A Fool To Think

Chapter Eleven

Martin sat at his desk, watching with interest as Danny and Sam traded jokes back and forth at the conference table. They were doing paperwork and having too much fun with it. Ever since he caught them hugging last week, he couldn't help but watch them closely.

He kept telling himself that he was through with Sam. He was through trying to be nice to her and holding out hope that they could be together. But that didn't mean that he wanted her to be with Danny. It wasn't that he thought Danny would hurt her. He knew Danny well enough to know that Danny wouldn't. He just didn't want to see her move on without him.

They seemed pretty cozy together on the balcony though. He couldn't deny that it looked suspicious. After all, it was after office hours when everyone was supposed to be gone. Yet there they were, hugging on the balcony, completely oblivious to the world around them. That image of them was burned into his brain and every time he thought about it the jealousy and anger returned.

Then he had to remind himself that he had no right to be jealous anymore. He had no claim on Sam anymore and she could do whatever she wanted with whomever she wanted to do it with. Seeing the way she was leaning in closer to Danny to tell him something made it seem to Martin that Danny was the person she wanted now.

Sam laughed at Danny's horrible joke before turning back to the seemingly endless amount of paperwork that awaited her. A few minutes later though, she leaned in closer to him and lowered the volume of her voice so that the people around them couldn't hear her. "You know, I don't think I thanked you for last week. It really helped to talk about everything."

"No problem." Danny replied. "I'm happy to help you anytime. And my offer still stands. If you want to investigate it further, I'll help you with it."

"I don't know." Sam sighed. "A part of me wants to investigate it and make sure that Martin really was the one behind it, but there's a part of me that is afraid of what I might find if I go digging into the past."

"What are you afraid of? Are you afraid that you'll find out he really was behind it or that he wasn't?" Danny asked.

"I know it sounds strange, but I'm more afraid that I'll find out that he wasn't behind it because that would mean that I left him at the alter for no good reason. It would mean that every decision I have made since finding out about the website was based on false information and was wrong. It would mean that I was a willing accomplice in whoever wanted to ruin both my life and Martin's."

She didn't want to think about what that would really mean because it would be too much to comprehend. If Martin really was innocent and didn't set up the cameras and website, then who did? Who had enough access to her life and held such a grudge that they would want to ruin her life like that? "I'm not sure I could face him if after all this time he was really innocent."

"Why don't we deal with that if and when it happens?" Danny asked. "We don't know anything for sure right now. Let me help you sort all of this out. Ok?"

She thought about it for a moment. "Ok."

"Good." Danny smiled. "We'll get answers to your questions. I promise you."

"You're a great friend." She smiled.

"I try." Danny smiled. "But lately Martin's been giving me the cold shoulder. Do you know what that's about?"

"Nope, sorry. You know we don't talk to each other." She glanced over at Martin, only to see that he was looking at her. Their eyes met for a few moments before Martin turned away to look at his computer screen.

"Didn't think so, but thought I'd ask anyway." Danny told her. "I'm sure it's nothing."

"Yeah." Sam nodded. "I'm sure it's nothing."

"You don't think he's jealous about the attention I've been giving you, do you?" Danny asked. It had occurred to him that maybe Martin was jealous of his close friendship with Sam, since Martin and Sam couldn't even be in the same room without fighting.

Of course he understood from Sam's point of view why she was so angry with him. But there was still a large part of Danny that didn't fully believe that Martin was the one behind the website. That seemed like such a cruel and heartless thing to do, and he couldn't picture Martin being able to disrespect Sam like that.

Then again, there was evidence. The evidence pointed towards Martin and made him look extremely guilty. But Martin wasn't that kind of guy, right?

"I'm going to go get some more coffee." Sam sighed. "Do you want some too?"

"No thanks." Danny shook his head. As soon as Sam was out of earshot, he walked over to Martin's desk. "Hey. Haven't heard much from you lately. Wanted to make sure that the paperwork hasn't buried you alive over here."

"It hasn't." Martin replied, not responding to Danny's attempt at humor. "Just working."

"And avoiding me for some reason." Danny pointed out. "Care to tell me what it is or should I guess?"

"I'm not avoiding you." Martin denied it, putting down his pen and leaning back in his chair. "If I was avoiding you I would be making an excuse to leave right now but I'm not. I'm here talking to you, aren't I?"

"Yeah, but you're being defensive and weird." Danny was tired of playing this game and decided to be upfront with Martin. "Is this new attitude towards me because of the time I've been spending with Sam?"

"No." Martin quickly denied.

"I don't believe you." Danny called him on it. "Are you jealous of my friendship with her? Because I can be friends with both of you."

"But you're not just friends with her, are you?" Martin asked. He hadn't meant to bring that up, but Danny goaded him into it.

"What does that mean?" Danny asked confused about what Martin was trying to imply.

"It means that I know about your little relationship with Sam. So there's no reason to keep it a secret anymore." Martin explained.

"What relationship with Sam?" Danny asked, caught off guard by Martin's statement. "Sam and I are just friends."

"Then why were you two looking so cozy on the balcony last week?"

"Last week?" Danny then realized that Martin had seen them talking last week. "That was innocent."

"So you don't have any interest in Sam?" Martin asked, hoping the answer was yes. He wasn't sure he could handle it if Danny and Sam got together. It would be too much for him.

"The only interest I have in Sam is as a friend." Danny promised Martin. "She's beautiful, smart, and funny, but not my type. First of all, she is somehow immune to my charms. I'm still not sure how that happened. I didn't know that a woman could be immune to the Taylor charm, but she proved me wrong."

This elicited a small chuckle from Martin, so Danny continued. "And secondly, you didn't actually think that I would actively go after a woman that you're obviously still in love with. Did you?"

"I'm not still in love with her." Martin denied passionately, even though Danny was probably right. He hated that he still loved her even after she left him at the alter and kept accusing him of things he didn't even know about.

Danny rolled his eyes at his friend's stubbornness. "You can tell me that I'm wrong until the day you die but it won't change the truth. You still love her. I can see it on your face when you look at her."

"Even if, and that's a big if, I was still in love with her it wouldn't matter.

"I can't say I blame her though. If you really did that to her, then I wouldn't want to talk to you either. I probably would have

Martin looked at him with interest. "Did she tell you what happened between us? Do you know about it now?"

Danny could see that there was no good way out of this conversation. "Ok, yes. I do know what happened between you two."

"Then tell me!" Martin exclaimed. "Please tell me what she thinks I've done."

"I can't. She made me swear not to tell anyone, including you." Danny told him.

"C'mon!" Martin exclaimed, desperate to know what Danny had found out. "You can't do this to me. You can't keep this from me. Don't I deserve to know what she's saying about me?"

Danny sighed. "Look I'd like to help you out, but I don't want to double-cross Sam. She told me not to tell you and I'm going to honor her wishes."

He felt torn because he wanted to honor Sam's wishes but he also wanted to be a good friend to Martin at the same time. "This is all I am going to say about it. I'm not one hundred percent sure that actually do what she's saying you did. Personally I think you might have been framed, although I'm not sure how. But I am determined to figure it out."

"Figure it out?" Martin was confused. "How?"

"Sam has agreed to let me play detective. I'm going to get to the bottom of this case and find out the whole truth." Danny explained.

"I could tell you the whole truth if someone would just tell me what she thinks I've done!" Martin complained.

"Well hopefully I'll be able to find out exactly what happened and prove that you had nothing to do with it." He leaned in closer to Martin and lowered his voice. "Though if I find out that you actually did do what Sam thinks you did, I will be the first one in line to make your life miserable."

Martin waited until Danny went back to the conference table before whispering, "hate to break it to you Danny, but it already is."