternoon practice?"

"Don't you have to finish that?" He nodded at her pocket, not overlooking the fact that she had been frantically typing away before his interruption.

"No, it's okay. We only have ten minutes today," she assured him, reaching her arms out for a hug.

"Nope," he pulled away, holding his hands up in surrender. "Finish the email, then we talk."

"Spencer, it's - "

"Is it important?" He clasped his hands in front of him, cocking his head at her.

"No.... yes," she sighed. "My boss actually asked for my input on an article this week. My input," her face lit up as she recalled the confidence booster from earlier. "I mean it's only been two weeks, but I think she's starting to trust me."

"That's good," he smiled. "You went from copy room extraordinaire to valued opinion giver in two weeks, Liv. You're making moves."

Ignoring the sarcasm in his voice, she refocused on their short time together. "You're not funny. Anyways, I need to send it over by 3:15, but it's 3:01 now, and you have to go back in at 3:10, so I'll have five minutes left to hit send."

"Finish," he stated firmly, recrossing his arms in front of him. A stare down ensued until Olivia realized that they were only wasting time and finally relented. Not letting him have the win, she rolled her eyes dramatically.

"Thank you," she smiled shyly, pulling her phone out to make the final edits to her email.

"I still get to enjoy the view," he smirked.

While she stood in front of him, Spencer's eyes didn't fall from her face, and his subtle grin didn't fall from his. He could spend their whole ten minutes together staring at her, and that would've been enough to get him through the evening of meetings and drills.

"There, done," she announced, shoving her phone away once and for all.

"And only two minute lost."

"Two minutes, I could have had with you," she pouted, "now, can I have my hug?"

"Get over here, girl," Spencer chuckled, tugging her forward by her belt loop.

"I missed you," she mumbled into his neck, feeling her body relax for the first time that day. After getting called into an impromptu meeting at the office that morning, she had to text Spencer and cancel on their morning snack break at the student center. It hit extra hard considering that the day before, Spencer had been the one to bail when his practice ran through the break, and she was left waiting outside of the dining hall.

"I missed you, too," he breathed, wrapping his arms a little tighter around her waist. "Just a few more days and then classes start."

"I don't know if I'm going to make it," she pressed her cheek against his shoulder. She didn't have the strength to leave his arms to talk to him properly.

"Hey, hey," he murmured while his hands rubbed her back. "We figured out that your journalism seminar is only a building away from my intro to poetry class, so we can walk over together. That's ten extra minutes on Tuesdays and Thursdays."

"Tell me why you're taking that again," she finally pulled away, scrunching her face at him.

"So I can write you sonnets and read them to you on FaceTime as you fall asleep."

"Okay, Romeo," she laughed, her mood significantly lightened after being in his embrace.

"Plus, I might need to consider a career change seeing how practices are going," he bit the inside of his cheek, remembering that even though his girlfriend had taken a step up at work, his position on the team remained the same.

"Don't start with that," she scolded, slowly stroking her thumb against the back of his hand. "You're Spencer James."

"That doesn't mean much here, baby," he leaned back, letting his shoulders slump as the dejection seeped into his voice.

"Maybe not yet, but one day, you'll come back here, and they'll be retiring your number." She looked at him, the conviction strong in her eyes.

"Okay, slow down there. We'll see," he chuckled. "They got to let me play first."

"We all have to start somewhere," she slowly pulled their interlaced hands around her back, sensing that their time together was coming to an end. "You're not behind, Spencer. You're right where you need to be. They'll see how incredible you are soon enough."

"Maybe you should apply for a job on the coaching staff," he teased, untangling their hands and wrapping his arms around her shoulders.

"I already tried," she dug her face back into his neck. "They said I was under qualified."

He hummed into her curls, savoring their final moments together.

"You don't have to call tonight if you're too tired," she offered him a pass on their nightly FaceTime.

"I'll call you, Liv," he stared her in the eye when she eventually pulled away.

"Okay," she smiled. She knew he'd turn down her offer, but she wanted to give it a shot anyways. The semester hadn't even officially started yet, but she knew his new 4am wake up time had to be taking a toll already.

"I'm proud of you," she took his face into her hands and pulled him in for her one kiss of the day. "Tomorrow morning by our tree," she reluctantly stepped back, holding her hand up as the sun started to shifting into her line of sight.

"Tomorrow morning by our tree," Spencer confirmed, referencing their well memorized schedule of meeting places.

"This is going to pay off one day," she called out one last bit of encouragement once they had some distance between them. "You'll see."

"Yeah, yeah," he called back, not breaking eye contact as she continued to her slow retreat.

"You got one minute, James," she yelled, now several yards away.

"Oh shit," he scrambled to check his phone before running back to the athletic department's offices, hearing the faint sounds of her laughter as he ran into Coach Boone walking in at the same time.

"What's up coach?" He slowed down, trying to catch his breath.

"I would normally say be careful with letting women take your focus away from the game," his coach chuckled, "but looks like that one's the one keeping you in line."

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Tell me why I was panicking thinking they were going to end the episode with Asher and Jamie, and then I screamed when they showed Spencer sitting on the staircase 🥺 This is mildly unhealthy, but these episodes have also brought on the one shot ~inspiration~ lmao

Also, am I the only one that thinks Spencer sounds congested all the time in 4b????