A Fool To Think
Chapter Four
Their food had come before Martin had to ask Samantha her question and he hoped that everyone would forget that he hadn't asked a question because he really didn't want to talk to her. He also had no idea what kind of question he would ask her. All of the questions he wanted to ask her weren't the kind of questions that should be asked in front of their co-workers.
Unfortunately, Vivian was a very observant person and noticed that Martin hadn't participated in their little activity to get to know Samantha. Not only did she notice, but she pointed it out too.
"Martin, don't forget that it's your turn to ask Samantha something." Vivian told him as she spun some strands of spaghetti around her spoon.
Danny watched as Martin cringed a little and wondered if he should intervene to save both Martin and Sam from having to ask questions.
"Who could forget?" Martin mumbled. This was the last thing that he wanted to do, but decided to get it over with. He didn't look at her while he asked his question. Instead he simply tapped his fingers on his glass to keep himself occupied. "I'll ask you an easy question. What's your favorite food?"
She breathed a sigh of relief when she heard his question. He really could have opened up a huge can of worms by asking something more personal, but instead he stuck to a generic question that no one really cared about. She was grateful for that. "Chinese." She replied, thinking of what she could ask him.
He was slightly amused to find out that her favorite food hadn't changed in the past ten years. She still loved Chinese food. When they were going out, she seemed to always have a full box of Chinese food handcuffed to her hand.
She'd eat it while she was studying, claiming that it helped her get good grades. But she didn't need the Chinese food. She didn't even really need to study. She was smart enough that she never had to study. But she always did anyway. He guessed that was because of the need she felt to prove to her family that she was smart and could actually do something positive with her life. He had always admired that about her.
"I can't think of anything to ask you right now." Sam told him and the rest of the table, staring at her plate. "So I guess I'll just go ahead and ask you the same question you asked me. What's your favorite food?"
"Pepperoni pizza." Martin replied before returning his attention to his food.
She also returned her attention to her food and thought back to his answer. She couldn't help but be amused that his favorite food hadn't changed over the past decade. When they were going out, his room at the fraternity house was always cluttered with old pizza boxes. He ate pizza all the time and vividly remembered one week where he ate pizza for breakfast, lunch and dinner for seven days straight.
Vivian looked over at Danny, silently asking about what was going on between Martin and Samantha. There was obviously something that didn't add up with them. But Danny just shrugged his shoulders, not wanting to repeat anything that Samantha had told him.
Jack was completely oblivious to the tension between two of his subordinates and started a brand new conversation.
"That was very good. It was fun." Samantha commented once they were done. They had all walked back to the office so that they could get to their cars. Vivian was already heading over to her car.
"Goodnight everyone." Vivian waved.
"Goodnight!" The rest of them called out.
"So Jack, when am I going to be getting a bureau car?" Sam asked. As of right now, she was without a car and would have to take a cab home tonight.
"You should be getting issued one tomorrow. I've sent the paperwork in and just have to wait for it to be processed." Jack informed her. "Do you have a ride home tonight?"
"No." She shook her head. "But I was just going to get a cab."
"Nonsense." Jack shook his head. "There are three of us here with cars. Where do you live?"
"Uptown, on the west side." Sam replied, nervously hoping that she wouldn't get stuck with Martin. She could deal with getting a ride home from Danny or even Jack. But she wasn't sure she was ready to be alone in a car with Martin.
"I live on the eastside." Jack replied, looking over at Danny. "Don't you live downtown?"
"Yeah." Danny nodded.
Jack then turned to Martin. "You live on the westside though, right?"
"Uh yeah, but…" He didn't really want to be the one to take Samantha home but didn't know how to say no without arousing suspicion.
"That's ok." Sam intervened. She didn't want to ride with Martin any more than he wanted to give her a ride. "I'll just take a cab."
"Why should you have to spend that kind of money when Martin is already heading that way anyway?" Jack reasoned, not seeing why Martin couldn't just give Samantha a ride home.
Martin sighed, knowing that there was no way out of this. For some reason, the universe wanted him to be around Samantha right now. Who was he to argue with the universe? "Ok. C'mon. I'll drive you home."
"Thanks." She hesitantly replied. "Goodnight guys." She gave a small wave before hurrying to catch up with Martin, who was already halfway to his car. When she got into his car, she immediately put on her seat belt and prepared for a bumpy ride. Then she gave him directions to her new apartment.
Martin heard the familiar click of his seatbelt as he strapped himself in and turned the key in the ignition to start the car. Driving Samantha around New York City wasn't on his list of favorite things to do and definitely wasn't something he thought he would be doing when he woke up this morning.
She stole a quick glance at him while he was driving. He seemed to be content not speaking to her and wasn't sure whether she should be happy about that or disappointed. They were going to have to talk at some point. Maybe now wasn't the best time though. She turned her head again and stared out of her window, absentmindedly looking at the passing scenery.
He stopped at a red stoplight and took the opportunity to look at Samantha. She was staring out the window. Apparently she didn't want to take this opportunity to talk to him. Maybe that was a good thing. Of course, he realized that they would have to talk eventually. Maybe now would be a good time. When the stoplight turned green again and the car started moving again, he decided to go for it. "I never thought I'd see you again Sam."
"It's Samantha to you." She told him quietly.
So he was back to having to call her Samantha? Of course he was. Only her closest friends could ever call her Sam. He wasn't one of her closest friends anymore. "Ok, Samantha." He emphasized the use of her full name.
Her gaze involuntarily flew over to him as she studied his face. "I never thought I'd see you again either Martin. So I guess we're even."
"Yeah, I guess so." He stated keeping his eyes glued to the road. He wanted to ask her so many things and finally get some answers to the questions that had been burning his mind ever since she left him. But at the same time, he didn't really want to fight with her and he knew that his questions would start a fight.
She took a deep breath before being honest with him. "Look, you're not my favorite person in the world and I know you're probably not the president of my personal fan club. But can we at least try to maintain a professional working relationship? This tension that's between us right now is not going to be a good thing once we start working on cases. Vivian and Danny are already suspicious about what's going on with us. If we're partnered together for a case we need to be able to work together."
"You're damn right I'm not the president of your fan club!" He exclaimed, getting angry and frustrated with her. "But don't you dare come into my team and start telling me how to behave! I don't need you telling me what I should or shouldn't do while working a case."
"I'm not trying to tell you how to behave!" She yelled back. "I'm simply trying to express a desire to be able to work well together without any arguing or tension!"
"If you didn't want tension between us, maybe you shouldn't have left me at the alter!" Martin yelled back at her.
"So that's what this screaming match is really about. You're still mad about that." She sighed. She had wondered how long it would take him to bring that up and throw it in her face. He had actually waited longer than she thought he would. She had felt bad about leaving him like that on their wedding day and leaving him to deal with the guests and everything, but not bad enough to stick around and deal with it together.
"Damn right I'm mad about that!" Martin yelled, keeping his eyes on the road. He was afraid that if he looked over at her right now his anger would subside. That's the way it had worked in the past. If he got angry with her, his anger always subsided if he looked into those soulful eyes of hers. And he didn't want that to happen tonight.
"Maybe you shouldn't have left me with just a poorly scribbled note and one hundred and fifty wedding guests that kept wondering what was so horrible about me that you couldn't bring yourself to show up for your own wedding! If you didn't want there to be tension between us, maybe you should have thought about that before you started this whole thing. You set it into motion so you deal with it!"
She admitted that maybe leaving him at the alter on their wedding day with just a note wasn't the nicest thing to do. But he deserved it. He had hurt her worse than she had ever been hurt before in her entire life. Not even her parents or step-father hurt her as badly as he did and the fact that he was pretending to hold no fault or blame in this was appalling to her. He knew what he had done yet he was pretending to be blameless.
"You really hurt me when you didn't show up." He quietly admitted.
"I hurt you? What about how you hurt me?" She exclaimed angrily.
"How? How did I hurt you?" Martin asked. "Tell me. Please. What did I do to you that was so bad?"
"Don't pretend that you don't know what you did. I may have been naïve and gullible enough to buy into you before but I'm not that way anymore. I see right through you." She told him. She could feel herself start to lose control and knew that the tears would stat flowing soon. The last thing she wanted to do was cry in front of him so she knew she had to get out of the car.
A few seconds later, they were stuck at another red light. She unfastened her seat belt and grabbed her purse. "We'll tell the Jack and the rest of the team that you drove me all the way home. But I'm getting out of here and the rest of the way. It's not that far anyway. But I don't want to be around you right now."
"That's fine with me." He told her angrily. "I don't want to be around you right now either."
"Great." She opened up the door and stepped out. But before she closed the door, she said one last thing. "You know, Martin, I'm not sure how you have everyone on the team convinced that you're such a good guy. They practically have your application for sainthood typed up. But I know the truth. I know the real Martin Fitzgerald, and he's nothing but scum." She slammed the door shut and started walking away towards her apartment building.
The light turned green and Martin stepped on the gas pedal, eager to get away from Samantha. How dare she tell him that he was scum! He wasn't scum! He was the victim in all of this. He was the one who got dumped on his wedding day for no apparent reason other than the fact that his fiancée was a completely heartless bitch.
She had no right to be this mad at him. He was the one that had the right to be mad. He had earned that right and he was going to exercise that right. But when he started thinking about it and calmed down a bit, the anger subsided. All that was left were his hurt feelings and a deep hole in his heart.