A Fool To Think

Chapter Fifteen

Martin stood on the balcony of the office building, looking at the sunset. Occasionally his eyes would drop down and he would look at the people who were milling around, living their lives. But mostly he was staring at the sunset.

He was growing weary of this game he was playing with Sam. She obviously didn't want to have anything to do with him. That was evident by the fact that they couldn't even have a real conversation together.

Whatever she thought he did to her must have been really bad, but no matter how hard he tried to think of what he could have done to her, his mind drew a blank. He never cheated on her—never even came close. His bachelor party consisted of him getting together with a bunch of fraternity brothers, drinking beer and playing poker. He never lied to her and always tried to treat her like a queen.

So why was she so mad at him? And why would she believe that he could do something bad to her? Didn't she realize how much he loved her? Or did she just not care? Either way, he was tired of this whole thing.

Even though he had been trying to tell himself for a long time that he was going to get over her and move on with his life, really move on with his life, this time he was serious. He would get over Samantha Spade if it was the last thing he did.

There was a woman he met last weekend that seemed interested in him. She seemed like the exact opposite of Sam, so that was a plus. He thought back to how they met.

Martin went into the café to get a cup of coffee. He always got a cup of coffee after a morning run. Usually he went to a different café, but this one just opened a few months ago and he wanted to try it out just to be different. On his way out, a woman bumped into him, spilling his entire coffee onto his clothes.

"I am so sorry!" The woman exclaimed. "I really didn't see you there."

"That's ok." Martin replied, frowning when he saw the coffee on his shirt and pants.

"No, it's not." The woman shook her head. "I should have been watching where I was going. But now I've ruined your clothes."

"Oh, well they're not ruined." He smiled. "They're just stained. I'm sure they could be washed and the coffee may come right out."

"I doubt that." The woman smiled back. "I still have coffee stains on clothes I had in college that never came out."

"Well then I guess it's a good thing that these aren't my favorite clothes." Martin chuckled.

"Why don't you let me give you money for new clothes?" The woman offered.

"That's not necessary." Martin shook his head. "It was an accident. Don't worry about it."

"Can I at least buy you another cup of coffee then? It's the least I can do since I made you spill yours."

"That would be nice." Martin agreed, following her to the counter.

While they waited for their coffee, the woman turned to him. "My name's Caroline."

"I'm Martin. It's nice to meet you." He shook her hand and took a closer look at her. She was average height, with shoulder-length light brown hair that framed her face. She wasn't a supermodel, but she was fairly attractive and had a nice smile.

"I haven't seen you in here before." She commented.

"Oh, well that's because this is the first time I've come in here. I jog past it everyday but this was the first time I've stopped in." Martin explained.

"And I've probably ruined your first impression of this place. Now you'll probably never want to come back again." She laughed.

"It would take a lot more than you to ruin this place for me." Martin smiled. Their coffee was ready so he grabbed them and handed her coffee to her. "Thank you for the coffee."

"Well it was the least I could do." Caroline told him, reaching into her purse. She pulled out a business card and gave it to him. "I know this sounds forward and I don't usually do this, but maybe if you're interested sometime you could give me a call and we could go out sometime."

He took the card and looked at it. "You're in real estate?"

"Yeah." She nodded.

"Well as nice as you seem, I'm not sure I'm ready for a relationship right now." Martin decided to tell her the truth instead of lying and telling her that he wasn't interested. She seemed like she would be a lot of fun to go out with.

"Oh." The smile on her face faded slightly. "Well if that ever changes, give me a call."

"I will." He nodded. "But I should get going."

"Yeah. Me too." She smiled. "I'm sorry again about bumping into you like that."

"It's ok." He laughed. "Maybe we'll run into each other again sometime."

"That'd be nice." She waved to him as they went on their separate ways.

Maybe he needed to just get out and actually try to have a good time instead of what he was doing now. Now he was simply dating a woman once, comparing her to Sam and dumping them when they didn't measure up. Maybe it was time to take Sam off the pedestal he had placed her on. After all, a future with her doesn't look possible.

Maybe this date with Caroline tonight was just what he needed to get over Sam once and for all. Maybe she could help him forget and move on.

Inside the office, as Sam was getting ready to go home, she saw Martin standing on the balcony alone. He looked like he was deep in thought about something and she debated whether or not to go out there and try to talk to him.

A part of her wanted to go out there and talk to him but then there was another part that just wanted to go home, grab some Chinese take-out, relax in a warm bubble bath and wake up when everything in her life was better. She had made up her mind to go out and try to talk to Martin when Danny came rushing towards her.

"You have to look at this!" Danny exclaimed, shoving some papers in her hands.

"What am I looking at?" Sam asked, scanning the papers. "This doesn't make sense to me."

"Look at this right here." Danny pointed to a highlighted part. "These are the papers from the domain registry that I had sent over."

"Ok." Sam read the highlighted part of the papers and saw that, according to the registry, the website was registered to a Martin Fitzgerald. She closed her eyes and then opened them again, re-reading it again. But it still said the same thing.

She glanced over her shoulder to where Martin was standing on the balcony. "So now I have actual, real proof. That son of a…" She started to walk over to the balcony to confront him but was stopped when she felt Danny's arms on her, pulling her back.

"Wait a minute." Danny told her.

"Why?" Sam asked. "This shows that Martin is the one behind the whole thing. Give me one good reason why I shouldn't go over there and confront him about this."

"Because you haven't taken a look at the other papers." Danny told her.

"What are these other papers going to tell me that I don't already know?" Sam sighed. "I don't want to believe it was Martin but look at this!" She waved the registry paper in front of Danny's face.

"I know, and I thought the same thing when I first saw it. But the company sent over everything they had on the registration and the website. I think you need to take a look at the other papers I gave you." Danny suggested.

"Fine." She didn't want to fight with Danny. If he thought she needed to see it, then she'd take a look at it. She placed the registry paper on her desk before scanning the other documents. "Is this for real?" She finally asked after reading and re-reading the papers.

"Yes. I double-checked it with the company. It's for real." Danny assured her. "The company always asks for a copy of the person's driver's license to prove that they are over the age of eighteen. And this is a copy of the credit card used to pay for the website."

"Both belong to Alex Silverman." Sam whispered.

"And that's the same Alex Silverman, right?" Danny asked, wanting to make sure that really was the guy from Sam's past.

"Yeah." Sam nodded, trying to process everything. These papers proved that Martin wasn't behind the website and that Alex just somehow framed him to take the fall. It meant that she was wrong to blame Martin for all these years. It meant that she left Martin, the only man that had ever truly cared about her, for nothing.

Martin came back into the building from the balcony and saw Sam and Danny standing next to Sam's desk. "Goodnight." He said with a small smile.

"Goodnight." Danny replied.

Sam took one look at Martin and felt sick to her stomach. Every decision she had made since the night she found out about the website was based on false information. She pushed Martin away because she thought that somehow he had fooled her into believing he was a good guy when he was a bad one instead.

She had proof at the time though and she thought that she was right in her accusations. She had always thought that Martin was the one who had ruined her life by betraying her privacy. But he wasn't. Martin wasn't the one behind the website and she had ruined her own life.

"Excuse me." She managed to get out before running to the bathroom to get sick.

Out of routine, Martin asked, "is she ok?"

"I don't know." Danny replied honestly, watching Sam run away. He knew this had to be hard for her to find out that she had been wrong about something so important for so long.

"Well, see you Monday." Martin turned and left to pick up Caroline for their date.