“Put your arm around me,” Spencer muttered once they started walking through the parking lot. Toby, who had been feeling nervous all day, jumped when she spoke.

                “What?” he asked.

                “They’re watching from the window.” Spencer laughed as she put her arms around his waist instead. She couldn’t help but feel distracted by his lean muscles under his thin, white shirt. Of course she’d seen him shirtless before, and that itself was quite a sight, but she never grasped…how built he was.

                He finally recovered by holding her against him. He noticed her thoughtful expression and arched a brow. “What?”

                She giggled. “When do you make time to go to the gym?”

                Toby shook his head. “We have to for the police field, remember? I’m not a total loser, you know?” He playfully nudged her with the shoulder that was closest to her. “It’s going to be hard making them believe that we’re madly in love.”

                Spencer sighed and cuddled closer to him. Might as well put on a show because people are watching. “We can pull it off. Just pretend I’m…I don’t know, Ariana Grande.”

                At that, Toby burst out with laughter. “Seriously?”

                Spencer shrugged, smiling. “I don’t know! You didn’t seem to be complaining when we went to her concert.”

                Toby eyed her for a moment playfully. “Then you can pretend I’m…David Lambert. You seem to have a huge smile on your face when we watch The Fosters!” he teased with a smile.

                Spencer gasped in fake humiliation and lightly hit him on his chest, closing her eyes for a second, enjoying the playful moment between them.

                Maybe he was just trying to make it believable for the producers watching, she reasoned in the back of her mind. It was working that was for sure.

                Spencer exhaled shakily and pressed herself a little closer to him.

                “Uh, let’s, go, in,” he suggested. Spencer nodded slowly.

                Their audition for the show went smoothly. They were put in a room with two producers and two other couples who were nervously holding each other close. Toby and Spencer simply held hands. The producers seemed to be watching very narrowly; they’d obviously the little “show” Toby and Spencer accidentally put on in the parking lot.

                The producers asked him difficult questions about Spencer: what her favorite color was, her least favorite subject in school, and her insecurities. She figured she would have trouble with them, but he responded with ease. Purple, Math, and that her front row of teeth are smaller than her bottom row.

                They smiled and asked Spencer the same questions. She smiled up at her best friend and gave his hand a squeeze. “He likes blue; it’s all he wears most of the time,” she started. Toby chuckled in response; she was right. “He doesn’t really have a least favorite subject….he’s a genius and it all comes easily to him. But he hated Science too. I once asked him to tutor me and he said we’d fail together instead. We didn’t of course…I got a B and he got an A and that was good enough.” Spencer smiled up at him, not understanding that she had been gazing. “His biggest insecurity is….that he feels he can never be good enough. But he is. He’s perfect.”

                She honestly didn’t know if the last sentence was her babbling or just something that added for romantic effect. Either way, Toby got the hint and kissed the back of her hand. Melodramatically, she chuckled and leaned against him.

                This was supposed to feel strange, but it didn’t. In a crazy way, it felt right to her, being close to him, feeling his warm body against hers. Did he feel the same?

                She didn’t know, but they obviously did something right because they were the first couple to get cast.