The Apartment
11: Put everything on the table
Sam had just begun rinsing dishes when she heard Freddie begin to stutter and stammer. She hadn't been listening in on his side of the phone call to his mother, but he was just sitting at the table, not ten feet from her. She turned off the water, dried her hands, walked over behind him and took the phone from his hand.
"Mrs. B! Sam here, how have you been? Your son and I have decided to try things out again and we wanted to invite you out to see the new house…
Yes, you can come anytime… there's a room for you… yes, stay as long as you want. Just remember what Mr. Franklin said about fish and house guests... right, I'll tell him… it's good to hear from you too… bye."
"Text her the address, she'll be here Monday evening." Sam told Freddie while handing him back his phone.
"I'm… I'm amazed I guess… I wouldn't have thought…" Fred started to say.
"Look, she's your mother… and that's all I should have to say about that." Sam replied snippily.
"Okay… can I help?" Fred asked.
Sam's reply was to hand him a dishtowel and point to the stack of dishes and pans she'd washed. They worked in silence for a moment, until Sam stopped washing silverware and asked: "So, you go by Fred now, huh. I can't blame you, but it'll take some getting used too. I'll try."
"Either is good…" He said shrugging.
Sam glanced over at him for a moment, and shrugged as well. They worked silently for a few more minutes until Sam sighed.
"What?" Freddie asked.
"You know what. There's an elephant in the room the size of Mount Rushmore. We kind of did things backwards again, and it's time to get all this out on the table." She said while putting down the remaining just washed silverware in front of him.
Fred looked at her for a moment… too long a moment. He nodded, pulled the two just dried coffee cups out of the cupboard and filled them with coffee. His black, hers with two and two…
"Let's do this sitting down…" He said carrying their coffee to the table and sitting down. He pushed her cup in front of the chair across the table.
Sam studied him for a moment, unsure what he was getting at with the 'sitting down' business. She turned off the water, dried her hands and joined him.
"So… what's wrong?" She asked after sipping her coffee.
"Yeah, you're right. We're ass backwards again, but that's no reason to leave, Sam." He said as he looked her in the eye.
"Who said anything about leaving? First, I wouldn't still be here if I thought this was a lost cause…" She started.
He started to say something, but she held up her hand to silence him. He nodded.
"Let me finish. We're not kids; this isn't about blazing hormones and trembling gropes. Sure, I'm very, very fond of you Freddie, and I truly think I could fall back in love with you easily, but I'm not there now… but, not all that far off either… I feel like I did when we were kids. I can't explain it. Did you know that I did all kinds of crazy stuff just to be around you? Look, Carly was a great friend, nearly a sister, and I did kind of live there when I was little just so I could get fed… but after I was older I was only there constantly because of you, so I could be around you." She continued.
"You're kidding." He said, amazed.
"No I'm not… I had it bad for you." She said staring at her coffee cup and slightly shaking her head.
"But, you dated guys… you went out and stuff." Fred stated.
"Sure I did… I did it to try to get a rise out of you! And then finally I realized guys are clueless." She said smiling up at him.
Fred had been studying her face and hands while she spoke. She wasn't nervous, she wasn't anything. She was stating how she felt… which frankly amazed him. It used to take days of conditioned actions and conniving to get her to say anything about her feelings. This was new ground, and he really, really liked it. He momentarily considered complimenting her on it, but decided against it. No sense getting off track, off subject, just yet.
"…so here's what I propose. Let's give this a while… see what happens. See if we work again. You know, we worked before. I was an idiot when I threw you out…"
He began to shake his head.
"…no! I was and you know it. I was a royal bitch to you… and I'm sorry."
"Sam, you're right, you were!" He grinned.
"Well, you didn't have to agree so quickly!" She said, chuckling.
"Do you believe in fate?" He asked.
She looked at him, thinking that the question was kind of cheesy, but also kind of accurate.
"I've never really thought about it… I don't know. Considering this…" making air quotes "…maybe… I've never considered us some kind of star crossed lovers meant to be… but here we are. I guess fate is as good a way to explain it as anything else." She reflected.
He looked at her for a moment, and then said; "Yeah, well I do. I believe in fate. And you're right; this isn't about raging hormones…"
"Blazing hormones… blazing." Sam interrupted, grinning.
Fred paused for a moment, smiled and continued; "…okay, blazing hormones… anyway, this… us, it's… It's about comfort, but not complacency. It's about being comfortable with you, trusting you… someone, I don't remember who, but somebody said 'Love is friendship that has caught fire. It is quiet understanding, mutual confidence, sharing and forgiving. It is loyalty through good and bad times. It settles for less than perfection and makes allowances for human weaknesses.' And that's us… it's the way I feel anyway. Oh, and attraction… I certainly can not say I'm not attracted to you. You're beautiful, sexy and, and…"
"Good in the sack?" Sam asked laughing.
"Well, I can hardly remember the sack, but the shower and bathroom counter? Yeah… you're great." He replied, laughing.
Sam sobered quickly. He knew something else was coming, but not what. He knew there was something else he wanted to say, but put it on hold until whatever was going through her head came out.
She didn't speak… she looked about the table, the room… if there hadn't been a roof over their heads she would have looked up into the sky. Confused, he decided to open his can, and tickle the worms.
"…and scary." He said.
Her expression 'popped'. He wasn't sure if it was disbelief or mild irritation. She pursed her lips, looked at her coffee cup then up at him.
"Scary? What? Scary how?" She quarried petulantly.
He didn't say anything… he just sat there 'gathering'. She was starting to get… well, angry. Scary… she looked up at him doing everything she could to put herself in his place. Trying to keep from saying or doing something…
"Yeah, scary… look Sam, we had something good going on before. Yeah, I may have gotten jealous for a bit… may have… no, I did get jealous. We worked past that though… at least I thought we did. Things got better again, and then you hit me with the space thing. You needed space… I needed space… I don't remember which of us needed this space in your opinion. Probably both of us… all I can tell you is, it hurt."
"Oh… well in that context, yeah… scary. Me too… but it's obvious we both think it's worth the risk, so…" She replied.
Fred nodded.
"Do you know my sister would not talk to me for months after I threw you out? Heck, she wanted your phone number. I realized just how much I'd screwed up when mom approved. When she told me I'd done the right thing… That's when I knew I'd made one of those life changing mistakes you always read about. You know… there are two ways this will go. This relationship will either be an epic failure or we'll be together until we drop dead. I'm betting on the latter." She said.
Fred nodded, again.
"Also, this speed dating thing is a gamble. We're not the same people we were back then. Tossing both of us both into this so soon bothers me a little bit. But I can also see your point." She continued.
Fred wasn't exactly sure how he should respond to that, so he shrugged.
"So here's the deal Mr. Trouser Snake, we really don't need to go out tonight. However, you do need to run a couple errands. First, to the drug store to pick up a millennium pack of condoms. I'm not on the pill, but I'll make an appointment Monday and get that taken care of. Second, be thinking about what you want to eat tonight, and go to the grocery store and get it. I'm cooking. Okay?"
"Sure, perfect…" he said, mildly surprised.
Sam looked down at her coffee for a moment, obviously lost in thought. Fred watched her think. The way her mouth moved slightly… that was an old trait that had obviously lasted. The way her brow scrunched… he was waiting for the blink. The blink that told him she had made up her mind about something. The blink always followed a slight grimace… grimace, blink… decision. Ever since he'd known her, even as a child, when ever she had been in deep thought, considering something important, she'd always gone into this 'state'. This wasn't for normal day to day decisions… this near trance she was in only happened during the life altering ones. He continued watching her face…
A blink, but no grimace… she's not done yet. A slight nod… this was new, this nod. He wondered where it fell in the decision making process. She clenched her hands, unclenched them, took her coffee cup in both and raised it to her lips… then sat it back down without taking a drink. Another blink swiftly followed by a slight eye roll.
She chewed her bottom lip. That was important… the lip chewing. She was nearly finished. She nodded to herself again… scrunched her brow, glanced up at him, smiled slightly, nodded her head, scratched her arm, picked up her coffee and took a sip…
And stopped all movement, her expression serene, composed… beautiful. She grimaced, she blinked, and then she looked up at him, smiled and said with complete finality:
"I'm moving."
-x-x-x-
Okay! One more chapter to go on this one, and I hope to have it up sometime over the next two weeks. I've also updated what had been a collaboration, but is now just me finishing a story. The title is 'Until You're Mine Again' and I'm writing it under the collaboration name of 'Boxofpiglets'. Look it up, it's a fun 'M' rated read.
:pig~
=Required reading=
Anything by these fine authors:
KingxLeon21
Dwyn Arthur
heartlines
Moviepal
TheWrtrInMe
WhiteKnightro
WildPomegranate
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