pretty little liar // brad simpson

five

SPENCER

Although packed with more possessions that I could imagine owning, the flat was relatively clean and still sprawling. There were four rich musicians living here, boys at that, and I don't know if I had been expecting some startlingly clean or homely flat - but when I crossed the threshold the way of the house made sense. 

"Hot cocoa?" Brad suggested, glancing over his shoulder to see me nod as he walked to the kitchen. I wandered into the sitting area, dropping my tote on the floor beside the long leather couch and leaving my winter jacket on top so I was in just my black tank top, soft beige cashmere cardigan, and shredded boyfriend jeans. 

Once I'd stepped out of my ankle boots, I padded towards the kitchen and leaned over the island as Brad poured the hot water into two mugs, one which was striped and the other with puppies all over it. I grabbed the handle of the dog mug and slid it towards myself, stirring the spoon inside to mix it all up.

Brad's jaw went mildly slack as if he had never envisioned me swiping the mug under his nose. If I was one thing, I wasn't a person who'd choose stripes over puppies. "That's my favourite one." He pouted, rounding the counter towards me and standing a foot away, looming over me slightly as I was bent over leaning on the bench.

I straightened up, raising my eyebrows as I lifted the mug and took a long sip of the hot chocolate inside, pulling the mug away and leaving a print of deep plummy lipstick on the forehead of a schnauzer. "Yummy." 

Brad narrowed his eyes at me, but I just tightened my lips and smiled at him, walking back to the sitting room. Sitting back on the couch, I propped my feet up on the coffee table and watched Brad as he stepped over my legs and joined me, pulling out his phone and setting his mug on the coffee table beside my black and white polka dot socked feet. "The boys won't be back for a long while, so we can talk about whatever until they get back," He filled in, "Then we have to sensor our work chat a bit.

"So what's the first order of business, Mr. Simpson?" I teased. Brad glanced over at me, his face a little bit hard to read. He looked a bit cheeky if not anything else when I called him that, and I decided to hold that under my belt in case he ever needed some motivation, or at least a good tease in front of his friends.

"We ought to put something on Instagram or Twitter I think." Brad suggested, and I nodded, turning to face him, curling my legs underneath myself and holding my mug between my hands so the warmth could creep up my arms. "A photo, but I don't know how to make it seem casual when I know it's all staged. I haven't exactly posted a photo with a girlfriend since becoming famous."

I nodded, putting one hand to my chin as I considered what photo to take and how he could caption it. "Well it's either a selfie or a photo of just me or just you, I could always take a shot of you and you could tag me as taking the photo, so it's not too outward?" I suggested, watching him. He ran his tongue over his pink lips, bent over with his elbows resting on his knees.

Brad nodded again, sitting up and then leaning over again, clearly caught in thought. "I think if I were with a girl I'd probably post a photo of her first, as a way to introduce her." He finally announced, turning to face me.

"Well I hate to burst your bubble, but you are with a girl." I pointed out, flashing him a toothy smug smile. Brad raised his phone, quickly snapping a photo and laughing loudly as he stared at his screen. "No! Don't take a photo like that," I gasped, leaning around his shoulder to look at my grinning face and the slight blur of my hair as I had moved at his phone snapped the shot.

"It's cute!" He laughed, holding his phone away from me so I couldn't grab at it.

Narrowing my eyes at him, I sat back, gripping my mug tightly. "I'd like to point out that I am the model here."