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“Spencer!” Derek exclaimed as he got out of the car, “You’re gonna hurt yourself carrying all of those boxes, let me do it.”
“Fine, but I have to tell you where to put them!”
After a year and a half of dating, Derek had finally asked Spencer to move in. Derek wrote a whole speech and took Spencer out to a fancy dinner just for her to blurt out “Yes!” as soon as he asked. Spencer let him finish his speech anyway, letting his words make her smile until her face hurt.
Derek carried the box, marked with Spencer’s threadbare handwriting, into his newly finished development and up into Spencer’s new study, designed specifically for her. Bookshelves ran all the way up and down the walls, with a moveable ladder attached. Spencer followed behind him with a second box, marked “stuffed animals.” She places it in a small nook in the corner, where she plans to put a bright blue bean bag chair.
“Alright, a moving truck is coming in later with all of the furniture I ordered, how about you put up all of your books and I’ll get the rest of the boxes from the car?”
Spencer nodded and rolled up the sleeves of her sweater. She opened up the box Derek had brought in and took out all of the books. She organized them alphabetically, got up on the ladder, and started placing all of the books on the shelf. When Derek came in with another two boxes of books she organized those as well. By the time she was done, Derek had ordered take out for the two of them.
They sat down on the floor of the new study and began eating together, watching the late october sun go down through the large window on the left wall.
“I have to fly out tomorrow to Washington to give a speech. Are you gonna be okay here by yourself? I know it’s your day off.”
“Yeah, I’m sure I can find something to do with all these boxes,” Spencer smiled, “I just wish you could stay, it would be amazing if we could have a halloween themed housewarming party!”
“Ah, that would be pretty great.”
They finished their meal and shortly after the moving van came into their driveway. Derek and the moving men brought in all of the furniture, including the rest of Spencer’s books and her bean bag chair. While Derek set up the king sized bed on the second floor Spencer arranged her stuffed animals all around the bean bag chair.
“You’re getting settled in pretty fast,” Derek said when he came down the stairs and into the study, seeing Spencer cuddled up with a book in her corner.
“Yeah,” Spencer smiles, “It’ll be less homey without you tomorrow, so I figure I should get used to it for now.”
“Come on sweet girl, I don’t have to go until early tomorrow, we should spend as much time together as possible.”
“Okay, I guess,” Spencer smiles up at her boyfriend and moves to the side, letting him settle next to her in the blue bean bag chair.
The two cuddle together in the comfy chair, and at some point while Derek is running his fingers through Spencer’s hair and as she’s reading, the two fall asleep next to each other.
In the morning, Spencer wakes up alone. A little sad, she sees that her book had been placed on the table next to her, a bookmark on the page she had been reading. She got up from the bean bag and observed the books around her. She mentally prepared herself for the day ahead and went into the kitchen.
She made herself a quick breakfast of toast, eggs, and bacon, along with a small bowl of fruit. After eating, she went back into the study and began sorting the books one by one. On each shelf she organized them alphabetically and by length. She ended up finishing up right around lunch time, and after eating her second meal of the day she went up to the bedroom and sorted some of the boxes in there, then the bathroom, and so on.
In the living room she found a box labeled “Holidays.” Upon opening it, she found a bundle of fake autumn leaves, miniature pumpkins, along with other assorted seasonal decorations. With a new burst of energy, Spencer called Penelope.
Many hours later, specifically around 11:30, Derek sluggishly carried his suitcase up to the new house, stopping to look around at the browning and yellowing leaves on the ground. A symbol of change.
When he walked into the house he saw that there were still boxes around the house, however most of them were empty now. He set his suitcase on the ground and walked into the living room.
“Spence?”
Out of seemingly nowhere, Spencer jumped up behind him, wrapping her arms around his neck in a hug. The lights turned on, showing the fall decorations all around the house.
“Hey there sweet girl, I see you’ve been working hard.”
“Mhm, Penny came over and helped, but it was mostly me,” Spencer smiled proudly.
“Well you two did an amazing job, it looks great,” Derek kissed her on the forehead, “Let’s both get to bed now, yeah?”
Spencer nodded and they held hands and walked up the stairs. They settled into the flowery sheets together and cuddled, Spencer nuzzled into Derek’s neck.
“Spence?”
“Yeah?”
“I love you. I’m glad that you feel safe enough to live with me.”
“I love you too Derek.”
“Goodnight, my butterfly.”
“Goodnight, my love.”