Wrong

"-And I guess now we know why the four of us never play Poker," Carly said, tossing her hand of cards down on the table. "Spencer can't bluff, Freddie tries to use math to calculate the odds of his hand winning, I can't keep track of all the rules…and Sam takes all our money."

"No, I win all your money," Sam corrected, happily taking the dollar bills that were in the middle of the table.

"Man! Now I'm out thirty bucks," Spencer grumbled.

"So you guys up for another round?" Sam asked.

"No!" Spencer said at once. "If I wanted to waste my money, I could've just gone to the flea market with Socko. Besides, I need to get down to the art store. There's a sale on feathers!"

"I thought you had that whole bag of feathers," Freddie commented.

"No, I used all of those," Spencer said. "I was doing a little…experiment."

"Experiment?" Sam frowned. "What kind of-"

"I'll be back in an hour!" Spencer cut her off, grabbing his keys and heading out the door.

"Well alright then," Carly said as her brother left the apartment.

"You guys sure you don't want to play another round?" Sam asked. "I could really use the extra cash."

"No thanks," Freddie chuckled. "But hey, how did you get to be so good at Poker?"

"My Uncle Carmine," Sam replied simply.

"Ah," Freddie nodded. "Well, you know, my AV club has actually had a few Poker nights this semester and, as you just saw by my horrible performance here, I really, er, well-"

"Suck?" Sam suggested helpfully.

"Yeah, suck," Freddie smirked. "Anyway, you think maybe you can give me a few pointers sometime? I mean at least when I lose to you, I'm already used to it. You know how degrading it is to lose to someone with six different types of inhalers?"

"Sure, why not," Sam agreed. "Come by my place after school tomorrow and I'll give you a crash course."

"Awesome," Freddie said, getting to his feet. "Well, I've got to go help Gibby set up his new microwave. I'll see you girls later."

"Later," Sam said.

"Bye," Carly replied.

As the door closed behind Freddie, Carly turned to her blonde best friend. "Well that was nice of you…agreeing to teach Freddie to play Poker."

"Eh, it's not fair to the kid to be bad at so many things," Sam shrugged. "Even I have to give him a break at some point."

"Well, speaking of you and Freddie," Carly said in a tone that made Sam think that she had planned out whatever she was going to say next very carefully. "You guys have been getting along really well lately, haven't you?"

"What do you mean?" Sam asked.

"Well, for awhile after you guys broke up, I couldn't help but notice that things seemed kind of…weird, between you two," Carly said. "I mean it was like you guys lost your old dynamic or something. But now you two seem really good."

"Well it has been eight months," Sam pointed out.

"That's true," Carly nodded. "But, um, I guess what I'm trying to ask here is…you think maybe you can see you and Freddie getting back together?"

"Huh?" Sam frowned. "Why-Why would you think Freddie and I would get back together?"

"Well, you know, like I said, you guys seem to be doing pretty good together," Carly said. "And in the eight months since you two broke up, neither of you has even mentioned dating anybody else. Have you two ever talked about getting back together?"

"Um, no," Sam mumbled.

"Oh," Carly said. "Well…would you?"

"Would I what?"

"Would you ever consider getting back together with Freddie?"

"Carly, jeez, why do you have to just sneak up on me with this girl talk?" Sam moaned. "We were just sitting around, having a good time playing Poker…why do you have to ruin it?"

"Come on, you're my best friend!" Carly said. "I have a right to know these things!"

"Just because you're my best friend doesn't mean you have to meddle," Sam said, rolling her eyes.

"I'm not meddling!" Carly defended. "I'm just asking questions!"

"Meddling!" Sam said firmly.

"Fine," Carly conceded, standing up and heading into the kitchen. "Sorry. I won't bring it up anymore. I didn't mean to make you uncomfortable."

She headed over to the fridge and pulled out a pitcher of lemonade.

Sam sighed. "Alright, look. I-I have thought about getting back together with Freddie, okay? I-I've thought about it since the moment we broke up."

"So you do want to get back together with Freddie!" Carly said excitedly.

"I didn't say that," Sam said at once. "I just said I've thought about it."

"Well what have you thought about?" Carly questioned.

"I-I don't know," Sam replied lamely. "I mean…I know I usually say the entire time I was dating Freddie I was trying not to gag, but we actually did have some good times together. He's honestly the best guy I've ever dated. I guess that's still not saying much, but…"

"It sounds like you do want to get back together then," Carly beamed.

"But then I think about all the things that went wrong," Sam continued. "We're just so different…maybe we're not meant to be together, and getting back together again would just be ever worse."

"Wow," Carly said softly. "That-That's some predicament."

"Welcome to my life," Sam said heavily.

"Okay, well, if, you know, hypothetically, there were to be no consequences if you and Freddie got back together," Carly said carefully. "Would-Would you do it?"

"Carly…"

"Well maybe thinking about it will help you figure out how you really feel!" Carly said. "And that way you can-"

"Alright, that's it," Sam said firmly. "This disgusting girl-talk session is now over."

…..

"-And so apparently, according to my mom, that means the rash is infected," Freddie said as the three teens sat around their usual table at the Groovy Smoothie.

"Gross," Carly cringed.

"Yeah," Freddie agreed. "But the good news is my mom now has to fly out to take care of my Aunt. Which means for the next forty-eight hours I've got the apartment to myself. The possibilities are endless."

"Uh-huh, you can wear shoes on the carpet, use a knife to spread jelly on your toast…" Sam grinned. "Oh! And you can even stay up past ten-thirty!"

"I know!" Freddie nodded. "I can do anything. In fact…there's a classic train robbery movie coming on the Vintage channel in a few minutes. You two wanna come up and watch it with me?"

"Um…not-not really," Carly said.

"We'd rather watch paint dry, nub," Sam said.

"Fine, your loss," Freddie said, grabbing his bag and getting to his feet. "Oh, Sam? We still on for Meat Golf tonight?"

"Yeah. El Guapo Taco parking lot at eight?"

"See you then," Freddie smiled before turning and heading out of the restaurant.

"You know, one of those days the manager at El Guapo Taco is going to kick you guys out of his parking lot," Carly smirked.

"Nah, that guy's a moron," Sam shrugged. "We just tell him we're health inspectors and he leaves us alone."

"Wow," Carly chuckled. "Well, I'm gonna go grab some napkins. You want anything?"

"Yeah, get me more fries?" Sam asked.

"You have money?"

"Er…I'll pay you back?" Sam said lamely.

"Sure," Carly said knowingly, rolling her eyes as she headed up to the counter.

Sam picked up her phone and began absentmindedly messing around on some of her apps.

"Um, excuse me?"

Sam looked up to see a tall boy around her age standing behind her.

"What?" Sam said.

"Sorry, um, I-I was just sitting over at the other table and, um, well…I-I just wanted to tell you that I thought you looked really pretty," the boy said shyly.

Sam blinked. This never happened…usually she just sat in the background while guys like this approached Carly and told her how pretty she was.

"Oh," Sam said, still caught off guard. "Um…thanks."

"And-Um, I couldn't help but notice that MMA keychain you have on your backpack," the boy continued. "Are-Are you a fan?"

"Um, if you mean do I live for those fights then yeah, I'm a fan," Sam grinned. "Hey! Did you see he fight between Ruth Rudy and Hayley Hunt last week?"

"Duh, it was epic!" the boy nodded. "That Rudy totally got knocked out!"

"It was great!" Sam laughed.

"It really was," the boy agreed. "Hey, um, by the way, I'm Alex."

"Sam," Sam replied, shaking the hand that Alex had extended towards her.

"Nice to meet you," Alex said. He began fiddling with the end of his shirt nervously. "Um, well, anyway, Sam, I-I don't usually do this, but maybe-maybe sometime you-you'd like to maybe watch an MMA fight together. You-You know…like on a date?"

Sam looked down at the table. What did she do? Here was a perfectly nice guy, who seemed to have plenty in common with her, asking her out on a date! She should be ecstatic!

But she wasn't…

Because she knew that no matter how great this Alex turned out to be…he'd never be, well….he'd never be him.

"Um, I-I'm actually not really looking for any dates right now," Sam said. "Sorry."

"Oh, um, that-that's fine," Alex said, visibly let down. "Um, sorry to bother you then. Er…have a good day."

Sam watched him walk back to his table and let out a small sigh.

"What was that?"

She turned around to see that Carly had returned to the table.

"What was what?" Sam asked innocently.

"Why didn't you go out with that kid?" Carly demanded.

"Why were you eavesdropping?" Sam frowned.

"Sam, seriously, why-why'd you turn him down?" Carly asked. "He seemed really nice. And he was cute! And it seemed like you had a lot in common. What was the problem?"

"There was no problem," Sam said simply. "I just…I just didn't get a dating vibe from him, that's all."

Carly put her hands on her hips. "Sam…now don't freak out on me, but do you think that maybe you turned that guy down because the guy you really want to be dating is Fre-"

"Ugh, not this again!" Sam snapped, jumping to her feet. "I thought you finally got off that!"

"Well come on!" Carly exclaimed. "What other reason would you have for turning down that guy?"

"I'm out of here," Sam said, grabbing her smoothie. "Call me when you're ready to stop meddling in my life."

Later that evening, Carly was sitting on the Shay's couch, flipping through a magazine. There was a short knock at the door and Freddie let himself into the apartment.

"Hey," he greeted her.

"Hey," Carly smiled, putting the magazine down. "What's up? You enjoy your train movie?"

"Yup, it was great," Freddie chuckled. "But I was just checking to see if Sam was here. You know, for Meat Golf."

"Ah," Carly nodded. "Well, she's not here. She's sort of mad at me right now, so she's probably at her place."

"She's mad at you?" Freddie frowned. "How come? Did you guys have a fight?"

"Eh, not really," Carly explained. "Earlier today, after you left the Groovy Smoothie, this guy came over to Sam and asked her out and-"

"Wait, what?" Freddie said. "Some-Some guy asked Sam out?"

"Yeah," Carly replied. "He came up to her, told her she looked really pretty-"

"What a creep!" Freddie exclaimed.

"No, actually, he was really sweet about the whole thing," Carly said. "It's not like he was a sleezeball or anything."

"Oh," Freddie said, a hint of disappointment in his voice.

"And anyway, this guy seemed like a pretty good fit for her," Carly continued. "He was even super into MMA fighting!"

"He-He was?"

"Uh-huh," Carly nodded. "And he asked her if she wanted to watch a fight with him sometime on a date and-"

"Well good for her!" Freddie said, a bit too aggressively. "That-That's fantastic! Yeah…I-I'm thrilled that Sam decided to find herself a new little boyfriend to-"

"Um, Freddie?" Carly frowned. "Sam-Sam told the guy no."

Freddie blinked. "She-She did."

"Yeah…" Carly said slowly, noticing the relief that was clearly visible in Freddie's face. "That's why she's upset with me. I guess I kind of gave her a hard time about it."

"So she really said no?" Freddie said again. "Just-Just to be clear. Like she didn't take a rain check or anything? It was a flat, firm no?"

"Right…" Carly nodded.

"Oh," Freddie said, the color of his face returning to normal. "Well…that's-that's good too."

"Um, Freddie?" Carly said. "Why did it just look like you were about to have an aneurism thinking about Sam going out with another guy? Do-Do you still-"

"Well, I better get to El Guapo Taco," Freddie said quickly, cutting her off. "I'll see you later, Carls!"