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Chapter Four

After dinner, Will suggested that they go see a movie, so they all headed to the theater. Tara went with Daniel in his car, and Cam and Vala sat in the back. Will and Sadie were in Will's car. They ended up deciding on a movie that they all wanted to see very quickly, and Tara enjoyed it, though nothing romantic happened during it.

They separated again after the movie, Sadie taking Tara's place in Daniel's car so that Will could drive her back to Hannah's. She ended up exchanging e-mail addresses and phone numbers with both Cam and Daniel.

"Thanks, I had fun tonight." She told Daniel before they parted.

"Me too. Maybe we can do it again sometime."

I doubt it, Tara thought, but agreed and said good-bye.

- -

"So! How'd it go?" Hannah asked, bouncing on Tara's bed while Tara took her jewelry off.

"It was…nice." Tara told her.

"What did you think of your date?" Her friend pried.

"Daniel? He was a Dr., not medical though. He's a history geek. We had good conversation, he was nice and all, but there weren't any sparks. But there was another guy there who was really cute."

"And did anything happen with him?"

"We exchanged phone numbers."

"Oh." Hannah leaned against the headboard looking slightly disappointed.

"It's ok." Tara laughed at her friend's sad face. "It's not like I was expecting to find the love of my life tonight."

"Maybe not, but I was hoping you were." Hannah laughed and threw a pillow as hard as she could at Tara, starting a huge pillow fight that covered the whole house and lasted for half an hour.

- -

"This is kind of awkward." Sam commented to Jack as they sat waiting for dinner to get there.

"Why?" Jack asked.

"We've never really done this before…you know, just the two of us going out." Sam blushed, and Jack admired how pretty she looked.

"It was a long time coming; at least I would like to think so." Jack said.

Sam looked down at her glass of water, thinking about the roller-coaster of feelings she had had for him over the last few years. She thought about the other relationships she had gone into, and the heartache she had spent many nights feeling over Jack. "Yes…it was." She replied.

Sam pushed the thoughts about the past aside, and looked into Jack's face, and suddenly it clicked – she just knew that she was ready for a long term relationship, and that Jack was someone she could trust, someone she was attracted to – but someone she hadn't let her guard down around very often.

It would be hard for both of them to break the wall that they put up – to understand each other on a deeper level – to reveal things that they hadn't talked about before. She sighed, this might take awhile.

"Do you ever wish that we weren't co-workers?" Sam asked, realizing how stupid it sounded as the words parted from her mouth.

Jack laughed. "All the time, but on the other hand, I would never have met you if we weren't."

- -

Tara mindlessly flipped though the magazine from the pocket in front of her on the plane. For some reason Daniel's face, wouldn't leave her mind, and their conversation kept playing over and over.

She turned her cell-phone on to see if there were any new messages, but there weren't. You didn't really expect a follow-up on that date anyway? Did you? She thought to herself.

- -

Daniel was quiet the whole way home that night, thinking about the date. He didn't seem to have much in interest with the girl, but she was interesting and intoxicatingly beautiful – yet down to earth at the same time.

"That girl was such a ditz." Vala commented to Cam in the backseat. She was proud of herself for using a new "earth" word.

"No she wasn't" Cameron and Daniel said at the same time.

"Maybe I'm mixing my meanings up, then." Vala sniffed, feeling a little hurt.