Diane Chambers had walked up the stairs only minutes ago and yet it might have been decades ago. Time always seemed to drag when she wasn't there. Sam Malone could only hope and pray that she was going to come back and make the time he had left on this Earth worth while. Did he really think he was kidding himself? The best lover he had ever known had just walked away because he had let her. He wanted her to make her dreams come true depsite herself.
"Diane," Sam Malone said from the same place that their "final" goodbye took place. "Make your life extraordinary."
He couldn't leave that spot. He thought maybe if she had decided to come back that she would see that even if she didn't have the balls to take the long walk to her destiny, at least she would have him to come back to. That was when he took a look around the bar. Why in the world would she want to come back to this? This small, hole-in-the-wall bar that had, he was sure, offered her nothing but heartache year after year. He ran his hand down his tuxedo jacket and made it stop before he reached his crotch.
"Why would you want to marry a guy like me?" He asked with a real sense of heartbreak and a feeling of tears beginning to slip from his eyes. "I probably couldn't even spell Shakespeare's name let alone quote his plays. You deserve better than what I have to offer you."
He still hadn't moved. He all of a sudden remembered what he had said to her before Frasier took her away to Europe. He told her that Frasier was a definite lifeline for security. He knew that if Diane had wanted, Frasier could offer her a lifetime of stability whereas with him, she would have to take it one day at a time, if that's what she wanted. Diane had called him quite a few times in Europe and even though he once again had to twist her arm to get her back, she found her way back to him. As sorry as he felt for poor Frasier, he could never contain his happiness that he "won".
Sam finally moved from the spot. He went over to the jukebox and punched in D4. It was long before the lonely guitar strings and Jim Croce's lonely voice asking for the operator was blaring through the bar. "Operator" was the only song Sam could stomach at this moment. He thought of how much a phone call could have so much power. Diane was on the phone with flavor-of-the-week Vickie when they first laid eyes on each other. The phone call announcing her cat, Elizabeth's death led to their first hug. Then all the Europe conversations played over and over in his mind. His emotions were in beat with the music. There was something in Sam's eyes everytime he thought about the love he thought would save him.
He moved from the jukebox and into his office. He never told Diane this but he had kept the Semenko painting. It was hidden away in the backroom. He had a key made for it but nobody, including Diane, was allowed access to the key or the room. He grabbed the painting and blew the dust off it for it had not seen the light of day in years. The song finally came to a close. He carried the Semenko out into the open bar and played the song once again. He cradled Diane's sorrow-filled painted face in his arms as Jim Croce made him cry once again.
"Diane," Sam said to the woman in the painting in the middle of the song chorus. "Make your life extraordinary."