UNSTEADY ➢ spencer reid

IT'S BEEN A LONG, LONG TIME

I arrived at the brewery at exactly eight in the morning. Rich was standing at the front door, waving excitedly. I ran towards him, throwing my arms around him tightly. It had been a while since I'd last seen him. Despite him promising to visit often with the expansion happening he didn't have a lot of time to himself anymore. I felt bad, leaving him alone to do most of the work, but happy knowing it was still a go, even through my absence.

"Holy shit, look at you." He pulled away, giving me a once over. "You look hot!"

I did a small twirl, follow by a curtsy. "I did a lot of working out while I was there." I smacked my stomach lightly. "Lost all that beer weight."

"No kidding." He laughed. "You look so much healthier."

I smiled. "You can almost see my six pack coming in."

He shook his head, smiling as wide as ever. "I'm not surprised. Once you put your mind to something it's kind of hard to stop you." He gave me another quick hug before opening the door and ushering me inside. "C'mon Duncan wants to say hi."

Unlike Rich, Duncan visited me a lot. At first it was kind of weird, but eventually it I grew pretty used to it. Whenever Rich had to cancel, which was often, Duncan would come in his place, reassuring me that I always had their support. The second I saw him though, I felt an ungodly amount of joy. I ran into Rich's office where he stood smiling and pulled him in the for the biggest hug I'd given anyone since I got home. He held me close, lifting me slightly off the ground.

"You're free!" He yelled, shaking me. "Free from hell!"

We both laughed as he set me down. "Hey Duncan."
"Hey kiddo." He patted my head. He looked over at Rich who was smiling. "Hey old man, you gonna offer her the job back or what?"

He extended his arms and gave sort of a shrug, looking at me curiously. He was expecting an answer, which made sense, it was the reason I was here. Something inside me though, still felt conflicted. "I want to talk to you guys about that."

"Okay," Rich nodded, "here sit down." He pushed a chair in my direction. "Talk to us."

I sat down. Duncan pulled up a chair next to me, while Rich wandered around his desk to sit in his. They both stared at me, waiting for me say something. It took me a while. I wanted to think first, lay everything out in my mind before I laid it on the table for them.

"I love this company and the people who work here," I started, "and I love you guys more than my actual family, but what we do here is what I need to get away from. If that makes sense." I swallowed hard, watching their faces, which seemed more curious than anything. "A lot happened last year and most of it wasn't good and even though I do love this place it kind of played a big role on me not doing so well, if that makes sense."

"It does." Rich spoke.

"I just don't know if it's the right choice for me to come back, since, well, this is a brewery and I'm trying my best not to drink any alcohol." I kind of laughed. "And Jason and I aren't on the best of terms and I know being in the same work environment with him would definitely cause problems." I cleared my throat, feeling slightly uncomfortable talking about Jason. "I just wanted to get your guys's opinion on everything before I did anything."

"Well," Rich shared a look with Duncan that I couldn't quite place, "I think you're doing the right thing and while I hate to see this place as part of the problem, I have to accept that it is what it is. In regards to work, how would you feel about working from home?"

I raised my brow. "I can do that?"

He shrugged. "I don't see why not. You're in your office most of the time anyways. It's not like with the technology we have nowadays you'd have to be here all the time. You can email me reports. We can talk over the phone or have video conference calls. You'd have to come in if it was absolutely necessary."