Employ
"You know, I know I've given Gibby a really hard time over the years, but I've got to say, I think the dork finally grew on me," Sam said as she flopped down on the couch next to her boyfriend. "This lake house is awesome!"
"I know, Freddie beamed as he put an arm around her. "I can't believe his Uncle has such a nice place."
"Right?" Carly agreed, looking up from the checkers board her and Spencer had set up at the nearby table. "And how great is it that Gibby said we can spend the long weekend here?"
"So great," Spencer nodded. "I really needed a vacation after my break-up with Claudia."
"What happened with her?" Freddie frowned. "I thought you really liked her."
"I did," Spencer sighed. "But there was this incident at the grocery store parking lot…"
"Aw jeez, you didn't run her over, did you?" Carly moaned.
"No!" Spencer defended. "But I might have closed the car door on her and broke her wrist…"
"Eh, that's not that bad," Sam shrugged.
"How is that not so bad?" Freddie asked.
"Well compared to being run over…"
"Ah."
"But seriously, the best part of getting to stay at Gibby's Uncle's lake house for the weekend is that Gibby couldn't come," Sam said, taking a sip of her hot chocolate. "We have three days in paradise without that shirtless freak…we really do owe him."
"Sam…" Carly said, rolling her eyes. "Be nice."
"What? I said we owe him," Sam said.
"Hey, you know, since we're here on this great trip, we should do something really fun and adventurous," Spencer said. "Something we wouldn't get to do in Seattle."
"That sounds fun," Freddie said. "I'm always up for a little adventure."
Carly and Sam both snorted in laughter.
"What?" Freddie frowned.
"You? Adventure?" Carly grinned. "Um, Freddie, no offense or anything, but, well…you-you're not exactly the most adventurous person we know."
"What? I'm plenty adventurous!" Freddie argued.
"Yeah, right," Sam laughed. "It took me three weeks to convince you to try a new brand of tomato sauce!"
"Well it had mushrooms in it!" Freddie exclaimed. "You know I'm skeptical about mushrooms!"
"Dude, we all know that Sam is the adventurous one in your relationship," Spencer said.
"She's the one always getting you guys to do new things."
"What?" Freddie frowned. "That's not true!"
"Baby, it kind of is," Sam smirked, patting his shoulder.
"But I-I'm the one who had the idea of trying that new Chinese place!" Freddie pointed out.
"No…" Sam corrected. "We only went there because that's where the old soup place used to be. You threw a fit about them changing it to a Chinese place on you like that and you even refused to eat the egg rolls out of protest!"
"I-Well they should've sent an email to prepare us!" Freddie mumbled.
"Yeah, real adventurous," Carly chuckled.
"So what? You guys think I'm just a boring, lame, unadventurous guy?" Freddie asked.
"Well…" Spencer said.
"If we had to say-" Carly said.
"Yes," Sam nodded bluntly.
"Huh," Freddie said simply, getting to his feet. "Well then…good to know."
"Oh come on…Freddie," Sam sighed as Freddie headed out the sliding glass door.
But Freddie didn't respond as he stepped outside onto the back deck.
"Aw great, now he's gonna be all whiney the rest of this trip," Sam groaned.
"Well, maybe you should go talk to him," Carly suggested. "He seemed kind of upset."
"Why me?" Sam asked. "You two called him boring too!"
"You're his girlfriend," Spencer said. "He cares what you think of him way more than us."
"Ugh, fine!" Sam conceded, standing up. "God…the things I have to deal with!"
Sam headed outside, where she spotted her boyfriend standing beneath a large tree by the lake.
"Hey," she said as she jogged over. "Dude, listen…about what everybody said in there-"
"You really think I'm boring?" Freddie cut her off.
"I-I wouldn't say boring," Sam said. "It's not like you're not fun. You're plenty fun! It's just, you know, you like to play it safe."
"And that's lame to you, isn't it?" Freddie sighed.
"I-Er, come on, let's just go inside," Sam said quickly. "We can go up to our room and you can show me how fun you can be."
"Sam, I'm serious," Freddie said. "I-I know you've called me lame before, but, I-I didn't think you really meant it."
"I don't!" Sam said. "I just…look, you can't deny that out of the two of us, I'm the one most willing to take risks and try new things."
"I take risks all the time!" Freddie said.
"Baby…no you don't," Sam sighed. "I'm sorry, I love you and everything, but…you don't. You're the kind of guy who packs three umbrellas in his bag before going out. You're the kind of guy who has to do a full Internet search on any new restaurant we go to. You don't like doing crazy, spontaneous things. There's nothing wrong with that…It's just not you."
"But I can be crazy and spontaneous and adventurous, Sam," Freddie said. "You know what…I'll prove it to you. Give me something wild to do, and I'll do it!"
"Really?" Sam said, raising an eyebrow. "Anything?"
"Anything," Freddie nodded.
"Okay," Sam grinned. "This could be entertaining…alright, why don't you…I got it! Go skinny dipping!"
"Skinny dipping?" Freddie repeated.
"That's right," Sam smirked. "There's the lake right there. Go wild."
"I-Skinny dipping?" Freddie said again. "So…you-you want me to take off all my clothes and go into that bacteria-filled lake in the middle of November, when it's forty degrees outside?"
"See?" Sam laughed. "There's no way you would do-"
"I'll do it," Freddie said.
Sam's eyes widened. "You-You will?"
"I-Yeah," Freddie said, looking skeptically at the water. "Yeah, if-if that will prove to you that I can be adventurous and spontaneous…I'll go skinny dipping."
"Wow…did not see that coming," Sam chuckled. "Well, alright, go for it, Frewad."
Freddie took a deep breath and slowly began pulling off his sweatshirt. Just then, though, a large breeze came and Freddie quickly pulled his garment back on. "No, nope. Not doing it," he said decisively. "I can't. It's freezing, I'll catch a cold and then I won't be able to go into work, and then I'll get fired for being an irresponsible employee, and then I'll never get to become CEO of the Pear Company. Uh-uh, not happening."
"See! Baby, face it, you're just not that adventurous," Sam smiled.
"I guess…I guess not," Freddie mumbled.
"It's alright, you know," Sam said, wrapping her arms around him. "I don't care if you're not some wild, crazy dude. In fact, I kind of prefer having someone who's all cautious about this kind of stuff. It balances out my insanity. If you were some risky guy can you imagine what we'd be like? We'd be a wreck! Listen…I love you, and you don't have to change who you are for me to keep loving you."
"So…it-it doesn't bug you that I'm not adventurous?" Freddie asked.
"No," Sam said, giving him a quick peck on the lips. "Being all safe and responsible…it suits you well."
"You think?"
"Uh-huh," Sam nodded. "You make it work."
"Aw," Freddie chuckled. "Well…you really make the whole demon thing work too."
"I know," Sam grinned.
"Well…come on, let's go back inside," Freddie said. "I could go for another cup of coco."
"Hold on…" Sam said thoughtfully, looking at the lake.
"What?"
"All that talk about skinny dipping earlier…it's kind of stuck in my head now," Sam said. "I think I wanna give it a try…"
"What?" Freddie exclaimed. "You want to go skinny dipping?"
"Sure," Sam smirked. "It's on my bucket list."
"Did you not hear my whole speech against the idea?" Freddie cried. "You'll get sick, you'll miss work-"
"Eh, I miss work all the time," Sam said, rolling her eyes. "At least if I get sick I'll have a real excuse for once."
"But that lake's probably filthy!" Freddie pointed out. "And-And there could be fish that bite you…places. And what if-"
"Are you done?" Sam asked, pulling off her jacket and kicking off her shoes. "Come on, we just had this discussion. You do your thing, and I do mine. And my thing is going skinny dipping. My mom's always going on about how fun it is; I wanna see if she's right."
"But-But you'll be naked!" Freddie hissed.
"Is that a problem for you?" Sam asked, raising an eyebrow. "Because it's never been before…"
"Well what if someone else sees you?"
"There's no one else here except for me, you, Carly and Spencer!" Sam laughed. "Stop being so paranoid. Just stand guard and make sure those two don't come out, okay?"
"But I-"
He was silenced, though, as Sam continued to strip off her clothes.
"I'll be quick," Sam promised as she stepped towards the edge of the lake. "Ten minutes tops."
"But-But you're gonna catch a cold," Freddie said weakly, trying not to stare at his girlfriend's bare body too much.
"Just wipe the drool from your face, nub," Sam grinned before jumping into the water.
The second she was immersed, Freddie could tell that she was absolutely freezing. But he also knew she would be way too stubborn to admit it and come out.
"You alright?" he called out to her.
"Never better!" Sam replied, treading in the water.
Freddie couldn't help but smile as he watched her. Sam definitely was the adventurous, spontaneous one in their relationship; there was no way he could compete with her on that one. But strangely, now that he thought about it, it really didn't bother him so much. Because he knew that Sam could create enough crazy for the both of them.
…
"I feel like butt," Sam mumbled the next morning as she laid in the bed her and Freddie had been sleeping in during their stay at the lake house. "My head hurts, my throat hurts, my face hurts…"
"That's what a cold does to you," Freddie said, setting a steaming bowl of chicken noodle soup down in front of her. "We'll have to get you to the doctors when we're back in Seattle tomorrow to get you some antibiotics."
"Stupid cold…" Sam groaned.
"Hey, be grateful that's all you caught in that lake," Freddie said. "And maybe next time when I warn you not to do something as stupid as skinny dipping in a lake in the middle of November, you'll listen to me."
"I won't," Sam said groggily.
Freddie chuckled. "Yeah…I know you won't. But come on, eat your soup. You'll feel better. It's the kind my mom always made me when I was sick. Except this has actual chicken and noodles in it, not tofu substitutes."
"Thanks," Sam coughed as she reached for the spoon.
"You want me to get you anything else?" Freddie asked. "Spencer and Carly went into town, so I can have them bring you back some juice or some magazines if you want."
"Nah, I'm fine," Sam sniffed.
"Well do you want me to stay with you, or would you rather be left alone?"
"You can stay if you want," Sam shrugged. "It's not like you've got anything better to do."
Freddie rolled his eyes. "Of course not."
"You know, this is what I was talking about yesterday," Sam said, sipping her soup.
"What?"
"We balance each other out," Sam said, giving him a small smile. "If both of us had been dumb and went skinny dipping, we'd both be lying here sick, and that would've been a disaster."
"So I guess it's a real good thing I'm just a responsible, sensible, tame, nub, isn't it?" Freddie laughed.
"Uh-huh," Sam nodded sleepily. "Thanks for being my dork, Fredward."
