The news about her marriage travels fast and now everybody looks at her like la garce she is. They murmur she must have her heart darker than her lips for treating Danny like that. They look at her for the horrible person she is and quite frankly, she doesn't mind, doesn't care.

The thing is it's Danny who doesn't talk to her or look at her anymore and she thinks that's just the worse.


Sam is still Sam, she still smiles, still parades, still glows like the breakup and the heartache didn't affect her at all. Danny realises she never needed him quite enough and every time he thinks about it it feels like his heart slows down to take the blow. As always, she still lets him breathless.

"Maybe you should go down there and speak to her, you know. I'm actually tired of seeing you watch those damn screens all day long," Mike tells him and Danny doesn't reply, keeps his eyes on the screen, where he can see her.

Sam is at the craps table, watching over her clients and Danny can her speaking—probably gossiping—with Nessa and Danny wonders if she would talk about him, about them if Nessa asks her because Nessa would. Eventually.

Danny knows Mary tried to talk to Sam. She tried to be strong and firm on Danny's behalf, because Sam, how dare she, she broke her best friend's heart, so she needed to give Sam a piece of her mind, but Delinda, sweet girl, she saw the whole thing, and said Sam found Mary very adorable and very amusing but she had no time for this nonsense so she patted Mary's cheek and walked away, leaving Mary with her mouth half-open and her face outraged. And Danny laughed because, of course, Sam would be unimpressed, unbothered by Mary's little show, but Danny appreciated the gesture all the same. So he hugged Mary, kissed her head and reassured her, telling her that she could still be friends with Sam, that he didn't mind, because Sam needs friends just as much he does, even if she says and acts like she doesn't. He still knows her better than most, just not as much as he thought he did.

"I've said what I had to said. There's nothing more to add, Mike," Danny says, as he leans into his chair, yet his eyes are still on Sam.

She is strutting around, across the casino floor, moving from whales to whales. She's wearing a green dress, his favourite, and her hair is up in a messy but classy bun and Danny knows she did it on purpose, dressing like that, because she knew how much he loves it when she wears this colour, when she looks so dainty and tasty. She still has so much effect on him, and it should be forbidden. She shouldn't be allowed to be so pretty while he can't hold her, kiss her because she is not his to hold and kiss.

"But you love her, man," Mikes points out.

Danny takes his eyes off Sam and turns his face to Mike, his eyebrows raised. "She is married. And I've been just fine on my own."

But at night, when Danny wakes up from his nightmares, he still turns around, his hands reaching out for Sam, seeking for her cold skin but paradoxically warm comfort but all his fingers always touch are nothing but thin air. They've been apart from barely three weeks and he misses her like crazy. Yet, it doesn't seem like she misses him much. He tries not to let it bother him too much.

"She lied to me."

"She lied to all of us. It's Sam. That's what she does."

"So you're saying it's okay?" Danny asks, not understand Mike's logics.

Mike shakes his head. "Nah. I'm just saying she had her reasons for doing it, for lying. Everybody has reasons for lying. Maybe her reasons were not good reasons but she still had her reasons," Mikes knows Danny isn't really listening to him because his eyes are focused on Sam's form again so he just repeats. "You still love her."

Danny shrugs, like it doesn't matter, like she doesn't matter, but she did, so much. She meant so much to him, still does, and that's why sometimes it hurts to breath because she left prints on his heart, then she smashed it, leaving him with a piece missing and with the other piece bleeding.

"It'll go away," he tells Mike but he doesn't mean any of the words that escape his mouth.

He doesn't think his love for Sam will go away, he is certain it won't, but a part of him, a tiny and scared part of him dreads that it might happen. Because Sam, he swore he would love her forever, he swore he could, but her lie, her big and ugly lie, ruined everything. She left his universe in a mess, but, he's not sure he wants it to be unmessy yet. He feels like it's too early, too soon to wipe everything away and put it in a box. Danny doesn't want to clean the mess she made with his heart, he doesn't wish for it to be fixed yet, because it would mean leaving his story, their love story, behind and he is not sure he can't do that. He doesn't want to put Sam in a box and forget about her.

"I don't want it to go away. I don't want to stop loving her," Danny admits and his hand reaches for something in his pocket: a picture of him and Sam, in the desert, the day they had a flat tyre.

On the photograph, she appears so unguarded, so candid and at that moment, the urge to kiss her engulfed him, so he did kiss her and when his lips left hers, she kept her eyes closed for a little longer and she looked simply luminous. That makes it his favourite memory of her.

Mike smiles sympathetically at him and taps his shoulder as he rises from his chair. "That's what I thought. It'll work out. I don't know how or why but it will work out. Weirdly, Sam and you are just...you guys are you. You will work something out. I'm rooting for you and Sam. And anyway, there's a bet about you two," Mike informs him with a smirk and now Danny is looking at him, confusion and curiosity written on his face. "People have been betting on how long you and Sam will last before you start doing the dirty again."

Danny rolls his eyes as he smiles at Mike's answer and he is certain Sam would find the bet, if she doesn't know about it yet, stupid and hilarious.