A Fool To Think

Chapter Nineteen

The next week was tense in the office as Martin tried to avoid Sam as much as possible. He wasn't sure what to think about her anymore. While he was glad that she didn't seem to be mad at him anymore, he was confused by her new attitude with him.

Whenever he'd come in to work, she'd be there to greet him with a warm smile and then she'd try to engage him in a conversation. It was almost like she expected them to go right back to being friends now.

To be honest, he wasn't ready for that and a part of him wished she would stop trying so hard. He was used to her avoiding him and giving him the cold shoulder. So this new attitude of hers was sort of disconcerting to him.

It was like she thought that she could make up for the past ten years simply by being extra nice to him now. But that wasn't how it was going to work. He needed time and she obviously didn't seem to understand that.

It was finally Friday, which meant two whole days away from Sam and her new bouncy personality. Plus, he had a date with Caroline tonight. So things were looking good for him right now.

"Hey." Danny approached Martin's desk. "Wanna go grab some dinner with me?"

"No thanks." Martin answered. "I have a date with Caroline."

"Oh." Danny had hoped that Martin would come out with him tonight so that he could pick Martin's brain about what he thought concerning Sam and this whole situation. He knew the general summary of what happened when Sam went to explain everything to Martin. But Sam had only told her a few of the details and he still didn't have Martin's side of the story.

"See you Monday." Martin picked up his cell phone and headed out.

"Yeah." Danny nodded. "Have fun."

After Martin left, Sam walked over to Danny. "Well, I'm going to leave now too. Bye Danny."

"Bye." Danny watched her leave and called out to her. "Hey Sam?"

"Yes?" She turned to face him.

"Wanna grab some dinner?"

"What?" She asked, pretending to be shocked. "It's a Friday night and the great Danny Taylor doesn't have a hot date? How can that be?"

"I don't know." He shrugged. "Wanna help me out and save me from having to eat alone?"

"Sure." She had intended on going home and burying her head underneath her blanket, only coming out when Martin was ready to forgive her. But that might be a pretty long wait. So why not go out to dinner with a great friend?

"Great." Danny smiled. "Let's go. I know a great place that I don't think you've been to yet."

"Lead the way." Sam smiled.

Danny and Sam had been having a good time so far. When Sam looked up from her menu, she noticed Danny was staring at something. "What's wrong? See an old girlfriend or something?"

"No." Danny shook his head. He saw that Sam was going to turn her head to see what he was staring at and called out to her. "You don't want to look."

"Why not?" Sam asked.

He thought about lying but decided against it. "Because I'm staring at Martin."

Sam laughed, causing Danny to look at her strangely. "I'm sorry. It's just the way you said that. You made it sound like you owned the market on staring at him and no one else in the world could even look at him. So why can't I look at Martin?"

"You can," Danny told her, "but I would advise against it because right now he's on a date."

"Oh." Sam took a deep breath and buried her head in her menu. "Ok."

"That bothers you though, right?" Danny questioned.

"No it doesn't." Sam lied.

"It's written all over your face." Danny pointed out.

"Ok, fine." Sam sighed. "It bothers me but what can I do about it? I can't go over and make a big scene. Martin's not mine anymore and he hasn't been for a really long time. As much as I hate it, I don't have any claim on him. He can go out on as many dates as he wants and I can't stop him."

"That's a pretty healthy opinion you have there." He noted.

"Yeah, well thanks." She chuckled. "I wish he would forgive me. I wish that we could get back what we used to have. But that's asking for too much with him. He doesn't want me back anymore and he apparently doesn't want my friendship either."

"Why would you say that?" Danny asked.

"Because I've reached out to him so much this past week but I keep running into a brick wall." She explained. "I wonder if that's what it felt like when he tried to reach out to me. If it is, then it's no wonder he won't forgive me."

Danny reached across the table and put his hand on her arm as a sign of comfort. "Give it some time, ok? One week isn't going to erase ten years."

"I know." Sam nodded. "So are you saying that I show keep trying or give up? I mean, Martin's over there dating."

"Yeah he's dating, but that's just because his pride is wounded." Danny explained. "Once he gets past what's happened he'll come to his senses and beg you to come back to him."

Sam laughed. "He'll beg me? Why would you say that?"

"Because he would have to be stupid to let a wonderful woman like you go." Danny smiled.

"Thanks." Sam smiled back. "I think I needed that."

"Anytime." Danny promised. "Now, let's order before I starve to death!"

"So how was your day?" Martin asked Caroline as they walked down the street to the restaurant.

"Pretty normal actually." Caroline replied. "I think I'm extremely close to selling another house though."

"That's great." Martin grinned.

"Well it's not official yet, but the couple is very close to making an offer." Caroline clarified.

"I'm sure they'll buy it." He assured her.

"So how was your day?" She asked.

"Boring. Most of the day was spent doing paperwork." He explained.

"Sounds like tons of fun." She laughed.

"Yeah." He chuckled, opening the door to the restaurant. "Tons of fun." They were soon greeted by the hostess. "Two for non-smoking please."

"Ok." The hostess smiled before turning to a nearby server. "Can you please show this couple to table 54?"

"Sure." The server nodded. "Please follow me."

"I really like this place." Caroline told him as they walked over to their table. "I'm glad you suggested it."

"I'm glad you're glad." Martin told her, causing her to laugh. The smile that was on his face faded when he saw who was at a nearby table. Sam and Danny.

What were they doing out together? It wasn't a date, was it? No, he threw that idea out of his head. Danny had assured him that he was just friends with Sam and not romantically interested in her. But they were out together on a Friday night.

Caroline followed Martin gaze and saw Samantha sitting with a guy that she didn't know. She couldn't help but be curious about them. She had always been one of those people that can't help but be nosy. "Oh there's Samantha. Who's the guy with her?"

"Danny Taylor." Martin told her, unable to keep his eyes off the table.

"Oh that's Danny?" Caroline had heard a lot about Danny and it was nice to have a face to go along with the name. "Did you want to go say hello?"

"Um…I don't know." Martin shook his head.

"But they're your friends, right?" Caroline questioned.

"Well…" Danny was his friend. Sam was…well he had no idea what Sam was to him anymore.

"Oh, are they on a date?" Caroline asked, seeing Danny reach across the table and touch Samantha's arm. "Is that why you don't want to go over there? You don't want to interrupt them?"

"They're not on a date. They're just good friends." Martin told her, unsure if he was trying to convince Caroline or himself of that.

"Oh." Caroline shrugged. "I just thought that it's Friday night, they're at a quiet restaurant, and they look pretty cozy. That spells date to me, but if you say so. You know them better than I do."

"Yeah." Martin nodded. "And they're just friends." Right?

"I need to go to the ladies' room. If the waiter comes by for dessert orders, get me something with a lot of chocolate, ok?" Sam asked, getting up from the table.

"Will do." Danny laughed.

Caroline got up from the table, garnering a weird look from Martin. "Ladies' room." She explained. "Be back soon."

"Ok." Martin smiled. He looked over at Danny and Sam's table to find that Sam was gone. This was the perfect opportunity to go and find out what they were doing here. "Hey." Danny slid into the empty seat that Sam had vacated moments earlier.

"Hey." Danny smiled. "Having a good date?"

"Yeah." Martin nodded. "What about you?"

"What about me what?" Danny asked, confused by the question.

"Are you having a good date with Sam?" Martin asked, trying not to sound too jealous.

Danny sighed heavily and shook his head. "Martin, man, how many times and in how many languages do I have to explain this to you? Sam and I are just friends."

"Then how come you're having dinner together tonight?" Martin questioned.

"Well if you'll recall, I asked you to go to dinner with me first. But you declined because of your date with Caroline. So I asked Sam to come with me." Danny explained.

"Why'd you choose such a romantic restaurant?"

"Because I was trying to take Sam somewhere that she hasn't been yet. She still doesn't know her way around the city very well and I'm trying to broaden her horizon." Danny explained.

"Oh." That was a very good explanation. He should have realized that Danny and Sam weren't on a date and shouldn't have jumped to the conclusion of Danny trying to woo Sam—again. But he had.

Danny laughed. "Why don't you just admit that you still care about her?"

"Because I don't." Martin lied. "I just was curious."

"No you were jealous." Danny pointed out. "You looked incredibly jealous."

"I'm not jealous though. I have Caroline and she's a great woman." Martin raved.

"I'm sure she is." Danny nodded in agreement. "But she'll never be Samantha, will she?"

"Look, I didn't come over here to talk about my past relationship with Sam. I came over…"

"You came over here to make sure that you didn't have any competition for Sam." Danny finished Martin's sentence for him. "Isn't that right?"

Martin was getting frustrated with Danny's smugness and the fact that Danny thought he knew everything there was to know about his feelings for Sam. The thing that really made him mad was the fact that Danny's statements contained some truth to them.

Sam emerged from the stall and walked the short distance to the sinks, reaching for the soap at the same time as another woman. "Sorry." She apologized, looking over. Of course, with her luck, the other woman was Caroline.

"Hello Samantha." Caroline smiled.

"Hi Caroline." Sam gave her a small smile.

"How are you?"

"Fine." Sam replied, running her hands underneath the water. "And you?"

"Good." Caroline replied. "I'm here with Martin tonight."

"I know. I saw you two earlier." Sam replied, focusing her attention on her hand washing. She wasn't sure she wanted to know the answer to her next question, but felt the need to ask it anyway. "Are you and Martin getting serious?"

"I don't know." Caroline answered honestly. "I think we're just having fun right now. I know I'm not really ready for anything too serious right now. I don't think he is either."

"Oh." She couldn't help but be happy with that answer. The last thing she wanted was for Martin to get serious with this or any woman.

"So are you here on a date with Danny?"

"God no!" Sam laughed. "Danny and I are just good friends."

"Oh I'm sorry." Caroline apologized. "I just thought that you two looked like a cute couple. I didn't mean to assume anything."

"Don't worry about it." Sam shrugged. "You're not the first to assume that we're dating and you probably won't be the last. But we're not interested in each other in that way."

They were both done washing and drying their hands and were headed back to their tables. "It was nice talking to you Samantha."

"You too." Sam replied with a small smile as she headed back to her table. As much as she wanted to hate Caroline for dating Martin, she found it incredibly hard.

When she approached the table, her face lit up at the sight of the dessert Danny ordered for her. It was a triple layer chocolate cake with chocolate icing and chocolate syrup and drizzled on top. There were even chocolate sprinkles. "I knew there was a reason why you're my best friend."

Danny laughed at her reaction to the dessert. "So then it meets with your approval?"

"Oh yes, definitely." She smiled, picking up her fork and digging into the dessert. Chocolate wouldn't make her heart ache over losing Martin go away, but it would definitely distract her for a little while.