A/N: Mia Madison's Weekend in Paradise is the inspiration for and deserves credit for fifty percent of this story. RIB's Glee universe is about twenty percent. I changed a lot. I was working on a longer, more challenging story, but it was too time consuming to do on my spring break, so I found this little tale that I could update and share before I head back to the nine to five. This is for Whoknowstv...and all the other fans who want a quick Samcedes read that will be updated and finished within a week's time. Please forgive all my mistakes. I am very rusty.
Chapter One
"Mercedes, pretty, pretty please with a cherry on top."
Tina had been begging me to accompany her and Mike and his best friend to an all expenses paid week long couple retreat to Cancun Mexico. The arrangements for the trip had been in last March when prices were at an all time low because of the coronavirus. Mike's best friend had broken up with his girlfriend in June because he wouldn't break quarantine to see her.
Mike and his best friend were medical students and doing their practicums in hospitals during the pandemic. She and Tina had become roommates because she was pre dentistry, and Tina was pre medicine. Mike was a senior their freshman year, and was a peer advisor in the Minorities in Science mentor program that their college offered to all promising students of color.
I was not shocked when the two began dating Tina's sophomore year when Tina's excuses for Mike to tutor her in physics were finally made known to Mike as an excuse for her to spend more time with the upperclassmen, and the two had been stuck like glue during their next two years of college.
When I changed her major during the fall of my junior year, I spent less and less time with Mike and my roommate. Mike was in his last year of med school, and Tina would be beginning her first year in the fall. All of us had demanding schedules, and Tina really had a valid excuse of using this trip to spend more time together for them all.
However, I felt like I hadn't been included when the four of them had made plans for the trip initially, and I didn't feel as if I should feel guilty in refusing to go now that there was an extra spot for me. I finally asked my roomie why didn't Mike's friend just cancel his reservation before the deadline.
Tina explained how Mike thought that Sam would have found somebody new by Spring Break, but he hadn't. Then, she had come up with the idea of me going so Sam wouldn't feel like a third wheel at a couple's retreat. I had been telling her no every time she tried to talk me into going.
"Mercedes, you know that the student union is closed and that you have completed all of your classwork. You have nothing to do during Spring Break."
What Tina didn't know was that I was trying to get hired as a singer at a local hot spot. When I changed my major to voice and education from pre medicine, my daddy decided he was no longer going to pay for my college degree. I was a super senior because I had changed my major junior year, and I was ineligible for financial aid because of my parent's income. But now that I was twenty-one, I had emancipated myself and would be eligible for loans and grants to pay for me staying in school and getting my masters degree in education.
However, I needed money to pay my share of Tina's and my rent for the summer. There was no way I was going back home to that toxic atmosphere. I had a job on campus working at the student union during the school year during the day time. This night job at the Stallion would help me out considerably..
Five days in Mexico with my best friend would have been incredible, were it not a vacation at a couples resort. But, I needed to work and earn money this break. It was hard getting singing gigs because of Covid. This opportunity at the Stallion would be the first time I had performed life since the pandemic. I was looking forward to 2022 being my year. Since I wouldn't be graduating with Tina in May, I was looking forward to December when I would be able to get my degree and actually teach in a school and not do the online student teaching that I had to during my practicums. The schools were opening up in Fall of 2022, and I would be doing my student teaching with face to face instruction.
I had plans to work as a teacher while pursuing my Masters in the online education program. That way I would be able to afford to live by myself if Tina and Mike decide to move in with each other when he finishes his residency next year.
"I don't think I should go, TC. I really need to be working and not Mexico for five days," I said. "And I don't really know Mike's best friend that well at all?"
We always used our initials when we really wanted the other to listen to what we are saying. It was something that we only did with each other. She was the only person to call me MJ, and I was the only person to call her TC.
"MJ, you have been around Sam more than once pre Covid. Since Covid, you haven't been able to spend time with him and Mike, but don't act like you don't know Sam Evans, the dorky white guy who looks like a male model."
I was very familiar with Mike having known him pre Covid. And of course I had gone with Tina to parties at the frat house that Sam and Mike belonged to. Sam was very quiet, and I was an introvert, so the two of us having any conversations indepedent of Tina and Mike never happened.
"I need more details than physical characteristics, TC. His major was astronomy. I remember thinking that that was the weirdest pre med major ever. Does this guy even have a sense of humor?"
"He comes from old money. The only reason he was in the fraternity. He has had only one girlfriend his entire life. He met her when he attended a school dance with his boarding school's sister school. He gave the girl a promise ring and everything while they were juniors in high school. They had purity rings and everything, a typical WASP relationship She along with his father encouraged him to enter medical school when he only wanted to be an astronomer. When she graduated from here three years ago, she got a job as an actress on a soap opera."
"And?" I saw trying to get Tina to wrap things up.
"She began cheating on him when Covid forced her soap to stop airing new episodes. It seems that Katherine had developed a little drug problem and her parents refused to support her habit and pay for her drugs. She blamed Sam for not being there for her during the pandemic when her habit and lifestyle as a sugar baby was exposed by her best friend, Brittany on her YouTube show."
"What the hell Tee?"
"I told you this last December. It was when Sam and Mike were vaccinated, and Sam was finally making arrangements to visit Katherine in New York. Instead Artie Abrams, another friend of Sam, had shared the video with him. Katherine was high and telling all her business to Brittany. She ended up losing her job, and her parents put her in rehab. Sam broke up with her, and he hasn't been on a date with anyone since Katherine broke his heart."
"But, surely Sam has girls he is friends with or who Mike is friends with that can take Katherine's place."
"Maintaining friendships with med students during a pandemic hasn't been easy. Case in point me and you. You have been through a lot just like Sam. You and he both deserve this trip. Besides the resort policy states the trip is nonrefundable, and nontransferable. Sam already paid for the majority of the trip. She doesn't need to spend his break moping about Katherine, and you need to live a little. Have fun. When was the last time we did anything together besides study and watch Netflix?."
"I just don't feel like it's ethical to pretend to be a relationship with somebody." That sounded sanctimonious like something my Baptist parents would say. People who claimed to live by the Bible, but who were not opposed to using manipulation and disowning a child if said child disagreed with them.
"MJ, Sam just needs a plus one to get into the resort. Once we are in the resort, you two can go your separate ways."
I tuned Tina out as she continued to list out the reasons I needed to go like a free vacation to Mexico was not enough. She showed me pictures from the resort and the food (which we were both foodies and loved food porn), and pointed out how I was due for a vacation. That I should treat myself.
I didn't want to admit it but Tina was wearing me down. Especially the pictures of the sunshine and tranquility that seemed to await me for free instead of the damp and cold Midwest of Chicago.
"What do you say?" She stirred her cherry vodka sour as we sat around the island in her kitchen. The place was gorgeous, and she didn't pay rent. Mike owned it. He let her move in when her previous lease ended.
I grumbled in contemplation. I hadn't enjoyed my Spring Break in over two years. My free time had been completely devoted to Mom. While part of me desired to have a carefree college experience for once, another part of me was loyal to my mother's needs. Not to mention, our survival.
Tina smacked her hand on the table. "Hello? Earth to Mercedes?"
"I planned to work next week…"
Tina's eyes narrowed in suspicion. "But you're not allowed to work during Spring Break, The student union is closed."
"I am starting a new job singing at the Stallion." I lied, but only partially.
"Where exactly are you working and how much are they paying you? The value of this trip including flights and souvenirs to Secrets Maroma Beach Riviera Cancun is worth $5,000. You can't be getting paid that much to give this opportunity up."
The Stallion or Cancun? A job I wasn't assured of or a vacation probably the last one I will have at such a luxurious place since the pandemic hadn't encouraged me to seek out a significant other.
"I can tell you are seeing the common sense of it all. You can pick up some extra money tutoring. If the job at the club is for you, then it will be there for you when we get back. Besides that, you are the only education major that has taken two years of sciences. I am sure you can tutor both high school and some undergraduates in science online and in person if you need some extra bucks. I promise to help you with this when we get back. Now let's go get you packed."
"I haven't agreed to go, TC." I protested to my bff.
It was easy for Tina to do as she pleased. She had the support of her parents and a guy who she was more than likely going to marry when she completed medical school. She would never have to worry about finances.
"Do we need to go shopping? I can't remember the last time I saw you in a bathing suit."
"Tina, I don't need to be spending money on buying things to go to Cancun. I need money to pay rent and utilities, to pay for my cell phone, to pay for my gas to my school that I will be student teaching in the fall, to pay for groceries and other essential items.."
Tina looked at me like she wanted to shake some sense into me. "No you don't. MJ our bills are getting paid. I can afford to pay three-fourths of the rent, utilities, groceries, etc.. While I am in medical school and you are teaching you can pay it back. No problem."
I was astonished. She really didn't get it.
"Can't you see. You are paying for most of our living expenses because all my money went to paying for thing sor my classes. It is not right. I should pay my half."
"Why?" Her expression changed. Concern spread over her pretty features as she realized she didn't know everything. "If our situations were reversed can you honestly tell me that you wouldn't do the same for me?"
Oh hell, she had me there and she knew it.
Without waiting for a reply, Tina told me more about the resort, its endless pools, and bottomless drinks and buffets. It was filled with couples activities, but there was more than enough opportunity for me to sneak away and clear my mind.
"There's a gym, meditation, and plenty of places to sit and rest. The fresh air of the tropics will do you wonders."
She placed her hands on my shoulders and pushed away slightly to look at me. "And trust me. You have nothing to worry about. Sam's really cool and sweet. He needs this break as much as you do. He and Mike have been under a lot of stress working in hospitals during a pandemic and having his heart broken in a public way."
"Okay, Tee, I am going, you don't have to have me crying for some dude who has probably had at least two rebound relationships since getting free from a toxic relationship.
"I don't know about that. I think that you and Sam could work out a friends with benefits arrangement to give you a week of endless orgasms. He is almost as hot as my Mike." She winked.
I twisted my head and looked at her. My eyes were flat with annoyance, sending the message, I don't care. I didn't care how hot this guy was. He could have been the hottest guy on Earth, and he still wouldn't be enough to distract me or sexy enough to convince me to have a week long affair with him.
Tina sighed. "Look, he's hot, smart, and from old long money. The only reason why Mike and I think you would be perfect to be his plus one is that he usually has a bunch of girls chasing him who would love to go. But he doesn't need to bring any of them. Taking them on a vacation like this would make them think there's more to this than it really is. He's even talked about hiring someone to come with him. He really just wants to get away and have a good time. Something that the both of you damn it not just you two but all four us need to do."