Chapter 21

Once she was installed in her room AJ asked, "Should I call Gibbs for you Samantha?"

"There's no need to do anything like that," she answered.

"You almost died! Don't you want him to know?"

"Why would I need Gibbs to know?"

"Because the two of you are dating…"

She interrupted with a gasp, "Dating?! Who told you I was dating Gibbs?!"

"No one told me, I saw the two of you out together."

"You saw us? When?"

"The night before last at Callisto's"

"Oh! That was for my birthday. We aren't dating, Gibbs is my boss. I don't know why you would think that. I'm not dating anyone right now."

"I saw him give you a gold bracelet. A 'boss' doesn't usually do something like that."

"He didn't give me a bracelet."

"Samantha, I saw him do so. You don't need to cover for him, but dating your boss might not be such a good idea since…"

Again she interrupted, "I'm NOT dating Gibbs!" Sam held up her hand when it looked like he was about to interrupt her again, then she said, "The bracelet wasn't from Gibbs he was delivering it for my father. Dating a boss is against regs anyway. That's why I disliked working at…"

"Working at where Samantha?" he asked gently.

"Never mind, it wasn't important," she told him.

"It might be very important Samantha."

"Why do you call me Samantha when everyone else calls me Sam?" she asked to change the subject.

"Because Sam is a man's name and Samantha is as beautiful as it's owner."

"Oh," she replied softly, not sure what else to say.

Deciding to go ahead and take the chance on her saying she wasn't dating anyone, he smiled at her and asked, "Samantha would you go out to dinner with me tomorrow night?"

Shocked more than she could say, she stared at him without saying a word.

AJ sighed and said, "I guess I had it wrong. I'll leave you now."

"Wait! I don't want you to go and I'm sorry I didn't answer you, I was just so surprised that you asked me out that I didn't know what to say."

She had paused a moment to draw a breath, but he didn't know that and questioned, "And do you now?"

"Oh yes! And that is also my answer to you. Yes! I would love to go to dinner with you."

Startled but pleased at her answer he asked, "Is 1800 alright with you?"

"It is," she smiled at him.

They might have said more to each other but the nurse came in and told him visiting hours were long over and that he needed to leave.

With a sigh she said, "Good night AJ."

Kissing the back of the hand he held he said, "I will see you tomorrow evening Samantha. Good night." He turned and left.

All she could think about as she drifted off to sleep was what to wear. Did she have the right thing or should she go shopping tomorrow?

She took a cab home from the hospital the moment she was allowed to leave and when she got there she cleaned her apartment as she ran through her wardrobe in her mind and decided on a silk top in midnight blue that had spaghetti straps and black silk dress slacks to go with it. AJ called just after noon to tell her he couldn't get reservations until 1900, and would pick her up at 1830 instead of 1730, and wondered if that would still be okay with her.

She told him it would be fine with her and then had to rethink the slacks she'd been planning on wearing. Any place that he would have a problem getting the reservations time he wanted had to be too fancy a place to wear slacks. Going to her closet she pulled out a scarlet red top that was a twin to the blue one she had been planning on and a cream colored silk skirt with a tulip cut.

Pleased with her choice she finished dusting and vacuuming her apartment then shaved her legs as she took a shower. Deciding to wear her hair up, she chose dangling gold earrings to compliment her outfit. Then slid into gold colored sandals and was ready to go at 1820 just in case AJ was a few minutes early.

To be continued…