Spencer packed her bags with angry silence. What was wrong about Toby? Why didn’t he just answer Annabella’s question with a simple yes? Why did he have to get them kicked off of the show; surely Annabella was willing to give them another chance, wasn’t she? But then again, maybe he just didn’t love her. Not like she loved him.

                For the first time, Spencer had admitted it, that she loved Toby. He replied by avoiding eye contact and saying something unclear and not reassuring. Maybe it was her fault; maybe she said it too soon and it freaked him out.

                Or maybe he just didn’t love her.

                She breathed out, hearing to door to their room open and Toby’s heavy footsteps. Spencer turned, grabbing her suitcases and walking it his direction, toward the door.

                “Toby,” she started deeply, emotionlessly.

                “Your stuff is already in the limo,” Toby said almost solemnly. “I called a hotel.”

                She nodded and simply strutted past him, out the door and into the hall. So, with a strange ache rising in his stomach, Toby followed.

                They rode in the limo, enveloped by awkward silence. Every time Toby turned to look at Spencer, she was staring at something that only she could see, and he knew with a pang that he was the cause.

                Now, they were settling in a small hotel room, a dull contrast to the fantastic suite they had stayed at on Not Alone. This place was plain and serious, with a black bed and black walls.

                Spencer still hadn’t made eye contact with Toby since their meeting with Annabella.

                He watched as she roughly opened her luggage, which he had messily packed for her, and she rummaged through it to find some clean clothes to change into. She did this for a few minutes until she gave up, throwing the shirt in her hands to the ground.

                “Stop taking it out on your stuff,” Toby said. His tone was the smallest of teasing, an attempt to lighten the dark mood, but overall it was filled with tension. “You know, I’m right here. You can talk to me.”

                “What am I supposed to say, Toby?” she snapped. “We could still be on the show right now! She was going to give us a second chance.”

                Toby clenched his jaw. “So what, we didn’t win the money. Did you really expect us to anyway?”
                Spencer turned to look at him, attempting to calm herself down. “We had a chance, didn’t we? You blew it!”

                He crossed his arms over his chest and simply stared, shaking his head sadly. “This isn’t about the competition, is it?”

                Her chest rose and fell with every single furious inhale and exhale. “Of course it is! We were doing so well!” she yelled, taking a step closer to him. “Why couldn’t you just said that you love me? She would have believed you! Why didn’t you just lie, Toby?”

                There it was. All the pain and sorrow in his eyes fading to annoyance; she knew how to get to him, to make his heart shatter and his whole body shake. “You think that would be a lie?” he uttered and moved closer. “Did you ever think…for a second, about what I was feeling in that moment?”

                Spencer breathed out deeply, their bodies inches apart. She had to glance up in order to meet his blazing green eyes. “You seemed to not have an answer,” she whispered.

                The mood in the radically shifted, to something neither of them could describe. Spencer felt Toby’s breathe against her lips, and she wanted to kiss him; she wanted to kiss him more than ever, but she wanted to scream at the same time. Why did he have to be so good-looking?

                But he seemed to have more self-control than she did, for the sudden rage in his eyes faded to a fathomless sadness. “You said you loved me…in front of a near stranger,” he stated.

                She didn’t blink, staring back at him with the same intensity. “You didn’t,” she replied.

                 “I didn’t say it,” he confirmed. “But that doesn’t mean that I didn’t feel it. Didn’t it cross your mind that it wasn’t the right moment?”

                Spencer stared at him in wonder, until it turned to a slight bitterness. She scoffed. “That’s what this is about? Your obsession with preserving our moments?”

                With a nonchalant nudge at his words, Toby stepped away from her and walked to the window, an attempt to control his returning anger. He clenched the windowpane and Spencer looked at him, frozen in place.

                They stayed like that for a few minutes, calming themselves down, until Spencer gathered the courage to speak. “Do we really need moments, Toby?” she wondered aloud. He lifted his head but did not turn. “I love you. Anyone can see that. Do we need some moment to prove that? Isn’t it enough just to know?”

                Finally, Toby turned around. So, she kept talking and approached him.

                “This is such a dumb fight. I know you’re traditional, and you want to take things slow. I know that you believe that everything should happen the right way. But that’s not life, Toby. That’s not how things happen. Tonight, I told you that I loved you. It doesn’t matter how, it doesn’t why. All that matters is what I said and that I meant it.” Her eyes bore through his and he slowly nodded, closing his eyes when she raised her hands and held his face. “Whether or not you feel it too.”

                “I’ve just waited so long to be with you like this,” he breathed out. “I don’t want to mess it up. I just want everything to be perfect…”

                Laughing gently, Spencer caressed his face. “Everything is perfect, Toby. We don’t need candles or moonlight to prove that.” She moved in slowly and softly pressed her lips to his. “No matter what, when it’s you and me, everything’s perfect. Okay?”

                He smiled. “Alright.”

                With that, Spencer nodded softly and dropped her hands from his face. She causally strolled over to her suitcase and grabbed her pajamas, leaving them on the top of the bed to put on after she got ready. He just watched her, and stared as she grabbed a towel from the closet, heading into the bathroom.

                “Spencer,” he got out.

                She turned to face him, smiling just a bit. “Yeah?”

                He bit his bottom lip, suddenly realizing his hands were shaking. Her emerald green eyes were full of detachment, an indication to the aftermath of their fight, until he finally willed himself to move. Before she could register it, his lips were against hers, soft but urgently, just the way she liked it….

                When he pulled away, in wasn’t even an inch, just enough space for him to audibly whisper, “I love you.”

                Her heart jumped, and she was convinced she’d forever belong to him. The simple desperation in his voice mixed with the overwhelming passion was nothing short of incredible. She smiled into the kiss, so much that their teeth clanked together, not that they really minded.

                He gazed at her softly. “Tonight, someone told me love isn’t about noteworthy moments. It’s about the present-day. Someone opened my eyes tonight and taught me it’s not about places or events…it’s about two people. Two people who think the world of each other. That’s love. This is love.”

                Spencer laughed, slowly raising her fingers to memorize every line of his face. “You’re cheesy,” she giggled. “But so lyrical. I love that about you.”

                Grinning, Toby kissed her again.