Marriage and Family
Chapter Eighteen
"Do you want anything from the concession stand?" Martin offered. They had already gotten their tickets and were walking past the concession stand to get to the theater.
She looked over at him, thinking about his question for a moment before realizing what her answer was. "How about some gummi bears?"
"Gummi bears?" He grinned. That was what she had asked for the first time he took her on a date to the movies. He remembered that the movie they went to see was so bad that they just sat in the back of the theater and had a gummi bear fight.
"Yeah, gummi bears." She smiled.
"Ok." He nodded. "If you want gummi bears, then gummi bears you shall have. Do you want to go ahead and get us some seats while I get the concessions?"
"Sure." She agreed, appreciating the fact that she would have a few minutes alone to think about Martin's recent behavior. All morning and afternoon he was seemingly always at her side, asking her questions or making small talk.
Granted, she wasn't complaining that Martin seemed to want to be around her and actually talk to her. But except for the few minutes she had to herself to call Rachel, she hadn't been alone since she returned home.
At first she thought that maybe Martin just missed her so much that he didn't want to leave her side, but she wasn't so sure that was the real reason. The more and more that she thought about it, the more odd his behavior was to her.
After finding two seats near the back of the theater and sitting down, she released a heavy sigh. Although Martin had told her this morning about his epiphany, she couldn't help but wonder what had triggered it. He surely didn't just wake up one morning and stop wearing the blinders that he'd had on for the past four years.
He was doing everything that she had hoped he would do. He was giving her attention and trying to show her that she was important to him. He was doing the little things that he had stopped doing once his father moved in, like planning surprises.
Something had to have triggered this new attitude. But what? What could have enlightened him about everything? It was almost like he was reading her mind or something.
Then it hit her like a bolt of lightening. It was like he was reading her mind, but she knew that wasn't possible. However, it was possible for him to read her journals, which were an in-depth look at the inside of her mind and deepest thoughts. What if he was reading them?
She chuckled at the absurdity of that thought. He wouldn't do that. He wouldn't invade her privacy like that. Right? Of course not. Besides, he didn't even know that the journals existed. There was no way that he had read them.
That couldn't be the catalyst behind his recent change. There had to be something else.
"Gummi bear for your thoughts?" Martin joked as he sat down next to her. He had noticed that she looked deep in thought about something.
"I was just thinking about Rachel." Sam lied, not wanting him to know that she was suspicious of his recent behavior.
"Oh yeah." He nodded, handing her the box of gummi bears. "It will be nice to have her back home for a couple of days."
"Yeah." Sam agreed.
"Should we be worried about whatever it is that she has to talk to you about?"
"I don't know." Sam sighed, opening up the box of gummi bears and popping one into her mouth. "I'd like to say no, but she sounded weird when I talked to her—like she's preoccupied or something."
"I guess the only thing we can do now is hope that whatever she wants to talk to you about isn't anything bad." Martin turned to look at her. Noticing a strand of her hair had fallen loose, he reached over and tucked it back behind her ear. Then he leaned in and placed a kiss on her cheek.
She looked over at him after he did that and tried to figure out what the kiss was for. She was going to ask him, but the lights in the theater started to dim and the movie previews were starting. So she made a mental note to ask him later and focused her attention back on the screen.
"That was a good movie." Martin said as they were walking out of the theater two hours later. "What did you think?"
"It was ok." Sam shrugged. To be honest, she didn't pay much attention to the movie. Her thoughts and focus were directed towards Martin.
"Are you almost ready for dinner?" He asked. "I thought that we could go home and get changed first."
"So for this mystery place that we're going for dinner I can't go in jeans?" She laughed.
"No." He laughed. "The dress code is a little more strict."
"I guess I can rule out McDonalds." She guessed.
"I'm not going to tell you where we're going." He informed her. "It's going to stay a surprise."
"Please?" She asked. They had walked out to their car and she quickly got inside, slamming the car door shut. "I'm not sure I can take any more surprises from you today."
"What does that mean?" Martin asked her as he got into the car and pulled out his car keys.
"It means what it means." She sighed.
"Is something wrong?"
"What could be wrong?" She asked sarcastically.
"Sam…" He put down the keys and turned in his seat to look at her. "What's this about?"
"You're making me really nervous." She admitted softly.
"Nervous?" He repeated. "How am I making you nervous?"
"I know this sounds really silly and extremely paranoid, but it's almost like you're being too nice to me." Up until now she had been staring at her clasped hands, but now she turned to look over at him.
"Don't get me wrong, I like this new change that you've gone through. But it's just so sudden. I know you said that you had some sort of an epiphany while I was gone. I guess I'm just wondering what kind of epiphany it was and what triggered it."
"I don't know what triggered it." Martin lied, not ready to admit that he had read her journals.
"Something must have triggered it. You couldn't have just woken up one morning and figured everything out." She pressed him for more answers.
"Maybe I did." Martin argued.
"Nope. Sorry. Don't believe that." She shook her head. "If you don't tell me what's changed you know my mind will create scenarios that are much worse than the truth. So please just tell me?"
He didn't want to tell her about reading her journals but knew that she was right about that. He really didn't want her to start imagining things because she had a very vivid imagination and could probably think of a lot of bad scenarios.
"Look Sam, I really missed you when you were gone and I started thinking about everything that's happened lately. I started seeing that we were slipping back into old patterns and that if we weren't careful, we could very easily end up separating."
"I don't know about you, but that's the last thing I ever want to happen." He told her, reaching out for her hand and bringing it up to his lips to place a soft kiss there. "I thought that maybe if I tried to put some more romance into our relationship and if I made more of an effort to change, it might help."
Separating was the last thing she ever wanted to happen to them also and it was nice to know that he felt the same way. There had been times over the past few years, and especially the last few months, that she wasn't so sure about his feelings. After hearing his explanation for his change she started to feel bad about questioning him.
Why should it matter to her why he was changing? Why should she make a big deal out of it? Shouldn't it just matter that he was making an effort and finally starting to see that there needed to be changes in their relationship? Couldn't that be enough for her?
He let go of her hand and picked up the car keys again, placing them in the ignition and starting the engine. Staring at his hands on the steering wheel, he sighed. "But if my new attitude is making you feel uncomfortable, I can stop…"
"Don't you dare stop." She commanded, reaching over across the car and wrapping her arms around his neck. She grinned when she saw the surprised look on his face and leaned in to kiss him. She'd show him that he wasn't the only one in this marriage who could plan surprises.
He was taken aback by the kiss so for the first few seconds he was frozen in place. Once his mind registered what was going on he responded to the kiss by wrapping his arms around her body and pulling her closer, which wasn't easy since they were in the car. But he made sure that she was as close as she could be to him without making her uncomfortable.
A few minutes later Sam pulled away, seeing from the look on Martin's face that her surprise had worked. That was most likely the last thing he had expected her to do. To be truthful, it was also the last thing she expected herself to do.
After hearing him explain, she felt the urge to kiss him. So she did. Maybe she got a little carried away, but it had been a long time since they had shared a kiss like that and she couldn't help but try and savor it.
She licked her lips, cleared her throat and sat back in the passenger seat. After she put on her seat belt like nothing had happened, she looked at him expectantly. "Are you just going to sit there all day? I thought we had plans for dinner."
"Ah, yeah...dinner." He was still rather spellbound by the kiss that she planted on him.