Chapter 13

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"You will find as you look back upon your life that the moments when you have really lived, are the moments when you have done things in a spirit of love." - Henry Drummond

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Sam and Katherine sat in an amicable silence for another fifteen minutes. The beeping of Martin's monitors providing an almost soothing lullaby. It was the sound of Katherine clearing her throat that got her attention.

"I need to call Martin's sisters to give them an update and get something to eat but I don't want Martin to wake up alone." Samantha felt her throat tighten at obviously hopefulness in Katherine's voice. "Can you stay with him until I return?"

"Of course," she replied.

After Katherine left, she took the opportunity to study Martin. She hardly recognized him. She tried looking beyond the tubes, bandages, and fluorescent lighting to find the man she spent the last eight months sharing the most intimate moments with.

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"Okay, I have one: your first kiss." Sam was lying alongside Martin with her head on his shoulder drawing lazy circles on his chest while he mimicked the motion on her bare hip. This was her favorite time: just the two of them, lying together talking and learning about each other.

"First time I kissed a girl or the first time the kiss really meant something?" he asked.

She looked up to see Martin smiling down at her. "Let's start with the first time you kissed a girl and work from there."

"Um, that would be Lily Stevens when I was 10. It was during a game of spin-the-bottle at my friend Jake Collins' birthday party."

Even in the dark she could see him smiling at the memory. "Was it your spin or hers?"

"Mine. I remember it was brief and wet. It lasted maybe a millisecond," he replied. "Okay, your turn, same question."

"Bobby Johnson. His older brother was dating my sister so we were forced to hang out. Bridget would always make us go outside so she and Ricky could be alone in the trailer and make-out. One day Bobby said maybe we should kiss so we can figure out what the big deal was. Mine lasted a little longer, maybe a full second. Afterwards we decided that our siblings were crazy for doing that on purpose and went to get ice-cream cones at the Dairy Queen." Sam smiled, reached up and quickly bussed Martin. "Fortunately, I have since revised my opinion."

"Thank god for that," he replied between kisses.

She finally pulled back so they could continue their late night Q&A. She smiled and said, "Your turn: your first real kiss."

"I was 13 this time and her name was Veronica Thompson. Oddly enough, it was at another birthday party for Jake. Only now we had upgraded from spin-the-bottle to seven minutes in heaven."

"Seven minutes in heaven?" Sam looked up at him questioningly.

"You don't know the game?" he asked. She shook her head. "Well, it's a variation of spin-the-bottle only this time you and the person your spin lands on have to go in the closet for seven minutes."

She lowered her eyes and softly said, "Well, that explains why we never played it. Not a lot of closet space in a trailer."

Martin hugged her a little bit tighter.

"Well, you didn't miss much. It was six-minutes and fifty-five seconds of awkwardness and stilted conversation. So, Veronica and I are standing in the closet trying not to make eye contact. Outside we could hear all our friends laughing so the mood was less than romantic. As the seven minutes were coming to an end they started counting-down. I kept thinking, make a move stupid! But I was frozen in place. I had no idea what to do when suddenly Veronica leaned over and just kissed me. It was surprisingly nice," he said in a soft voice as he recalled the memory. "We ended up 'dating' for three weeks. Well, middle school dating: carrying her books, eating lunch together, holding hands in the hallway, stuff like that. It might have lasted longer if her dad hadn't been transferred to Chicago."

Sam thought how that middle-school romance was precisely the kind of relationship that Martin wanted now: simple and very public. But they weren't uncomplicated pre-teens anymore. "That's really sweet. It seems you owe Jake a lot for having those parties. If it wasn't for those games you might never have seen any action."

Martin chuckled and she could feel it reverberating throughout her entire body. "No way, thanks to him it took me years to figure out how to get a girl to kiss me without using props."

This time it was Sam's turn to laugh.