Marriage and Family
Chapter Sixteen
Sam sat in her seat on the plane, waiting for it to stop circling the airport and just land already. She was impatient to get back home. While she was waiting, she thought back to her earlier conversation with Danny as he drove her to the airport.
"Are you sure that I can't convince you to stay until tomorrow morning?" Danny asked, turning onto the freeway. "I feel like we haven't gotten a chance to really spend much time together during your visit."
"I know, and I'm sorry about that." Sam apologized. "I really am. I'll make it up to you next time but I feel like I need to go home. I've been away too long as it is."
"I won't disagree with that." Danny laughed. "But you won't begrudge me one more selfish attempt to get to you stay, will you?"
"Never." She smiled. "I'd actually be insulted if you didn't try and get me to stay."
"So do you think that you and Martin will be able to work through your problems?" He hated bringing this topic up, but was curious.
"I hope so." Sam nodded. "We've made it this long."
"You nervous about going back?" He asked, noticing that she was tapping her fingers on the dashboard and biting her lip.
"Does it show?" She asked with a laugh as she noticed the incessant taping of her fingers. She stopped tapping and clasped her hands together tightly.
"Only a little." He smiled.
"I guess it's not really nervousness." She explained. "I just haven't seen him in so long and…ok, yeah I guess it is nervousness."
"Is he picking you up from the airport?"
"I'm not sure." Sam admitted.
"Didn't you call him and tell him that you're coming home early?" Danny questioned. Surely she wouldn't have forgotten to do that, right?
"No, I didn't." Sam replied. "But we've always had this unspoken rule between us. If one of us leaves for a trip without the other, we always end up coming back earlier than we said we would. Martin started it by trying to surprise me when we were having our break all those years ago."
"He did surprise me by coming home early the first time, but after that, I caught on to it and it just sort of developed into this thing that we do. We don't even tell each other that we're coming early. We're just supposed to know instinctively."
"So you're testing him?" Danny asked.
Sam looked over at him. "I am not testing him." Ok, so maybe she was testing him, but so what?
"Ok. Call it whatever you want to call it, but it sounds like you're testing him. You're expecting him to know that you're coming early. What if he's not there to pick you up when your plane lands? What are you going to do then?"
"I don't know." Sam admitted. "It hadn't crossed my mind that he wouldn't be there. I guess it might be naïve but I'd like to think that no matter what's going on between us, he would still remember our unspoken pact."
"And if he doesn't?" Danny pressed on. "What then?"
"Then I guess I'll have to either call him to pick me up or get a cab." Sam explained.
Martin would be there. She just knew it. He had to be there. She refused to believe that he wouldn't remember.
Of course he had forgotten their anniversary, and he wasn't exactly the most attentive husband in the world right now. Maybe she had to prepare herself for the fact that Martin may not show up at the airport. And if he didn't, what was she going to do?
Was she going to get mad at him? Did she have a right to get mad at him? After all, this was something that they hadn't explicitly discussed. But on the other hand, it was something that they had been doing for almost twenty years.
No, she would believe in Martin. He would be there waiting for her.
About a half hour later, the plane finally stopped circling the airport and was granted permission to land. The plane wasn't too full and it didn't take her long to get off of the plane and down to the baggage claim area.
Her eyes scanned the baggage claim area closely, looking for any sign of Martin. But the only people crowded around were the people who had been on the plane with her. Her expectant smile slowly faded with the realization that he wasn't here. He wasn't coming.
He must have forgotten about their unspoken pact, or else he would have been here to greet her. There was a younger couple nearby that was reuniting. Sam couldn't take her eyes off of them.
It looked like the man was the one coming home and the woman had immediately run over to him and wrapped her arms around him, planting kisses all over his face. Not wanting to be caught staring at them, she turned her attention to the baggage carousel.
Maybe it was a bad idea to come back early instead of tomorrow, like she had told Martin she would. But after talking with Leslie, she had just been so enthusiastic about coming home and trying to work things out with Martin. She was sure that he would be here to greet her like the wife of the man nearby had.
Their reunion probably wouldn't involve tons of hugging and kissing, but just his presence here was all that she wanted. Being able to see him, smell that familiar 'Martin' scent, and look into those eyes that had haunted her dreams for the past few months would be enough for her.
But alas, that apparently wasn't going to happen. Should she call him and ask him to come pick her up? That would require him driving all the way over here and she'd have to wait in an airport bar for him. She could do that, but didn't really relish the idea of sitting alone in an airport bar at night.
So it looked like she was going to have to get a cab and just surprise him at home. She briefly wondered if he would even be home when she got there. Checking her watch, she saw that it was almost ten.
She had no idea what he had been doing with his time since she left. Had he been going out with friends more often? Had he been going out with other women? She wanted to dismiss that last thought completely. She didn't want to believe that he would do something like that but had to admit that it was a possibility.
Checking the baggage carousel again, she noticed that bags were starting to appear. She scanned the bags coming around but didn't see hers yet. Her mind must have been a million miles away because when she heard a familiar voice whispering in her ear, she jumped in surprise.
"Hey there. Need a ride home?" Martin's voice whispered into her ear. He had intentionally used the same words that Sam had used with him when she surprised him at the airport all those years ago.
Sam was shocked to turn around and see Martin standing right behind her. "Martin."
"Hey that's good." He smiled. "You still recognize me. For a moment there I was worried."
He was joking with her and he seemed to be in a good mood. That was surprising—almost as surprising as seeing him here. When she had looked around for him earlier she couldn't see him and had all but given up hope that he was coming. But here he was. He didn't let her down after all.
He brought the hand that he had been holding behind his back out and revealed a red rose. "I brought this for you." He handed it to her, nervous about her reaction to that.
When he first realized that she might be coming home early because that's the way all of their other solo trips usually ended, he frantically called the airport and checked to see if she had booked a flight. Luckily he had found out in plenty of time to get to the airport.
But once he was here, he realized that it would be nicer if he didn't come to pick her up empty handed. It might show her that he really did miss her if he brought her something, like a red rose. So he walked around the airport looking for a shop that sold flowers.
After walking around for about an hour, he finally found a shop that had what he was looking for. But then he looked at his watch and saw that it was getting late and Sam was probably already at the baggage claim looking for him. So he hurried over here.
As he approached though, he was frozen in place. Although he only saw her from behind, she looked wonderful, just like always. Taking a deep breath, he had to remind himself to calm down. But just being in the same room with her again was making him nervous.
He didn't want to say or do the wrong thing and make her mad at him only minutes after she returned home. So he stood there for a moment, contemplating exactly what he was going to say to her for a few minutes before going over and approaching her.
She took the rose, bringing it up to her nose so that she could inhale the sweet scent and trying to remember the last time that he had given her any kind of flower. Unfortunately she couldn't remember. It had been that long. "Thank you."
He gave her a small smile. "Sorry I wasn't here earlier. It's really hard to find flowers in this airport."
"I have to admit that I thought you might have forgotten about our unspoken agreement." She admitted, staring at the rose.
"I didn't." He told her. "I wouldn't."
"I can see that." She smiled, looking up at him and taking a good, long look. He looked exactly the same as he did when she left, only there were a few more dark circles under his eyes. She wondered if he had been getting enough sleep lately.
He looked past her for a moment, glancing at the baggage carousel and seeing her suitcase. "I'll get your bag and then we can go home."
"Ok." She watched him get her suitcase and wondered what was going on. He seemed different—a good different. But still different. She would ask him about it, but right now all she really wanted to do was go home and sleep in their bed again.
Although the beds at Claire's and Danny's were comfortable, their bed was still the best that she had ever slept in. Maybe part of the reason was because of the other occupant. A small smile played on her lips as she realized that she wouldn't have to sleep in a big bed alone tonight.
"You ready?" Martin asked her as he came over to her, rolling her suitcase along behind him.
"Yeah. Let's go." She replied, surprised yet again when Martin grabbed her hand while they were walking out of the airport. They hadn't held hands like that in…years. This was an odd development that she made a mental note to ask him about later.