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Tonight was movie and popcorn night. The cheesy rom-com, Lily’s choice, obviously. Her and Zane cuddled on the couch. Harley, who didn’t want to bear witness to all the canoodling, sat in front of the couch on the floor, with her back to all the PDA. Spencer sat in the comfy armchair.
The pizza guy had mentioned that it was getting nasty outside, and this was probably going to be his last delivery for the night. Zane had tipped him nicely.
“You know he probably says that to every delivery just to get a big tip. Thinking we’ll feel bad that his night is over,” Spencer said.
The wind whipped outside the windows. There was a winter storm warning, which was nothing new for early February. She wasn’t worried, she was already home. And Spencer had a SUV that drove through anything.
When the pizza was almost gone, Harley wondered out loud. “That wind sounds awful out there.”
“It’s just a little snow. No biggie,” Spencer said.
“Shhh! It’s almost over, and that’s the best part!” Lily complained.
“Yeah, they finally kiss,” Spencer said with a chuckle. “Oh, sorry? Was that a spoiler?”
“Shh!” Lily hissed, unamused.
Harley couldn’t help but crack a smile at Lily’s annoyance.
Once the movie was over, Harley turned the television off. “That was cute.”
“Yeah. I guess.” Spencer stretched before standing up from the couch. He glanced at his watch. “It’s late. Guess we better be heading home. I’m sure you want to prepare for class tomorrow.”
“It’s still the weekend. And that means no studying. But, Lily might.”
Zane made a face as he turned on his phone. They all had turned their phones off or silent to avoid interrupting the movie marathon.
“Uh-oh.” Zane grimaced, staring at his phone.
“What’s up?” Spencer peered over his cousin’s shoulder.
“Didn’t you see your phone?” Zane whispered in a panic.
“Nah, mine’s dead,” Spencer responded nonchalantly.
“Why are you whispering? We can all hear you,” Harley remarked.
“Um, Lily, we have a little problem,” Zane said.
Lily, who was putting all the dirty dishes in the kitchen, looked around the corner. “Why? What’s wrong?”
Zane showed his phone to Lily. Harley looked at her own phone as the news filled the screen. There was a special weather alert that they had missed. She knew there was a winter weather warning, but that usually only meant some flurries and bitter cold.
“Apparently, the pizza guy wasn’t lying,” Spencer said, reading the alert out loud. “Roadways are iced over, and travel is treacherous. Roadways are restricted to emergency vehicles only until further notice.”
“Wait...so you guys can’t get home?” Lily asked with a sneaky grin.
“Unless we walk?” Spencer responded.
“That’s ridiculous. You guys are staying here,” Lily said firmly. She looped her arms around Zane’s waist and smiled, pulling him into a hug.
Harley turned away from her friend but made a gag face to be silly. From the chuckle Spencer let out, she was sure that he saw.
“Problem with PDA, Har?” Spencer teased.
“I know what you’re doing over there, Harley!” Lily accused humorously.
“Sorry,” Harley said, only half serious. This was one messed up situation before her. The lovebirds were happy they didn’t have to part, but her boyfriend was home probably not even noticing the travel restrictions. He had to work, which was no surprise, even if it was Sunday night.
And she was stuck in her apartment with Spencer. All night. Or until the travel ban was lifted.
Her eyes moved to Spencer’s arms. The muscles evident even under his sweatshirt. It was as if she couldn’t help herself from checking him out, and that was what worried her about this arrangement. There was no reason to make the guys leave before morning at this point. But that didn’t make the situation any more comfortable.
Quickly turning away, she said, maybe too loudly, and obviously uncomfortably, “So what is the sleeping arrangement?”
“Well, Zane and me, of course will share my room.”
“No argument there,” Zane added with a smirk that Harley could’ve lived her whole life without seeing.
“As if we didn’t know that,” Harley said, as every muscle in her body tensed. “I meant us.” She pointed to herself and Spencer. “We only have two bedrooms.”
“I’ll be fine on the couch,” Spencer suggested.
“See, he’s fine on the couch. I think we’re a little old to need to split up girls and boys,” Zane said.
“Now that we’ve got that settled, I think we’re going to turn in.” Without even taking a breath to let anyone else chime in, Lily waved as she and Zane started up the stairs. “G’night. Sleep tight, and don’t let the bedbugs bite!”
“She’s always this cheerful, huh?” Spencer asked.
Quickly, she typed a message to Isaac.
Harley: Hey, hope you’re at home and safe.
She set her phone down and turned to Spencer. Looking up, her stare locked on to his. She couldn’t move. It was as if Spencer’s dark eyes had her under their spell.
Finally clearing her throat and shaking herself free, she looked away and answered him.
“Duh. After staying at the cabin, did you have any doubt?” Harley chuckled nervously.
“Well,” Spencer sat down on the couch, making himself comfortable. “Before that, I’d never seen her late at night or first thing in the morning. I figured the girl couldn’t be that joyful all the time. Maybe the cabin was a one-time thing.”
“You figured wrong,” Harley said. She sat down beside him on the couch.
“You know you’re on my bed, right?” Spencer teased.
“Sorry,” her face burned with embarrassment at his words, and her pulse kicked up a beat, even though she knew he was joking. “Habit.”
“You maybe want to put on another movie?” He looked around the quiet apartment. “I don’t usually go to bed this early.”
“Yeah, sure.” She wasn’t ready for sleep either. Probably because the idea of this guy, that she had an innocent and yet so inappropriate mini-crush on, was spending the night in her apartment. Had Isaac been here, she would have turned in already just like Lily and Zane, but he wasn’t. He hadn’t even called to check on her. She didn’t feel it was malicious, just woefully uniform.
Even if she wanted to go to sleep, she was too amped up.
“What should we watch?” Spencer scrolled through the movies available. He stopped on a few, but together they eliminated them one by one. “Nah, too scary, and this one is too cheesy, I think we’ve had enough romantic comedy for one day. How about a plain old regular comedy? No riding off into the sunset with a kiss at the end.”
“That sounds perfect,” she mumbled as the movie began to play. The rom-com they watched earlier had her feeling especially romantic and she didn’t need that right now.
She always was a sucker for a meet-cute romance. Curling up on the end of the couch, she pulled a blanket to cover her legs from the chill in the room. “I can’t believe the weather got so bad.”
“I know, I guess we need to start paying closer attention to the warnings on the app. At least we have leftover pizza,” he added before cramming a handful of popcorn into his mouth.
His phone beeped in sync with hers.
Looking at her phone as he grabbed his, they both had a message that classes were canceled in the morning.
“I’m not surprised. No one here knows how to drive in this weather.”
“Especially not with the ice. But I’m glad.” He folded his arms behind his head and relaxed. “I wasn’t planning on going to class anyway. But now we don’t need to rush off in the morning. There’s nowhere to go, and no one expecting us.”
His words made her nervous and excited all at once. It was getting late, and glancing at her phone, she still hadn’t heard back from Isaac.
“You expecting a call?” he commented.
“Me?” she asked, realizing he was referring to her checking her phone. “No. I just was checking in on Isaac.”
Spencer nodded. “How’s Mr. Lame?”
“Spence.” She scolded him for the name calling. “I don’t really know. He’s probably in a meeting or something.”
“On Sunday night? This late? Wow. He has surpassed my expectations of being Mr. Lame. Impressive,” Spencer harassed her.
Harley shook off his comments, even though she sort of agreed. They were all here, having fun on a Sunday night, not wanting the dreaded Monday to come, and her boyfriend had been working. She only hoped that would change once they moved in together.
“He works a lot huh?”
She nodded.
“When does he make time for you?” Spencer’s voice was serious now.
“Spence, I don’t really want to talk about Isaac right now, okay. Can we just watch the movie?”
“Sure,” he nodded.
They watched the movie and never uttered Isaac’s name again. Eventually, her eyes grew heavy. No matter how many times she fought them back open she was losing the battle. The movie only had a few more minutes, and as soon as it was over, she was going to bed.
Her eyes fluttered shut. Her eyelids were heavy, and blinking was a challenge. Just one... more... minute...
“Harley?” Lily’s loud whisper pierced through her slumber. Someone, probably Lily, was shaking her. “Did you sleep down here?”
“What? Where? What are you talking about?” Harley said as she shrugged off the sleepiness. Slowly opening one eye, she was in the living room. She must’ve fallen asleep on the couch...wait. Looking to her right, there lay Spencer, carefully scrunched up on the couch. Her eyes flew open. She fell asleep on the couch with Spencer.
Moving her attention to Lily, Harley shrugged and shook off the awkwardness. “I guess. Whatever.” She hurried to her feet. “I’m going to make some coffee. What are you doing awake already?”
Harley grabbed on to the kitchen counter, trying to get her bearings and figure out how talking about Isaac led to her falling asleep on the couch with Spencer.
“Already? It’s not as early as you think it is.” Lily giggled as she followed Harley. “As soon as Zane comes down, we are walking to the diner for breakfast. Since classes are canceled, we figured we’d hang out for a while.”
“Yeah, I got that impression from Spencer last night too.”
Zane crept down the stairs, then waved at Harley.
“Looks like we’re ready to go. Oh, Har I put a new toothbrush and washcloth in the bathroom for Spencer. Let him know, okay?” Lily said as she pulled on her jacket. “See you later!”
Lily and Zane rushed out the door as a cold wind blew in.
The coffee maker gurgled as it finished brewing the pot of coffee. She poured herself a cup, added the vanilla creamer, and took a careful sip as she leaned against the counter.
She stared at him asleep on the couch. Alone with Spencer again. This was becoming a habit. Or maybe Lily and Zane were doing it on purpose. Either way, she both enjoyed it and felt awkward.
He groaned and turned on his side. Slowly he sat up and looked around until his glance fell on Harley. “Hey there, good morning.”
He stretched as he stood up. His shirt pulled up, showing his defined abs, and Harley had to force herself from letting her eyes wander to the muscles that disappeared into the waist of his blue jeans.
“How’d you sleep?” he asked as he wandered into the kitchen.
“Apparently I fell asleep on the couch?” she laughed.
“Yeah. I didn’t want to wake you, you looked so peaceful.”
“You watched me sleep?” she countered.
“Yeah, I mean, no. I watched another movie before I fell asleep. So, I may have checked on you from time to time.”
“Well,” she shuffled her feet. “You should’ve woken me up and kicked me off the couch. You didn’t have a lot of room to sleep.”
“Nah,” he waved her concern off. “I was fine.”
She stared at him for a moment, his dark hair messed up, sleepiness still lingering in his eyes. But that sexy grin was there. It was always there. And every time it made her heart skip a beat.
