You and Spencer had been together for six years, friends for two before that. You’d always told people that your love story was slow-burn perfection—two friends who took their time, who figured it out, who finally found their way to each other. But sometimes, you wondered if that burn had just never caught fire at all.

Spencer was always gentle with you, always polite, thoughtful, attentive in the ways that mattered. He remembered your favorite tea, texted when your meetings ran long, kissed your temple with a kind of routine affection. And when you’d ask him if he was happy, he’d always say yes—softly, steadily, like a memorized line.

Last weekend, you planned him a surprise birthday party. You told him you were working late. You asked Rossi to distract him during the day, knowing he could pull it off easily. And he did, Rossi had given Spencer a pasta tour the whole day. The party was perfect.

He walked in and the whole room lit up, “Surprise!” echoing through the air like confetti. His eyes widened and his smile bloomed, and for a while, you were glowing too—watching him laugh with his team, hug Garcia tightly, thank you again and again.

But then he slipped away. You wanted to find him so the cake could be cut, so everyone could sing. You walked down the hallway, the sound of his voice—familiar and fond—guiding you toward the staff room door.

You hadn’t meant to eavesdrop. But once his name fell from JJ’s lips in the conversation, your steps slowed. You stopped. You listened.

“…I should’ve tried harder with her,” Spencer said, his voice low, almost painful. “I should be the one she’s marrying, not Will.”

“Spence…” his friend, Morgan, said, clearly unsure.

“I wake up next to someone who isn’t her, and it just—” he exhaled harshly. “It just reminds me of everything I missed. I feel stuck. I feel like I’m living a nightmare.”

There was silence, and then: “I feel guilty every time I kiss her. Like I’m pretending. Like I feel obligated to stay with her. -- to settle for her. She's alright but she's not JJ. She can never be JJ.”

Your heart dropped somewhere behind your ribs. You pressed a hand against your chest as if it might hold the ache in place.

He didn’t know you were standing there, frozen. Hearing the words. Hearing the truth.

You went back to the party. Smiled through your devastation. Told the others Spencer would be back soon. When he returned, he kissed the top of your head and said he loved you.

You didn’t believe it anymore. But you nodded.

You haven’t told him you know.

You still make coffee in the morning. You still fall asleep beside him. You still wear the necklace he gave you for your anniversary. But it all feels like living in someone else’s story. Someone else's ending.

He’s in love with JJ. And you’re just the girl who loved him too late. Or maybe too soon. Or maybe just… not who he wanted all along.