Love and Marriage

Chapter Eighty-Five

Sam sat in the break room, sipping her decaf coffee and then occasionally stirring it with a straw. She was busy thinking about this past weekend. It was really hard to say goodbye to Martin, harder than she thought it would be. But he was coming back in two weeks. So that made her happy.

Maybe this compromise was a good thing. Maybe everything that was happening was happening to kick her into action. Up until now she had been solely talking about making changes. She talked about working through her baby issues, she talked about having children in the future, she talked about starting over with Martin, and she talked about changing her job. Now though, she was doing those things.

She was here in Houston, enjoying a better job with better co-workers than the job she had in New York. She was going to start over with Martin, and she was going to have a baby. That meant that she was going to have to deal with her anxieties and she was going to have to work on finding a way to deal with them in a constructive manner.

Life seemed to be pushing her in certain directions. Maybe now would be a good time to let go of her stubbornness and just go with the changes. Maybe she had to stop trying to control everything and just enjoy what was happening.

That would be easier said than done though. She still worried a lot of things. She worried that something would happen between her and Martin that would drive them apart, she worried that something might happen to Claire, and she worried that something would happen to the baby. If something did happen to this baby, she wasn't sure she would be able to recover.

She was trying not to worry about the baby, but it was hard. She'd have moments where she would freak out about it and almost have a panic attack. Luckily she was always able to stop herself from getting that worked up because she knew that panic attacks would not be good for the baby.

But still, she was anxious. And the dreams she had at night weren't helping. Ironically, the dreams stopped when Martin was there with her. But now that he was back in New York, the dreams invaded her sleep again.

Olivia came up to the table and sat down next to Samantha. "So, you never did tell me what happened with you and Martin this weekend."

Sam smiled. She was rather proud of Olivia for being able to wait until 10:30 to ask her about her weekend. She had suspected that it was hard not for Olivia not to bombard her with questions as soon as she saw her come into the bullpen. Somehow Olivia had managed to quell the curiosity for a couple of hours. "It was fine."

"That's all I get?" Olivia questioned. "That's your answer? It was fine?"

"I'm just joking with you. I'm going to tell you more than that." Sam assured her. "But it was fine. I told him about the baby and he was really happy about it."

"That's great!" Olivia smiled.

"Yeah." Sam nodded. "Oh, you should have seen his face once it sunk in. He was shocked at first. I think I shocked him into silence and then of course I thought that his silence meant he wasn't happy. So we had to straighten that out. But we're happy about this baby."

"I told you it would be alright." Olivia playfully pushed Samantha on the shoulder. "So did anything else exciting happen?"

"We went and saw that new animated movie that came out." Sam replied. "Have you taken Nikolas to see it?"

"No. I haven't had the time yet." Olivia shook her head. "Was it any good?"

"I don't know." Sam told her. "I wasn't paying attention to it. But Claire seemed to love it. Her eyes were glued to the screen the entire movie and that's all she wanted to talk about for the rest of the day."

"Well if Claire liked it then I bet Nikolas will too. I'll put it on the list of things to do with him this summer." Olivia replied, making a mental note to add that to the ever-growing list.

"It also looks like Martin will be coming to live here in two weeks." Sam casually said as she took another sip of her coffee.

"He's moving here as in permanently?" Olivia questioned.

"Yeah." Sam replied with a smile.

"I thought you two were still on a break." Olivia was confused, but also happy for her friend. Samantha actually had a genuine smile on her face for the first time since she started working here. It was good to see that she was finally finding some happiness and that things seemed to be working for her.

"We are, for two more weeks." Sam felt the need to explain. "We have an argument over the weekend about how much longer the break should last and eventually we settled on the idea that he goes back to New York and takes two weeks to get ready to move. He's going to pack up everything we left behind, put the house up for sale and he's going to come here even though he doesn't have a transfer yet."

"So what is he going to do until he gets a transfer?"

"He's just going to come down here and take care of Claire for a while until something opens up." Sam explained.

"Nikolas won't be very happy about that." Olivia frowned. "I think he's developed a little crush on Claire."

"Really?" Sam smiled.

"Yeah." Olivia nodded. "He's constantly talking about her."

"That's so cute." A little crush like that was cute to Sam, only because she knew that Claire and Nikolas were only little kids and she didn't have to worry about them sneaking off to closets and making out. Crushes among kids Claire and Nikolas' age meant that they would draw or play tag together. It was sweet.

"I agree." Olivia agreed.

"Well I'm sure that we could try and schedule a play date for them." Sam suggested.

"Sounds like this is a very well thought out plan." Olivia praised.

"I wish I could take the credit for it, but it was actually his idea."

Olivia laughed. "Well men usually have at least one good idea every year. Maybe that was his."

Sam laughed with her. "Maybe."

"So you're ok with the break ending so soon?" Olivia asked.

"Yeah." Sam nodded. "I think I am. I think it's what we all need, especially now with the baby and everything."

"I'm sure that it's all going to work out for you." Olivia smiled.

"Thanks Olivia." Sam smiled back. "Even though we haven't been working together very long, you've still been a really good friend to me and I appreciate it. It's nice having another person to bounce ideas off of every once and a while."

"Honestly, it's no problem." Olivia replied. "I enjoy talking to you."

She checked her watch and noticed that she had been in the break room for too long. "Agh, back to paperwork I guess."

Olivia checked her watch. "I still have a few minutes left of my break."

"Lucky devil." Sam laughed as she got up and headed back to her desk.