Best Thing on the Internet

Elizabeth Tucker

Spencer Reid. He is so cute, plus a lot smarter than I was expecting.

"Is this the diner?" I ask Spencer as I point to a cute little diner. He goes to the door and opens it for me. I thank him as we make our way inside.

"Anywhere you'd guys like," the waitress called out from behind the counter. We sit in a booth, me facing away from the door and Spencer facing the door. The waitress puts the menus in front of and Spencer picks his menu up. Before I open mine, I watch him do the same finger reading thing he did at the last restaurant. I am sure I could watch him do that all day. I just smile to myself as I look down at the menu, reading it at my pace to find what I want. The waitress comes by and grabs our food and drink order. We sit in a comfortable silence as I look around.

"What is your last name?" I hear Spencer pipe up.

"Why?" I ask him back fairly quickly. He just gives me a look of surprise.

"Because you know mine and I don't know yours."

"Oh right, sorry. It's Tucker. Elizabeth Jane Tucker."

"What a beautiful name," he says, making the blood come up to my face.

"Thank you," I say with a smile on my face. "My mama gave it to me." That makes him laugh a little bit.

"Here you go darlings," the waitress interrupts us as she puts down our food. We eat, talking about my job as a barista and how I like it.

"If you grew up in California, why did you come all the way out to Virginia?" Spencer asks as he steals a fry off of my plate. I look up at him and bite the skin inside of my cheek.

"I followed a boy out here. He turned out to not be a very good guy," I don't explain what I mean by that. That really isn't a first date story.

"So why did you stay?" He asked, looking at me with big doe eyes.

"I think I'm going down a better path here than I ever would in California," I say with a shy smile. He nods as we continue to talk about work and our lives back home.

"Is there anything else you guys need?" The waitress comes over to our table and clears our plates. Me and Spencer look at each other then at the waitress.

"I don't think so. Thank you," Spencer said as he pulled out his card, giving it to the woman. She takes it and runs it. She brings it back with a receipt for him to sign. We quickly put down a tip and signed it before putting the pen on the table.

"Hey, there is a pretty cool art installation just down the road that leaves tomorrow, but I haven't had a chance to go see it. Would you mind if we go?" Spencer asks. Smart and likes art? Is this guy even real?

"As long as you walk me through it. I'm not huge into art," I said, grabbing my purse off of the seat next to me.

"Oh, we don't have to go if you don't want to," Spencer said as he slid out of the booth. I just smile at him and put my arm on his bicep. Under the button up he is wearing, he has some muscle to him.

"I would love to, Spencer," I reassured him. He looks down at my hand on his arm, so I quickly take it away. That was the first time I touched him tonight, so I didn't know how he was feeling. He nods his head as he turns on his heels to walk out the door. While he has his back turned, I just give myself a facepalm and walk out behind him. He holds the door open for me and we start walking again. The walk is a little awkward at first before I pipe up.

"What is the art?"

"What?" He said, seeming like I just snapped him back to reality.

"Like, what is the artist or I guess the premise behind the installation?"

"Oh. Sorry. Yeah. It's early 19th century painting and sculptures based around new life in the Americas," Spencer said as we walked. That sounds super interesting if I am being honest. I am glad he knows so much about everything. I am thinking of what to say next when out of the corner of my eye, I see Spencer put his arm straight. Then I feel his fingertips on the inside of my palm, walking them down to go in between mine. All of a sudden, I got butterflies as he laced his fingers with mine and clasped them against the back of my hand. I do the same as we walk in silence to the art installation. Spencer let's go of my hand as we make our way around the room. He tells me about most of the pieces, getting more and more excited as we continue through the room. By the time we get to the end of the installation, there are a few people behind me who were also listening in.

"You do better at explaining them than I do," the curator says to us.

"Wait, he doesn't work here?" One of the guests on our date says to the person he is with. The people dispearce, talking about how strange that was. He just looks a little disappointed at that. I give him a small clap.

"Can we go through again?" I ask in a playful voice. He just laughs at me and grabs my hand again, this time being more confident with it.

"Let's go," he said as he half pulled me out of the building. We just start walking, nowhere really in mind to go.

"How did you get so smart?" I asked Spencer as I did some window shopping as most of the shops were closed for the night.

"I have an eidetic memory," he said, so nonchalantly. I just look at him confused. I feel like I am going to do that a lot with him. I'm pretty smart, but definitely not as smart as I thought I was. "I never forget things, they just sort of stick there."

"Oh, that's cool! It has to have some downsides though, right?"

"A little bit, but I wouldn't have it any other way," he said. I don't think he knows who I am. He said he never forgets things, so he would have said if he knew who I am, right?

"So eidetic memory, reads 20,000 words a minute, three doctorates and an FBI agent? What can't you do, Dr. Reid?" I ask as I swing our hands a little bit. He just laughs at me. I look over to him and I see that his cheeks are red, but he is smiling real wide. I take a quick look around the neighborhood we are in and realize we are down the street from my apartment.

"This is where I work," I say as I stop at the coffee shop a few doors down from my apartments. It is closed, so I just peep inside.

"Woah. So you live nearby?" Spencer asked as he peeped in next to me. I just look up at him and smile a little bit.

"Are you trying to find out where I live Spencer?" I joke with him. He shoots his head towards me and starts to stutter a little bit.

"No-I-I-didn't mean, like that, ya know? I was-" I held my hand up to stop him.

"I was just kidding. Do you want to come in? My roommate is out tonight."

"Yeah, that'd be nice," he smiled down at me and I started walking towards the direction of my apartment.