Chapter 29 – Truth and Lies
Saturday, June 19, 2004

Blearily, Martin opened his eyes, even the tiny shaft of light that found its way into the room at the edges of the drapes caused him pain. His head was pounding and a wave of nausea swept over him. He rolled himself off the side of the bed and sat on its edge deciding whether or not his legs would hold him. He scanned the room, trying to recollect last night. His eyes panned the bed next to him and noticed the locks of blonde hair on the pillow above the lump in the covers. Instantly he remembered propositioning a prostitute, the headache and nausea were but fleeting memories. He blurted out in the direction of the woman, "Aren't you people supposed to leave after you're finished?"

Samantha heard Martin's voice and immediately she realized that she'd slept much longer than she'd anticipated and would now have to explain the situation to Martin. Slowly she processed his words and comprehended that Martin thought that she was the prostitute that he had hired last night. She giggled to herself, then rolled over to let Martin see that it was her in his bed and not some hardened woman from the street.

Martin had stood up and moved away from the bed, grateful that he still had his boxers on. The woman began to move and rolled over to face him. Martin was still backing up when he saw Samantha's face on the woman's body that had lain next to him all night. He stumbled when he backed into the chair and fell down. He heard Samantha laughing at him. Martin allowed himself to sit on the floor for a few minutes to collect himself. He berated himself for getting so drunk—drunk enough that he obviously didn't remember having sex with Samantha.

Samantha watched as Martin fell over in astonishment. She got up from the bed and approached him while he was still seated on the floor. She reached out a hand to help him up and he took it.

Martin grabbed Samantha's hand, but could not look her in the eyes. He was too embarrassed about not remembering that they'd been together, but he noted that she was fully clothed in the dress she'd worn the night before. He stood, too close to her, not knowing what he should do—hug her, kiss her? In his confusion, he blurted out, "Did we ...? Because, honestly, and I'm sorry, but I really don't remember." His face had turned bright red and try as he might he couldn't look her in the eyes.

"You don't remember last night?" Samantha asked.

"No, I'm sorry," he mumbled. "I couldn't have been at my best, you'll have to give me another chance."

Samantha suppressed a giggle and put Martin at ease, "No, Martin we didn't have sex." She guided him over to the bed and made him sit down. Then, she began refreshing his memory. "After you, um," it was her turn to be embarrassed, "listened to Jack's messages, I followed you, but knew you wouldn't want to see me so I stayed in my room for a while. Then I went looking for you, but you'd left, so I walked toward town to find you. It didn't take long, you were on the street, very drunk, and, um, you were, um, ..."

"Hiring a hooker," Martin supplied the words she didn't know how to say. "Yes, I remember that, but then I turned and there was this blonde hooker there and I chose her."

Samantha listened to his recitation of the events and prompted, "And do you remember anything about the blonde, like what she looked like, or what she was wearing?"

Martin eyed Samantha curiously, but bit the bullet and answered, "Yeah, okay, she looked like you. No matter how hard I try I can't get you out of my mind, so I thought that I'd try the next best thing, since you are so obviously unavailable." Martin felt good, it felt good to get his feelings out in the open so he continued, "Why couldn't you just tell me that you and Jack were back together? Why did you have to lie to me, we were getting along really well and now I don't know how much of that was pretend too."

Samantha was hurt by Martin's allegations that's she'd been lying all week so she played her cards too. "Oh, like how you've been so honest with me. I don't think I recall seeing your mother around. She's really going to wonder why I sent her flowers since she's not even sick," Samantha spat at him.

Martin's face turned into a grin, "You sent my mom flowers?"

"Yes, with a nice little 'Get Well' card. Maybe you could explain to her that you used her in a little ruse rather than let her continue to think that I'm a crazy lunatic."

Martin brought the argument back to its focus, "You know why I lied about that Sam, I couldn't be there, ... I couldn't see you ..."

"And I didn't want to see the hurt look in your eyes when I told you that Jack and I had started dating again." Samantha paused, "Besides it doesn't matter, Jack and I are through ... for good." Then, for some reason she didn't quite understand she added, "We never ... you know. I guess I knew it just wasn't right to be back together with him."

Martin mulled over her words some, then spoke, "So you came down here for this vacation to get away from Jack, not because of the deposition. You just didn't want to face Jack knowing that you were really ending it with him. I thought that you were stronger than that Sam, I thought you were the type of person who faced her problems head on."

Samantha heard the disappointment in his voice and the sincerity with which he believed in her strength. She knew at that moment that she had to let him know, let him know everything about her decision to get away from New York. "No, Martin. Breaking up with Jack was not the main reason I couldn't face him, it was the deposition, only it's so much more than testifying for Jack's divorce. So much more ..." She motioned for Martin to sit on the bed, then she pulled the chair up next to it and sat down. She faced Martin and took his hands into hers and began to tell him the whole story.

TBC