A Fool To Think

Chapter Twenty-Five

About fifteen minutes later, the check came and they both made a move to pick it up. Martin, however, was faster than her and scooped up the check before she had a chance. "My treat." He told her.

"Why don't we just each pay for our own?" She asked.

"You're turning down a free meal?" He asked, raising an eyebrow at her comment.

"I just…" She was going to argue with him about the bill but decided that it wasn't really worth it. If he really wanted to pay, she'd let him. "Never mind."

"That's more like it." He grinned. After paying with his credit card, they got up from the booth and headed to their cars. They had each brought their own car and had parked next to each other.

"Thanks for dinner." She told him as they were walking out to where their cars were parked.

"You're welcome." He replied. "It was nice spending time with you like that."

"Yeah." She agreed. Feeling bold, she added, "I've missed you a lot over the past ten years."

He stopped walking, making her stop. He hadn't expected her to admit that she had missed him and couldn't help but wonder if she only missed his friendship or the relationship they had.

"I missed you a lot too." He admitted.

She looked down at the ground. "I'm sorry for everything. I…"

"It's ok." He told her, placing his hands on her shoulders.

"No it's not." She shook her head. "How can you even want to be friends with me? I was so stupid and I carelessly threw our relationship away. You're a really great guy Martin and I shouldn't have thrown you away like that. I shouldn't have doubted you."

"I'll agree that you made a mistake." He grinned. "But who doesn't? I know I made a mistake when I ordered the chicken tonight."

She smiled. "But this one was a little more serious than what you have for dinner. This one changed our entire lives."

"I know." He nodded.

"Do you ever think about what would have happened if we had gotten married?" She asked hesitantly. "Do you ever wonder what we'd be doing now? How our lives would have turned out?"

"All the time Sam." He whispered. "All the time."

Their eyes locked together and for a few moments they stood on the street just looking into each other's eyes, each trying to figure out what was going on inside the others mind.

"I'm sorry." Sam finally shook herself free of the trance that she was under while looking into his eyes. "I shouldn't have brought that up."

"Why not?" Martin asked.

"Because it's in the past and maybe it should stay in the past. Maybe you were right when you told me that you needed to move on." She replied, even though she didn't mean it. She wished the past could be the future so that she could be with Martin again. She turned to start walking again but was surprised when Martin lightly grabbed her arm.

He wasn't sure why he did it. He wasn't drunk though so he was glad of that. Maybe it was because he felt like they had just connected somehow. Maybe it was because she had admitted that she missed him. Maybe it was partially because of what Danny told him about Sam being heartbroken about leaving him at the alter too. Maybe it was just because he wanted to feel her again.

Whatever the reason, he had grabbed her arm to stop her from walking on without him. Then he closed the space between them and leaned in to kiss her. It was a soft kiss, yet packed with emotion and passion. A few seconds after it began she opened up her mouth enough for their tongues to dance together.

When he pulled away he saw an intense look of confusion on her face and would have bet money that there was a similar look on his face too. He hadn't intended on kissing her this evening. It was simply something that sort of happened.

But it was a great kiss and proved that they still had the same sexual chemistry as when they were in college. He wanted to kiss her again, but didn't want to push it.

"What was that for?" She finally asked once she could get her mind thinking about anything other than 'oh my god Martin just kissed me'.

"I…I don't know." He admitted. "I just felt like doing that."

"Ok." She nodded slowly. He was definitely confusing her. First he wants to be friends and then he kisses her like that? It's such a contradiction. "We should be getting home. It's late and looks like it's going to storm soon."

He looked up at the sky and saw that it did look like it was getting ready to storm. He didn't really want to leave her, but knew she was right. They couldn't stay standing on the street forever. "Ok. You're right. Let's go."

They started walking to their cars again and he reflexively placed a hand on her back to lead her. He wasn't even sure why he was doing it. It just felt right to touch her. He wanted to remind himself that they were just supposed to be friends and that he should remove his hand. But he couldn't bring himself to do it.

That kiss had re-awakened something in him. Right or wrong, it made him want Sam back even more.

When they got to the cars, Sam took one look at hers and groaned.

"What?" Martin asked, walking over to her car. That's when he saw that all four of the tires were slashed. "Tom."

"Most likely." Sam nodded. Although they were in New York City and there was a lot of crime that happened here, she was 99.9 certain that the tire slashing was done by Tom. "It's not that bad." She lied, trying to convince herself that everything was under control.

"See this?" He pointed to the car. "See what he did to your car? This is serious."

"It's just a car and they are just tires." She told him.

"But what if the next thing Tom comes to slash is you?" He asked.

"I have everything under control." She lied. She couldn't let herself think that Tom was going to come after her. She couldn't let the fear come back into her life. She had lived too many years experiencing that fear and it took a long time to rid it from her life. She wasn't about to start fearing him again.

"No you don't Sam. Everything is definitely not under control." He argued. But he knew that he wasn't going to be able to convince her of that right now. "Come on. I'll take you home."

"You sure?" She chuckled. "The last time you tried to take me home, I ended up walking the rest of the way because we couldn't get along."

"Yeah," He smiled at that memory. "You really hated me then."

"Well you weren't happy with me either." She pointed out.

"True." He agreed. "But now everything is different. So I don't see any reason why you shouldn't take a ride home from me."

"Ok." She relented, getting into his car. "Thanks."

"No problem." He replied. "That's what friends are for."

Friends? Is that what they were right now—especially after that kiss? What was the kiss about? It definitely wasn't a 'friend' kiss. Those never involve tongues and never evoke such strong feelings.

Without another word, she got into his car and they made their way back to her apartment. During most of the trip she was busy staring out the side window of the car, thinking about this night. It was a great night, except for the presence of Tom.

But Martin had agreed to rebuild their friendship and then proceeded to kiss her. She still wasn't sure what that was about. That wasn't a friend kiss. While she was stealing a quick glance at him, he looked over at her and gave her a grin.

"I am glad that you confided in me about Tom." He admitted. He figured the fact that he was able to get her to confess to him about that was a good thing. It meant that she trusted him and he appreciated that.

"Well, I know you." She chuckled. "You wouldn't have let me leave until you knew everything anyway. So why fight you?" After a few moments, she added, "besides, I know that you only wanted to know because you wanted to help. And I can't get mad at you for that."

"I do want to help you Sam." Martin assured her. "I'll help you in any way I can. There's no way I'm going to let this guy hurt you again."

"I appreciate the sentiment." She told him. "But trust me, if Tom is determined to come after me, he'll find a way to do it. Right now he's engaged in mind games, trying to scare me. When he thinks he's scared me enough, then he'll make his move."

"There has to be a way to stop him." Martin commented out-loud as they pulled up to her building.

"Yeah there is." Sam replied, pulling her gun out of her purse and showing it to him. "And this is it."

"I meant by legal means." Martin explained.

"The legal system refuses to see what a degenerate he really is." Sam shrugged. "They let him out of prison and they obviously can't even keep him on a tight leash with parole either. I'm sorry to say this but the police and legal system have failed with Tom."

"I agree." Martin nodded. "But that doesn't mean that they can't help."

"I don't need help." She objected, starting to get out of the car. That's when she noticed that Martin was turning off the car and unbuckling his seat belt. "What are you doing?"

"I'm walking you up to your door so that I know you've gotten home safely." He told her matter-of-factly. Before she had a chance to say anything else he added, "and don't argue. It won't do you any good."

"Fine." She sighed. "Follow me then."

He followed her up to her floor and was behind her as they walked to her door.

"The door's ajar." She whispered, looking over at him.

"Stay here." He whispered back, drawing his gun and heading into the apartment. He went through each room, checking it out thoroughly to make sure that no one was hiding. When he saw that no one was there he returned to the hallway. "Apartment's clear."

She sighed, realizing that she should have known that Tom would do something like this. It was all a part of his mid game plan. Well he wouldn't win this time. She wouldn't be intimidated or scared anymore. "Then I guess you can leave now."

"Not without you." He told her. "It's not safe here right now."

"What do you mean?" She asked with a chuckle. "Everything's fine. There's no one in there. You said so yourself."

"Sam, look." He tried to close the door and found that it wouldn't close all the way. "The door won't close, yet alone lock. I'm not leaving you here alone."

"I'll be fine." She assured him.

"Of course you will be." He grinned. "Because you're coming home with me tonight."