"Are you working next weekend?" Mercedes asked fiddling with her coffee cup. "Reason I'm asking is I have to go out of town. My parents..." she hesitated for a minute and continued "were supposed to go to a conference, a dentist thing. And now they, the dentists, want to present an award in their memory. And Marcus and Devi were going to go but they can't because Devi's due any day now. And it won't cost anything because every thing's paid for. You wanna go?" She looked at Sam hopefully.
"Well, if you don't go I will." Kurt said when Sam hesitated.
"Sure, I can take next weekend off. Where are we going?" Sam answered.
"Graceland! Ever hear of it?" she asked smiling.
Mercedes was kidding about visiting Graceland but knew that Memphis was Sam's home town. They had a lot of fun on their last trip together, New York for Nationals. New York was where Mercedes first starting thinking of Sam as more than just somebody who was fun to hang out with. She'd been to a few conferences with her parents, maybe they're fun if you're a dentist, but usually Mercedes and her mom saw the sights of whatever town they were in and showed up in time for dinner. Sam would make this bearable.
It had been a month since her parents died. Mercedes believed in God, she believed in heaven, and she believed her parents had earned a place there. She missed them terribly but she wasn't depressed. Ms. Pillsbury didn't believe her but Mercedes thought Ms. Pillsbury was more in need of help than she was. Maybe it would be different if she lived alone, or was starting over in Columbus, but Mercedes wasn't alone. Blaine was living at her house and Tina and Kurt came over a lot. Of course Kurt was mostly coming over to see Blaine but they didn't spend all their time in Blaine's room anymore. If it wasn't for Blaine she'd be living in Columbus with Marcus and Devi right now.
And then there was Sam. Sam made her ridiculously crazily happy. Maybe she'd be depressed if it wasn't for Sam. Well, Sam and money. It turned out that Mercedes and her brother Marcus were rich. Evidently they had been rich for a long time and never knew it. She laughed thinking about how her dad made he save up for that camera when he could have easily brought her an even better one. Her father's financial training was sticking, knowing she was rich hadn't changed her spending habits much. She didn't run out and buy a Porsche but she was seriously considering adding a bathroom to her attic bedroom. She could just move into her parent's bedroom, which already had a bathroom, but not just yet.
She was nervous about asking Sam to go with her because she wasn't sure how he'd take it. They'd be sharing a room, a room with two beds, but one room. Would he interpret that as an invitation for something more? Should she have invited Tina instead? Well, too late for that, she couldn't dis-invite him now. She'd only asked him because Memphis was his home town, right? He could show her whatever people saw in Memphis. She'd have to make sure he understood that.
"So there's a dinner and a dance on Saturday night. What you wore to the prom would be all right." Mercedes said.
"Is something wrong?" Sam asked. "You seem kinda anxious." They were at the park, sitting on a bench watching Stacey and Stevie run around the playground.
"No. Well, I just wanted to make sure you knew there's gonna be two beds. I didn't plan this whole thing just to seduce you or something." she laughed nervously.
He glanced over at her, smiled, and looked back at the kids. He picked up her hand. "Okay. That's it?"
"I think so. I just wanted to be clear."
"I told you before, no pressure. I meant it. I'll be a perfect gentleman. I promise." he pulled her close and kissed her.
"Mercy and Sammy, sitting in a tree. K I S S I N G." It was Stacey standing next to them.
"Come on kids, time for bed." Sam said, standing up.
It was late when they finally got to the hotel on Friday night. Mercedes immediately went to the window to check the view.
"Well, this is a problem." she heard Sam say.
"What?"
"One bed. It's a big bed, but just one."
Awkward, she thought.
"It's okay, there's a sofa. I can sleep there."
This was a horrifically bad idea, Mercedes thought. What was she thinking, asking him to spend the weekend with her? Sam was standing next to her, looking at the Memphis skyline.
"Isn't is beautiful? Course I didn't live downtown, I lived in the 'burbs. No offense to Lima but this is a city!" He put his arm around her waist. "So how do dentist conventions work?"
She leaned against him. "Well, I figure we can get a free breakfast here, then you show me the sights and we get back in time for dinner and speeches. Six or so."
"Did you really want to see Graceland?"
"Elvis? I can take him or leave him. It's your town, surprise me."
"You remember my friend Zach I told you about? I thought we might have lunch with him. Can I borrow your laptop? I need to send him an email."
Sam was chatting on-line with Zach when Mercedes came out of the shower ready for bed. If she intended to seduce him she hadn't dressed for the occasion. She was wearing an oversize Ohio State t-shirt and gym shorts.
"All done?" she asked.
"In a minute." He hit send and looked over at her. She was standing by the window, staring out the window again. Sam wasn't sure what Mercedes wanted, or didn't want, him to do right now. He decided to take a shower while she figured it out. When he came out she was still standing by the window.
He walked over and kissed her. "You gonna stand here all night?"
"Sam..."
"Shhhh. Remember I told you about that time the band kids showed up at the pizza place right before closing?"
She nodded.
"And they were all paired up except for Ali because Ben was back? I'm assuming you know Ben and Tim are gay, though neither one of them is Kurt's kind of gay." She sat down on the edge of the bed. She knew that. Where was he going with this story?
"Well, Ali got bored and started talking to me. I didn't understand half of what she said, she was rambling on about guitarists, I guess they were guitarists, that I never heard of."
Mercedes laughed. "Ali said the same thing about you. She asked me how I managed to spend so much time with you, what with you barely speaking English and all."
Sam sat down and put his arm around her. "Well, the one thing she said that made sense was this. When they look at a piece of music the first thing they decide is who's driving. You're driving, Mercedes." He kissed her passionately. Then he stood up and went over to the sofa.
When he woke up Mercedes was sitting on the edge of the sofa looking out the window. What time was it? Early, he could tell that much.
"Good morning."
"Good morning. What are you doing?"
"Look. We've watched the sun set lots of times but we've never seen the sun rise. Well, there it is."
He sat up. "It's beautiful. You're beautiful." He pulled her down on the sofa.
"Not yet." she said slipping out of his grasp.
"Okay." he said switching gears. "I've got a surprise for you. Put on your walking shoes."
Later that morning Sam showed Mercedes his surprise – The Memphis Rock 'n Soul Museum. Al Green instead of Elvis Presley? Hell to the yes! She was engrossed in an display about Stax Records, aka Soulsville USA, when a tour guide walked up to her.
"Is this guy bothering you?" She looked up to see a tall, muscular black boy looking at her and motioning to Sam. "We get guys like that in here all the time, trolling for girls."
"No, I don't need your help." she said sharply. "That's my boyfriend."
"Sister, you can do way better than that." Sam looked up.
"Sammy!" the boy said laughing. He hugged him so hard Sam was almost lifted from the ground. "What the hell happened to your hair?"
"Zach! Back away from my girl. You switched sides, remember?"
"Hell, I can still appreciate a pretty woman. What do the boys up there look like?"
"I wouldn't know about that."
"Yeah, right!" he laughed. "Give me 5 minutes and I can take a lunch break."
"Why does he call you Sammy?" Actually that easiest question she had for him. Like, why hadn't Sam mentioned Zach was black, and gay, and what did "Yeah, right" mean?
"There were about 20 Sams in our class. I was Sam E, Sammy."
"Makes sense. What's your real hair color?"
"Plain old brown. Next question."
"Why did he say "yeah right" about cute guys in Ohio?"
"It's a joke. I'll tell you about it later." He looked at her surprised expression and added "There's no deep dark secret, I just don't want to go into it right here. At lunch. Promise."
Lunch was boring the way listening to two old friends, or a new couple, is to an outsider. Mercedes thought about what Sam had previously said about Zach. They had been best friends, super close. They'd started fighting the minute Sam announced he was leaving Memphis. They made up the day Sam left. They kept in touch via email. Sam had said Zach was the reason why he understood the love/hate (as Sam put it) relationship Mercedes had with Kurt. Sam and his former best friend were hundreds of miles apart. Mercedes had to sit in practice with her former best friend and his new best friend, Rachel. Hell, Kurt was probably making out with Blaine in her living room right now.
"Sam said you're the best singer in the world."
"My teacher doesn't even think I'm the best singer in Ohio."
"You know he's a fool." Sam said.
"Well, Ms. Songbird, thanks for bringing Sammy back home. I gotta get back to work." Zach hugged both of them and left.
Sam was grinning as his friend walked away.
"He seems nice."
"Weird seeing him after all this time."
"Too bad we don't have much time. Otherwise we could breeze by your old high school."
"There's not much there I want to see."
"Would that have anything to do with 'cute guys in Ohio'?" she asked.
"Not at all. What Zach's talking about is there was a time we both thought we might be gay. We kissed a couple of times. Turns out he's gay and I'm not. I guess that's why my initial reaction to Kurt surprised Finn so much. To me Kurt's just a guy, just kinda temperamental."
"You know, most guys would be ashamed to admit kissing another guy."
"Most guys are asses. You should hear the crap they say. Asses. 'Course some girls are asses. Not you though. That's why I love you."
"What did you just say?"
"Most guys are asses?"
"No, the other thing you just said."
"That's why I love you? I've said that before, haven't I?" he asked smiling.
"No, never."
"Oh, I guess I just thought it."
"I love you, too."
"I knew that already, but thanks for saying it out loud."
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