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"Ultimately the bond of all companionship, whether in marriage or in friendship, is conversation." - Oscar Wilde

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Chapter 33

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Martin lay on the sofa reading Newsweek trying not to check the time – again. Sam had been upstairs talking on the phone for over an hour and a half. After he made lunch he walked back upstairs to find her on the phone looking frustrated so he left her plate on the desk and went back downstairs to eat his own lunch. Whoever she was talking to apparently must have had a lot of questions. After he finished lunch he cleaned up, took Milo out for a bathroom break and started a fire in the fireplace. After all of those tasks were done she was still upstairs so he decided to just hang out on the sofa and wait.

He was in the middle of reading an article when Sam finally emerged a half an hour later. She wandered down looking worn and gave him a small smile before taking position on the opposite end of the sofa, her socked feet resting on his left side.

"Hey." She greeted him wearily.

He rested the magazine on his chest and asked, "Did your call go okay?"

She shrugged and replied, "I honestly have no idea. I guess I'll know when I get back to New York." She leaned over and put her cell phone on the coffee table. Martin eyed the phone and she explained, "Olyczk said he was going to try and reach Danny after he hung up with me. I'm pretty sure Danny will call me afterwards." She blew out a breath and sunk back into the sofa.

Martin tossed the magazine onto the coffee table and it slid across the smooth surface to the edge. He rested one hand on his chest and the other on her legs. "I wish I could help."

"Me too," She gave him a sly look and said, "Actually, this whole situation is kind of your fault."

He could feel the crease in his forehead when he furrowed his brow and asked, "Excuse me?"

"If you had taken the position in New York then it is most likely my team wouldn't be in this situation." She replied with a mixture of seriousness and affection.

"Right, I'm so sorry." He replied bemusedly and she grinned. "But to be fair, if I had known you worked there then I probably would have gone ahead with the transfer." He affectionately shook her feet and said, "Blame it on Jack, if he had mentioned you in the job description I would have been on the next flight out of Seattle." Then with a smirk he added, "Of course, if he had done that he would have been flooded with applicants."

She laughed.

He watched her thinking she had to have one of the most beautiful smiles he had ever seen. Wanting a reason to keep touching her he picked up one of her feet and started to give her a foot massage.

She gave a hum of appreciation as he worked. She watched him for a little while and then asked, "How is it that you are single?"

He decided to deflect her by replying, "How is it you're single?"

"Point taken." She replied before tilting her head to look at the fire. The bright orange embers crackled and the flames flickered causing shadows to dance across her face. They lay in silence for a few minutes and with her eyes still on the fire she quietly said, "I was married once." He stopped what he was doing, surprised at her confession and she turned to meet his eyes. She must have seen the look of shock on his face because she smiled and said, "I was eighteen and stupid."

He just nodded his head dumbly and she nudged him with her foot for him to continue. He took his cue and started massaging her foot again. He wanted to know everything about this woman so in the calmest, coolest tone he could muster he asked, "How long were you married?"

"Less than five months."

He had to admit he was surprised it was for such a short period of time but eighteen is awfully young to have gotten married. He looked at her small foot in his hand and asked, "What happened?"

Sam sighed audibly and said, "I thought I loved him but looking back I think I loved the idea of him; classic bad boy syndrome. He was great at having fun but when it came to stuff like paying the rent or keeping a job not so much. The problem is when you go after a bad boy that's exactly what you get." She shifted in the sofa and Martin could feel his heart pump faster at hearing her confess something so personal, so intimate. She was quiet a beat and he started to think she was done talking when she continued, "I think I also married him partly because my mom hated him. She kept warning me that it was a bad idea but I just thought it was an added bonus to marry someone she disliked so much. I think Billy and I probably lasted four months longer than we should have just because I hated the idea of my mom being right." She gave a resolute sigh and added, "Oh well, live and learn right?"

Martin gave her a small smile and switched to massaging her other foot. "It's his loss."

She grinned and with her free foot rubbed his chest and asked again, "So, you still haven't answered my question. Why are you still single?"

He shrugged his shoulders and replied, "I almost got engaged."

She raised an eyebrow and asked, "Almost?"

"I never got a chance to ask."

She stiffened the foot he was holding and pulled it out of his grasp. "You're going to have to do better than that Marty. I just confessed something very personal and I never talk about my past."

He smiled at hearing calling him by his nickname. He bit his lip knowing she was right and began, "Her name is Ashley and we met at Quantico…."

"Another agent?" Sam asked. She had a look of surprise on her face.

"Yeah, you know how those romances at Camp Quantico can be." He replied without humor. "When we graduated I was assigned to White Collar in Seattle and she was sent to work Domestic Terrorism in Texas. So we did the long distance relationship for over a year and a half. It seemed to work fine. It was hard but we still managed to talk all the time and see each other every chance we got."

Her foot relaxed again so he went back to her foot massage. He was grateful that the mindless task gave him something to focus on besides just the memory of his painful breakup.

"We both agreed to keep our ears out for any possible openings hoping that the other could get a transfer. I found out that a position opened up in Texas working Major Thefts. I was surprised that she didn't tell me but I also knew that she was really busy so I just assumed she hadn't heard about it. I called up the SAC who was a friend of my dad's and told him I was interested. He said that as far as he was concerned the position was mine. So knowing that I was in, I decided to surprise her. I bought an engagement ring and headed down."

He stopped rubbing Sam's foot and said, "I guess I should have called first because when I showed up at her apartment someone named, Chuck, answered the door." He met Sam's eyes and finished, "Needless to say, I didn't propose."

Sam gave him a sad look and since the last thing he wanted was her pity he quickly said, "Live and learn right?"

Sam gave Martin a sad smile, sat up and moved so that she was lying directly on top of him. "Well, I guess we should look on the bright side." He gave her a questioning look and she said, "If either one of us had our previous relationships work out then we wouldn't be here right now, lying on your sofa in front of this warm fire."

"This fate stuff sure is tricky business." He replied, adjusting to her languid body on his. He laid his hands on her back and asked, "So, what do you think fate has in store for us next?"

She smiled and said, "While I know we still have to figure out which room is your favorite, I have to confess, I am really tired."

He laughed and replied, "That's a relief because so am I."

"How about we just watch a movie?"

"That sounds great."

Sam moved off of him so he could spoon her from behind. She reached for the remote and began to flip through the channels hoping to find something to watch.

He rested one arm under his head and other on Sam's hip. He sighed realizing that despite the disastrous ending to his last long-distance relationship he just might be willing to risk it all over again for Sam.