Chapter 21

Sam managed to keep her new man away from her mother by virtue of Pam's being in another state for the holiday season. The new couple attended a Christmas party hosted by Spencer at his place along with Carly, Freddie, Melanie, her current boyfriend, Spencer's girlfriend of nearly two months and a few of their common, older friends.

As the evening wore to a close, the Puckett sisters and their dates left while Carly and Freddie stayed behind to help clean up. Nick was driving Sam back to her mother's place and they were talking about various things in the car.

"So this Freddie guy. I take it he's your ex, huh?"

"Yeah. We dated in high school, How'd you know, did Carly or Mel say something?" She asked, wondering if he was psychic or just fishing.

"No. I could just tell." He shrugged.

"No way." Sam argued, not thinking it was that obvious. "You're full of crap."

"Yes way. And I can also tell you guys have a vibe between you." He said with little concern.

"Wrong!" She protested. "There's no vibe. He's my best friend's boyfriend. Nothing more."

"Sam, I spent almost seven years married to a woman who was cheating on me for the last four with an old flame she hooked up with at her high school class reunion, who she swore was just a friend. I think I know the signals."

Sam huffed, not only was this dude onto something, but he was starting to sound like he was making an accusation.

"Hey, I'm not saying you're doing anything wrong, I just can see you two have some kind of chemistry. Let me guess, it was a mutual breakup. Mustn't have been too bad, you certainly don't act like you hate each other."

"When we actually dated, which was, like, in tenth grade, we split up because we weren't compatible. That's it, end of story. No vibe, no feelings. He's a friend. Who's dating my best friend. Period." Sam tried to convince herself of this as much as the man driving the car.

"Oh, come on. You guys have more going on than some leftover puppy love crush from when you weren't even old enough to drive. Did you two hook up after high school or something? Some kind of summer fling?" Again with the accusation.

"Can we just drop it, please? I don't have the hots for Fredward. Yes, that's his name, his mother is a weirdo." She began to close up and he knew it, she'd done it before when they talked about her parents' divorce. "I'm dating you, he's been with Carls for over a year, no one's cheating on anyone. No one is crushing on anyone. No one's hooking up with anyone. Well, I guess Frednub and Carly probably make the beast with two backs once in a while, but that's not my concern and it's beside the point."

Her reaction just made him dig deeper. His stubbornness was something she admired most of the time. "But you two did more than casually date six plus years ago. You've went out with him since, maybe? No, wait, he your first time wasn't he?"

Sam tried to brush it off by telling him the truth, or at least a portion of it to try to throw him off the trail and get him off her back about it. "Alright, alright, you got me. He was my first kiss, if you must know. It was in eighth grade I think, or ninth, I don't remember. Neither of us had ever kissed anyone. It was just to get it over with. It was stupid. It didn't mean anything, I didn't even like him back then. Believe it or not, he was way more annoying when we were kids. If that's even possible."

Nick saw through her ruse and kept prodding. "No, not first kiss. I mean, was he your first, um, the first guy you ever . . . ?"

"Oh, we are soooo not having this conversation, mister!" She cracked. "Look, Nick, I like you and all but there's something you need to know. Something I never told you because, quite frankly, it's none of your frickin' business since we're not that serious. And if this makes you all weird or worse, creepy and pervy; and you start treating me different, I'll kick your ass. And you know I can. It's not something I go around bragging about like my sister does, but . . . " She hesitated for a few seconds. " . . . I'm a virgin."

"Why would that be weird?" He said flatly as they pulled into her mother's driveway. "It's not something you should be ashamed of, Sam. It's actually kind of admirable for a girl your age."

"I just figured I should tell you because we've been dating for a while and sooner or later you're going to want to do more than kiss me and sneak a feel under my shirt. It's why you really invited me along on that weekend thing last fall, wasn't it? Then you realized Aunt Flo was in town and you backed off, got us separate rooms and all."

"Um, actually no. I got us separate rooms because, despite the fact that I'm in my thirties and have been married and divorced, my parents were along and they'd never approve of two unmarried people sharing a hotel room. Even if there were two beds. And I actually invited you along because I wanted to share a family tradition with you. It's been a couple of years since I took anyone when the family went out there and that was my bitch of an ex-wife. So I really wanted my most recent memory to be a more positive one."

Sam realized she was being unreasonable with a man who seemed to actually have some integrity. "I'm sorry, Nick. I don't mean to be looking for an ulterior motive, it's just that, well I figured sooner or later you'd want some action. And I just don't know if I'm ready, that's all. Maybe some day, but I don't know when that'll be."

In all reality, Sam had never been able to see herself with Nick for the long haul. She certainly could never see herself being intimate with him. Even doing the kind of things she used to do with Freddie, heavy petting, and the like seemed like a far fetched idea.

"The way I look at it, I've been in a relationship that was based on the physical. Jess and I did it on our first date. We had a good time, sure, but everything we had was about sex. We didn't really even know each other when we got married for Pete's sake. We were only together for a little over a year when we tied the knot and we actually had little in common. I certainly didn't know the real her or I would have realized she was a big old slut. Seriously, she'd screw a baseball bat if it was warmed up in the sun for a half hour. I just wish I could have seen it earlier."

Sam smirked at his assessment of his ex.

"Sam, I'd rather get to know the real you than be physical. Sure, if things work out and all, that will come, but after one bad experience, I'd rather not rush into things. And it sounds like you're not into rushing either. Otherwise, you'd not have made it to your twenties without having sex at least once."

She immediately realized what a good guy he was, took down her wall and told the truth. "Thanks. I appreciate that. And yeah, me and Freddie hooked up after we actually dated. We didn't exactly do it but we fooled around, did plenty of other things. I'm just not in hurry to do that kind of stuff again but I'm not totally frigid. I worry about my sister by times, though. If she doesn't soon find herself a decent guy, she's gonna have to buy those bunny batteries by the case."

He just shook his head at her saying something like that.

Sam needed to come clean with someone and Nick was a good listener, almost as good as Spencer, better in some ways if she thought about it. "To be perfectly honest, Freddie's the reason I moved back here from L.A. in the first place. But then I found out he and Carly had hooked up and she was even pregnant to him. I kind of flipped and hated them both for a while. I was on the verge of just leaving town but I didn't really have anywhere else to go or any money to go with. Then Carly got hurt and lost the baby and I felt bad for hating her. I got over it, I met you, we started going out, Freddie is still with Carls. Things are just different with him and I then they were years ago."

"And you're not ready to move on from him?"

"Yes I am!" She protested. "I do NOT have a thing for my best friend's guy. Bu -but Freddie and I shared some good times together and, well, it's just hard to put it in the past that's all. Like you said, it's not like I hate him or anything. It's just all effed up."

As they left for home, Carly and Freddie were also having a discussion about Sam.

"What did you think of Sam's boyfriend?" She asked.

"Um, he's cool, I guess."

"Not really the kind of guy I'd picture Sam with, but he seems really nice." Carly added.

"What kind of guy do you picture her with?"

"I don't know. This dude's just so old. I mean, he's what, Spencer's age? And he's kind of a big guy. I guess I always pictured her with a different kind of man."

"What, like some biker dude with tattoos and a shaved head?" He frowned.

"God, no!" She sneered. "I just sort of figured Sam liked guys who were more like, well, like you. You know, not so big and burly, more of a white collar man, someone professional, like a lawyer or an accountant or something."

"And someone a little closer our age?"

"Well, that too." She agreed.

"As long as she's happy, Carls. And he seems like a real decent fellow. He actually treats her with respect and maybe this is just an act, but he isn't all handsy like I pictured someone his age being with a younger gal. I swear the only time I saw him touch her all night, was when he helped her put her coat on."

"You're right. When she told me she was seeing an older guy, I sort of figured he'd be all over a younger girl, practically smothering her and treating her like a pet."

The young couple returned to their home and got ready to turn in for the night. Carly was tired and ready to fall asleep right away but Freddie's sleep came a little harder. All he could think about was the fact that Sam was dating, and what seemed to be a really decent man. While Nick gravitated more toward people his own age as opposed to the recent college graduates at the party, he was friendly and cordial to all the younger people. He was especially respectful to Sam and Melanie. At least he wasn't like that d-bag that Melanie brought. For her sake, he hoped she'd soon cut him loose.

For such a nice girl, Mel sure seemed to take up with some jerks. This one was so full of himself it wasn't funny. He acted like he was God's gift to the city of Seattle and every single woman in it. While Sam's date seemed like he was content to leave her be herself, Mel's guy was never more than two feet away from her, obviously listening to every word she said and not afraid to contradict her with his own opinions. Freddie thought he wouldn't be surprised if he was the type of man to try to force her to do things she wasn't comfortable with.

Carly's medications for the head injury had been all but eliminated and, even though she still seemed depressed by times, for the major part she was feeling better all over. She had even got her part time job at Skybanks back and begun working on her final semester of college in the fall. With any luck, and the fact that she had credits banked from school in Italy, she'd be able to get her degree finished up soon.

It had been months since she also insisted that Sam no longer baby sit her constantly when Freddie wasn't around. Still, Sam couldn't help but stop by several times a week just to check up on her.

The girls became closer than ever and together with Melanie became an almost inseparable trio. On more than one occasion, they even had 'girls day' at a spa or salon and often enjoyed an evening sitting around Carly's watching movies and gossiping while Freddie worked a late or was doing something to appease his mother. Carly was surprised that the twins were able to be in the same room without being at each other's throats but she realized that was probably because they had someone else there with them.

One thing that became obvious to all around them, was that Sam wasn't all that close to Nick. Sure, they did stuff together, especially on the weekends, but she hardly talked about him and they only rarely spent any time together throughout the week. And when they were together, they didn't hold hands, kiss constantly or share any other of that nasty PDA that Sam hated so much.

Although it was weird for him to see his girlfriend and the one girl he was still hung up on so chummy, Freddie was just glad Carly was starting to show signs of getting back to her old self and he tried to act normal around them all.

Unfortunately, his feelings toward Sam were beginning to invade his dreams and cause him a few sleepless nights. Being so caught up wrestling his own demons, Freddie had trouble seeing that Carly was still secretly depressed inside. She did a good job of hiding it but it finally came out the closer they got to the anniversary of the accident, January 5th.

Now, I couldn't have hardly made it January 3rd, could I?