You've been dating Sam for three months.
There's a blond, twenty-something guy who lives in your apartment building that's always shown you a little extra attention. His name is Mark, he's perfectly nice, in a "frat brother" sort of way – not your type. He bought you flowers right after you moved in, and a couple weeks ago he finally worked up the nerve to ask you out.
You politely declined. Didn't mention anything about Sam or seeing someone else, you just told him you weren't interested and moved on.
You didn't give it a second thought until earlier in the week when he started showing up places. He was standing next to your car as you were leaving for work. He happened to be at the small, overpriced grocery store close to your office.
When you hear the knock at your door, you think its Sam. You think he's early. You throw the door open with a smile start "Hey, I just called in the pizza, I" before you realize it's not Sam.
It's Mark.
You take this opportunity to be upfront and tell him you're dating someone. Someone who's on their way over.
Mark looks you up and down with stiff jaw and replies "I haven't even seen this mystery boyfriend before."
"Well, I don't know what to tell you." You try to shut the door but Mark slides his foot between the door and frame. Jesus Christ, he might actually try to hurt me,you think.
You take a quick breath and square your shoulders. In a firm voice you instruct Mark to "Take your foot out of my fucking doorway, before I break it."
"Bitch" he mutters, slams his fist into the door frame and backs away.
It's only after you close the door that you realize your hands are shaking so bad it takes two tries to throw the deadbolt into place.
It all happens so fast you don't have a chance to process it.
Sam's late, when he finally gets there you've calmed down, but not yet decided how to handle this. Do you tell him? It seems like it could make the situation worse, you decide to wait and see how you feel later in the evening.
Sam hugs you, kisses you deep and then soft. He cups your face with both, giant hands and tells you he's missed you. Sam's big and tall and smells so God damn good that you forgot all about Mark.
Until the pizza guy knocks at the door and you scream.
You scream loud enough to wake the dead.
Sam jumps and looks at you, first with amusement and then with concern when he sees your face.
Shit.
He pays the pizza guy and you both sit down at your awkwardly small Ikea dining table.
"What was that?" He asks.
"Well I just, it startled me…"you're a terrible liar and you realize that your eyes are tearing up.
"What's going on? What wrong?" He scoots his chair next to yours, reaching for your hands. You feel him squeeze your fingers in his and for some reason that makes you cry even harder.
"There's this guy," you look up at Sam who's already locked his jaw. Wherever this is going, he already doesn't like it.
Telling him is hard for you because you're independent to your very core. You've always handled things on your own, never needed a man to sort out your problems. You do just fine with humor, deflection and charm 99% of the time.
But this feels different. This scares you. Mark scares you…so you tell Sam everything.
You tell him about the flowers and how Mark was at the bank last week, the grocery store and then you tell him about what happened before he got there.
By the time you're done he's not holding your hands anymore. He's sitting back in his chair, his face is red, his fists are clenched and he looks like steam might blow out of ears.
"Sam?"
"Hold on," he ticks his jaw and closes his eyes, only for a second "I need to think."
"OK," you concede. This Sam is a frightening version of him you knew was in there, but hadn't actually witnessed before.
"What apartment does he live in?" Sam booms, standing up and moving toward the door.
"Umm, Sam, I think we should talk about this-"
"Y/N," he stalks toward you, grabbing your shoulders. His face is inches from your own and he's not really asking as much as demanding. "Tell me."
You shake your head no. Half of you thinks that Sam might kill him. For all you know Mark has a gun and Sam showing up and it's guaranteed to end badly.
"This isn't optional. Tell me now." You regret ever bringing it up. "Y/N, I swear I will knock on every door, in every building, until I find out where-"
Bang. Bang. Bang.
You both freeze.
There are three knocks on the door and you both hear Mark yell, "Come on, I know you're home. Your car is still here!"
Sam moves toward the door.
"Fuck," you whisper.