Hiding



Freddie arrives home—which is a spacious apartment downtown with a spectacular view of the city—and it is empty of other people for the moment. He enters into the kitchen.

The kitchen is spotless, because it is Freddie's domain. Sam cannot cook to save her life and could happily survive off of Fatty Cakes; so it falls onto Freddie to cook them healthy, wholesome meals. Sam says that makes him the woman in their relationship. Freddie then proves to Sam that he is indeed the man, though he does secretly agree. He acts more like a woman than Sam, who still refuses to wear skirts or dresses unless the situation is dire indeed. Freddie can picture her wearing a tuxedo to their wedding—if they have a wedding.

Freddie brushes those thoughts away and sets his keys and the bag on the island. He will not worry about hiding the ring yet, because Sam is out at a meeting until the evening. She is hashing out the final details of her show. Freddie feels sorry for her manager, Rhonda, for having to put up with Sam and having to get other people to put up with Sam, too. Then again, Freddie puts up with Sam and loves it. Freddie faze is drawn to the bag innocently sitting on the counter. After all, he wants to put up with Sam for the rest of his life.

He walks into the living room. The TV there takes up the whole wall; it is state of the art and Freddie's pride and joy. He notices a grease stain on the screen, no doubt from Sam pelting the TV with buttery popcorn, as she is prone to do when one of her movies isn't going the way she wants it to. Next to the TV, there is a huge bookshelf filled with movies.

There is no order to the bookshelf. Independence Day sits next to the Patriot. Galaxy Wars, the entire series, isn't anywhere on the bookshelf. Freddie has been looking for it for weeks. He looks over the movies again, half of which are horror movies, and has a feeling his favorite sci-fi series disappearing has to do with the passing comment he made about the female lead in them. Freddie had been watching the third movie while Sam had pretended not to be watching them, when Freddie sighed and said, "Pat-may is so hot."

Sam then proceeded to throw popcorn at him, and Freddie had thought that had ended matters—apparently not, because his collector's edition poster of Pat-may, which hung proudly in his home office, had mysteriously acquired a rather fetching mustache and goatee. And he can't find any of his Galaxy Wars movies.

As for all of the horror movies, Freddie hates them, but Sam lives for them. She enjoys gore and there is an entire row of Friday the Thirteenth movies, up to the latest one. Freddie hides his face in Sam's shoulder when things get a little too graphic for him. Sam laughs at him and calls him a girl, but puts her arm around him comfortingly.

Freddie's favorite movies are science fiction. Stephen King is middle-ground for them, so there are some of his movies. The It DVD has grown worn from countless watching. Alien and Predator have also been used over and over and over again. But a good two rows are filled with Freddie's movies. He eyes Sunshine and I, Robot with satisfaction. There's Serenity and the whole first season of Firefly somewhere in the mess of movies. Freddie doesn't know how he and Sam have managed to collect so many movies.

It seems like every other night they curl up on the couch, Sam with a big bowl of popcorn or some other junk food, Freddie with his laptop. He uses his laptop when he and Sam argue about a point in the movie or an actor. Usually, Freddie is right most of the time about special effects and plot holes, though Sam has an uncanny ability to remember what other films actors and actresses have been in. Sometimes Freddie pauses the movie as they debate, sometimes he forgets. They rewind it anyways, and later start another argument. Arguing is the central point of their relationship; it has been since the very start of their friendship.

Freddie notices the answering machine is glowing, so he meanders over and presses the button. A mechanical voice informs him he has two new messages and plays the first, from half an hour ago.

"Hey, Freddork," Sam's voice says.

Freddie smiles and shakes his head. Even after so long, Sam still refers to him with her insulting nicknames. Now, however, Freddie feels they are more pet names. The bite has long since been taken out of them.

"I'm going into my meeting now." There is a muffled quality to Sam's voice, which Freddie recognizes as her talking while eating. He can hear Rhonda's voice in the background, telling Sam something. Sam shouts, "Keep your pants on, Ronny! I'm coming, I'm coming."

Freddie leans against the wall next to the answering machine, listening.

"These stuffed suits aren't gonna know what hit him." Sam chuckles forebodingly and Freddie almost feels bad for them. Almost. Then Sam adds, "This might take awhile. Not the meeting. That'll be a piece of cake. But I'm making those guys take Ronny and me out for drinks afterwards. Ronny needs to get out more," Sam stage-whispers.

"Sam!" 'Ronny' screeches in the background. "I can hear you. And we're late! Say goodbye to your husband and let's go!"

"He's not my husband," Sam yells back, but she doesn't say what Freddie actually is. They're more than dating, especially after six years. "So don't wait up, Fredward. Catch you later." The message ends and there is a mechanical voice asking Freddie if he would like to delete it.

Freddie's grin fades. People always assume he and Sam are married. They live together. The way they act shows that they've known each other for a long time. He takes care of Sam and doesn't hide his affection for her. Sam punches him on the shoulder, calls him names, and pushes him around. People don't take this as her showing affection at first. They think Freddie is pining after an unrequited love at first. But once people got to know Sam they realize she does care about Freddie, in her own special, weird, Sam-way.

But Freddie isn't sure if Sam loves him.

The ridiculousness of the situation hits him. He's planning on proposing to a woman who might not even love—might not even say yes. Sam has said "I love you" to Freddie a grand total of five times; five times where it had counted, anyway. Freddie doesn't count the times where he brings her food or she's basking in an after-glow. Freddie says it all the time and Sam responds by rolling her eyes or smacking him upside the head. Freddie wonders what's so hard about admitting you love someone, especially someone who loves you back.

Freddie deletes the message and mentally cancels his plan of watching a movie with Sam. She would be getting home far too late for a movie, probably drunk and exhausted. Freddie shoves his hands in his pockets and straightens up as the answering machine spits out the last message.

"Hey, Freddie, this is Lars. We're having some problems with the HTML of the new system's website," a man's voice says, his tone regretful. "Could you maybe come in? I know you got off early, but we really need your help. It shouldn't take that long…so, just, head over if you can." There is a beep, signaling the end of the message.

Freddie deletes this message too and exhales heavily. This is not how he had planned to spend his Friday night, but he supposes this is better than waiting around for Sam to come home. Freddie walks into the kitchen, already texting his co-worker back, and stops in his tracks when he sees the jewelry store bag on the counter.

Freddie desperately tries to think of somewhere to hide it where Sam will not run across it. She frequently searches the apartment for Freddie's stashes of Fatty Cakes—because she's gotten him addicted too, and if he doesn't hide them, she'll eat them all—so all of his normal hiding places are out.

He curses, wishing he had thought to have his mom hold onto it, or even Carly. Freddie pulls the small velvet box out of the bag. He hurries over to the trashcan and shoves the bag down to the bottom of the trash. After washing his hands, Freddie exits the apartment. He decides that keeping the ring with him is the best place for it now. He doesn't trust himself to find a truly safe hiding place. Even if Sam gets home after him, Freddie doesn't want to take any chances. This is one thing he will not mess up.

If he's going to propose to Sam, he will do it the right way.

Freddie gets into his shiny black Prius, starts the engine, and drives off back to work. There is a single ratty orange flip-flop and an empty cup from Groovy Smoothie in the shotgun seat; left there by the woman who is to be offered the ring that lies in the velvet box in Freddie's sweatshirt pocket.