Two High IQ's Make One Great Romance

"Bye Miss Piper!" A young girl shouted from the classroom door.

"Sweetie what are you still doing here? Your class ended an hour ago." I walked towards the small girl, Sophie, where she was waiting for me with a smile on her face.

"I asked my mommy if I could stay and watch hip-hop, cause I want to take it next year. But we're going now, bye Miss Piper." She waved her tiny hand and bounced out the door, clutching her mother before leaving the building. I laughed lightly at her, in her tutu that was a bit too large, and her bright pink ballet flats that were going to get ruined if she continued to wear them outside.

"She's a cutie." Maria said from around the corner.

"Oh that entire class is adorable." I said, heading to the stack of CD's to put them back in their correct cases.

"True, true. They can be beasts though."

I laughed with her. "Oh they definitely can." I paused as I grabbed a record that I was particularly interested in. "Are the upstairs studios open?" I asked Maria.

"Yep. David left an hour ago and classes are pretty much over. I have two private lessons so you're free to use the adjacent studio." she said, strolling from the classroom.

The private studios were a dancers dream. Mirrors on the front and right side of the room, hard wood floors, ballet bar lining the back. It was similar to the rooms downstairs, but less used. The light blue color kept my spirits high as I surveyed the space.

I popped in a CD and waited for "Winter Song" to come on. I replayed the beginning a few times to get a feel for it, jotted down some choreography notes, and started to move my legs. It felt right to just be dancing for the fun of it. All of my worries flew out the window and I was at peace with the music surrounding me. In the last two bars of the music, I tripped over my own feet and tumbled to the ground, upset but not hurt. I layed down and groaned in discomfort as the music faded out and I felt defeated.

"That was beautiful." Someones voice meekly said from the doorway. I shot up like a bullet and ran to him, wrapping him in my arms and squeezing, despite the fact that I was hot and sweaty from dancing.

"I didn't know you were home!" I leaned back to admire Spencer's beautiful face that I had missed over the past few weeks. The bruises were gone, and the spark had returned to his eyes.

"I wanted to surprise you. You're a hard person to get a hold of." He said as he walked into the studio and started looking through some of the CD's I had layed out. I watched him as he scanned, admiring the way he took interest in everything that surrounded him.

"How so?"

"I went to your apartment to see you, you weren't there, but your aunt was downstairs so I stopped to talk to her for a bit. She told me that you were probably at the new studio that you were hired at, so here I am. I had to prove to Maria that I actually knew you before she even let me in the building." He turned to face me and crossed his arms. It brought me back to the days of just meeting Spencer, when he would stare at me with those questioning looks and side-glances.

"I'm glad you came. Not so glad that you saw my fall though." I said. He laughed.

"Up until that point, the dance was beautiful." He joked. His lanky legs strolled my way again and he looked down at me. My eyes scanned his body until I reached his eyes. I had to practically look straight up to see them. His lips curled into a smile.

"I missed you." He said. I hugged him again, a bit more gently this time. I wanted to enjoy the feel of his skinny body and adoring arms around me.

"I missed you too. Sorry I didn't answer my phone this week."

"That's ok. I knew you guys were busy on a case."

"Yeah, right." Hiding shame was not easy, but thank god Spencer didn't seem to notice or care.

"I didn't mean to interrupt your dancing, you can keep going." He said, taking a seat on the windowsill.

"No, it's ok. I work better solo anyway. Unless you'd care to dance." I joked. He smiled and ran a hand through his hair like he always did when he was at a loss for words. I had been joking when I asked him to dance, but now my proposal turned serious.

I put in a disk and held my hand out to Spencer. He laughed nervously. The music started. The voice of Ella Fitzgerald filled the room as "Dream A Little Dream of Me" played.

"I can't dance."

"I'll lead."

He stood slowly and took my hand, placing the other on my lower back. His dancing position was not ideal, but I could work with it. I could feel the tension in his shoulders. I gave him a quick shoulder squeeze as I smiled at him.

"Relax, it's just me. I don't care if you can't dance."
I started moving my feet, gliding across the floor. He took my lead, awkwardly as always, and actually started to laugh. His shoulders relaxed and I could sense his hands feeling more comfortable on my body.

"See? Not bad at all." I said. Spencer pulled me closer.

"I'm starting to like dancing more."

"That's what I like to hear." I beamed at him and avoided us from hitting a wall. "Want to take the lead? You're not a terrible dancer."

He did, in fact, take the lead. He spun us around a few times before I noticed he was getting a little out of breath. I giggled loudly and he smirked.

"Don't laugh at me." He said. It made me laugh harder. We were dancing effortlessly now, Spencer was finally getting used to the movements. He stopped us briefly and bent me backwards, dipping me. Our eyes were level, he was staring at me intently. I was glad I had a petite dancer's body, or else his small arms may have dropped me. His hazel eyes never faltered as they peered into mine. My cheeks got warm and I could feel my pulse quicken.

"Wow." I said, feeling my stomach start to retract in nervousness. His lips moved slightly, but no sound came out. He lifted me back up again and continued on our dance.

The song ended and we stopped, tired.

"Let's get out of here. I'll take you to lunch." Spencer said. I shoved a few things in my duffel bag and slung it around my shoulders.

"Ok. Can I go home and change first?" I asked. His eyes gazed up and down my body to take in my dance outfit.

"I think that's fine. It looks nice."
It was only a pair of tight dance shorts and a leotard with a wife-beater on over top.

"If you say so."
We ran into Maria on the way out. She was just leaving her private lesson.

"Piper, you never told me you had a boyfriend!" She said, looking at Spencer with a gleam in her eye.

"I don't. This is Spencer, we work together."
Maria looked shocked for a second, but then went back to smiling.

"Well it was nice meeting you Spencer, hope I'll see you around."

"It was nice meeting you too, Maria." He waved as we walked past her and out onto the street.

"How was your flight home?" I asked. He put on his sunglasses slowly. I followed his lead on put on my over-sized glasses as well. I tied up my hair as he began speaking.

"Good. Long. I'm not used to commercial flights." his tone had gone from cheery, to sullen in a matter of minutes.

"I'm glad you're home, I missed you a lot."

"Yeah, me too." He said. His hands fumbled with his hair again. I tried to keep some conversation as we walked to his restaurant of choice, but he was making it difficult.

Once we were seated at a quiet diner, I decided I couldn't handle his off-put attitude any longer.

"Did I say something wrong? You were fine ten minutes ago, and now you're acting like I did something wrong." I took a sip of the water in front of me. Spencer sighed.

"I didn't like how you said I wasn't your boyfriend."

"But you're not."

"I know, but it bothered me. I don't know why. I know we agreed to start over and just be friends for now, but I'm rethinking my decision."

My mouth stayed open as I looked at him with wide eyes. "You're the one that left. You told me that we couldn't be together because you had a lot going on at the time. I respected that. And for us to jump into a relationship again makes me worried, because I'm scared you'll do the same thing again. You would get freaked out and leave."

"I wouldn't."

"I don't know if I can believe you. Can we just... I don't know... not rush anything? I feel like too much is going on at once." My mind raced with thoughts of what happened just a week earlier. Derek and I had not spoken of it since then, and I doubted we ever would again, but the event never really left my memory for long.

"Yeah, sure." He shrugged. I didn't like seeing the spark leave Spencer's eyes. I believed what he said, I always believed Spencer, but something about his urgency in wanting to start dating again made me nervous. It killed me inside, I wanted to leap across the table and kiss him. I wanted to tell him how he really made me feel, and I wanted him to feel the same way. But I was practical, as was he, and no matter how often my practicality interfered with my relationships, I would rather trust my brain than my heart. Because my heart hadn't gotten me a college degree, it didn't get me a great job, and it wasn't going to get me into the position that I wanted to be in. It hadn't gotten me a boyfriend a few weeks ago. My heart had gotten me into the position I was currently in. And what good was that?

The rest of our dinner was quiet. We spoke mostly about menial things, never really straying
to the topic of us being together. He walked me home and gave me a small hug before turning and leaving without a word. My stomach knotted when he left. I wanted him to stay, to come in and watch a movie with me. But I was a coward. I would never be able to let myself be open like that. Not yet, anyway. Not after I had let myself fall for Spencer and he had left me.