Chapter 6: Veranda

"I accepted my next project." Maddy and I were in my room, she was lounging on my bed and I was sitting on the love seat across the room. I hated when she got like this. She was going to try and seduce me. That wasn't going to happen, not here, and never again if I had anything to do about it. I knew better than to say never though. Who would have thought that I would have ended up loving the female who my made childhood existence miserable? Who would have thought that we would have dated twice only for her to leave me the day I was leaving for college? I always wondered why she never said it to my face. She was supposed to ride to the airport with me and my mom, but when we went to pick her up, Pam said she wasn't there. I never heard from her after that, despite my constant attempts to contact her. That was her way of telling me it was over. She said nothing.

The reason her disappearing act was ringing so fresh in my mind was because the movie that I was going to be directing, the main characters had a relationship that reminded me of Sam and mine, I thought that maybe if I got an outside view of a relationship like ours maybe then I'd understand why she left me. "That's cool," Maddy said as she maneuvered into another seductive pose. "What sci-fi screen play will we be working on this time?"

"I decided to accept something different. We'll be working on romance comedy. I thought you might like the change of pace." I said as I checked my email. The screenplay had just been sent. I hooked up my printer and searched for my paper. Great! What kind of nub packs a printer, but no paper? I sighed and looked up. "You wouldn't happen to have any paper would you?"

"No boss, somebody was rushing me out of the house remember?" She smirked.

"I doubt that you were packing supplies while I was yelling for you." I chided. I sat my computer to the side. I would just have to ask Carly in the morning.

"You doubt, but you don't know. You also don't know what other goodies I've brought along." She teased as she finally sat upright on the foot of my bed and sighed. "You don't want to play?" I looked up at her since when is she so blunt.

"No," I murmured as I looked back at the screen of my laptop.

"Freddie, why don't any of your relationships last?" That one burned. I'd had successful relationships. Well, I'd almost had one.

"None of your relationships last over a month. I think you should see a counselor or something." She sighed. "Or you could try again?" She inched her nightgown up, exposing more of her thigh. I sighed and placed my computer on my lap again only for a second to cut it off.

"That's not true." I stood up and stretched. "Sam and I …" I paused in mid sentence. I don't talk about Sam and me, not to anyone.

"What were you saying?" She looked as if she was ready to bounce on me. She drank up everything I said about Sam, but I'm sure that she wouldn't want to hear what I was about to say about her.

"I'm going to go search for some paper." I mumbled and escaped my own room.

I searched all of upstairs, and then decided to try the first floor. I finally found an office and grabbed a stack. I planned to rummage through the kitchen to see if Mr. Scott was a beer man. I could definitely use a beer. All day I was surrounded by wedding plans and girl talk, sometimes I sincerely thought that Carly forgot that I was male. I shifted some of the vegetables around and then found a case of Nantucket's Whale Pale Ale, I almost felt bad taking a couple considering how expensive the stuff was and how hard it was to find. I had everything I needed and was about to head upstairs until I heard talking on the veranda. Something told me this was the time to be nosy, so I stood by the door and listened in on the conversation.

"I need help," an unfamiliar voice whined.

"So do I, but I'm not whining about it." Sam snapped and then giggled.

"I told you what you should do in regards to your picture man situation," the voice grumbled. "He's live in the flesh now. You need to address the past, so you can move on. If you don't you'll continue to idealize him and I'll never get attend your wedding!" Sam didn't say anything. I was wondering if she was talking about me … she couldn't be. Maybe she'd just received a phone call from another ex or something. "As real as you are Sam, you've never been real in your relationships. You don't try on dates and you know why that is … because you don't want anybody else. What's going to happen when he gets married? I don't want to have to deal with you when you get that invitation." The voice continued to rant.

"He wouldn't invite me to his wedding." Sam grumbled.

"Of course, Freddie would want you there." She sighed. "You're his friend, well you were, until broke his little nerdy heart. You're lucky he has been talking to you at all, that's a sign that he's forgiven you. I still think you should tell him why you let him go." There was a long silence. "Sam, stop shutting down! I'm serious! God, I don't know why you called me! We'll never agree on this situation." Oh my God, they were talking about me. I couldn't believe that Sam was just as unnerved about seeing me as I was about her. Moreover, she hadn't gotten over me! That's crazy considering the fact that she was the one that had ended things.

"Max, I called you because you emailed me saying you were having trouble with one of the depositions." Sam countered.

"We resolved the majority of those issues in the first ten minutes of our conversation, Sam. Then you started venting to me, when you should really be confessing to Freddie!" Yeah, I agreed with this Max person, Sam should really tell me what happened years ago. I still hadn't let go of that event. Maybe we could help each other.

"I've thought about it and as soon as I saw him, I knew I couldn't. It would be too weird. I just want be able to talk to him like I used to. He was my best friend too, not just Carly. I would like to focus on becoming friends again; everything else just falls by the wayside. Besides, I'd look like a desperate fool if I brought up the past when he wasn't even thinking about it. Although …"

"What?"

"He called me Sammie."

"So?" Her friend sounded confused. "A lot of people do."

"No, it's not the same. It's not a nickname, but a pet name, don't ask me to explain. It felt good hearing him say it. It made me think that maybe … he still cared a little bit." Sam groaned frustrated. "This is stupid! I shouldn't care! I don't!"

"Stop lying Puckett, this is me you're talking to! We've been talking for two hours it's pretty evident you care. You better do something before little Maddy moves in on your territory!" Her partner giggled. "And I better go to bed before I'm minus one husband! I'll be on tomorrow, chat ya later!"

"Later," I heard as the video chat end. Sam sighed, I heard as her fingers tapped on her keyboard. That meant that I had time to make a move of some kind. I waited a few minutes and then joined her.

"Hey." I pretended to be startled. "I didn't know anyone was out here."

"Well, there is," she said without looking up. She didn't sound angry just focused. I'd never seen Sam so focused.

"What are you working on?" I said sitting down across from her and placed both of the beers in front of me on the table. She looked over her laptop at the bottles and then slid one over to her side of the table.

"I'm looking over Max's depositions she sent me a few that she was working on. I'm really good at catching the little stuff and referencing cases. She's good at pulling on jury's heart strings and pulling together the big picture stuff. That's why we work so well together." She glanced up at me, then back at the screen. "So, what are you doing up so late … and with paper?"

"Oh, I was actually getting a bit of work done too. I've just accepted my next project. It's something completely different and out of my element, but I enjoyed the screenplay so much that I had to be a part of it," I explained as I opened both the bottles on the table. She sat her laptop down and grabbed the bottle.

"Really, so what's it about? Can I ask that it's not classified information is it?" She giggled, but I could tell she was serious.

"Not really, I mean I can't give you character names or anything, but I can tell you the basic storyline. It's a romance comedy, the love interests were best friends, but when they start to grow up the girl becomes involved with this guy he can't stand, and he realizes he's in love with her, and he does everything in his power to make her realize that they were meant to be together. Once they do get together she disappears mysteriously." She nodded slowly and then frowned. "What you don't like it?"

"No, it's not that, it's just … don't you usually work on sci-fi movies. I thought you wanted to create the next Galaxy Wars," she teased.

"I still do. I have to find the right writer to make that dream come true. Until then, I'm having fun working on different pieces and seeing what I'm good at and what I'm not." I took another sip of my beer and she did the same.

"It's good to expand your horizons," she said matter-of-factly. "If I hadn't decided to go outside my comfort zones, God only knows where I'd be."

"Yeah, I've been meaning to congratulate you on all your successes. I mean, not only in the stuff that everyone knows about. I read a piece on the work you've been doing in juvenile justice system and all the charity work you've been working on. You're becoming a modern day hero, Miss Puckett." She blushed a little as she looked down. Take that Adam, you're not the only one that can make Sam blush.

"I wouldn't say all of that. I just learned that if you give positive energy, you get positive energy. I mean once Carly and you left for college, I seriously had to reevaluate what I wanted out of life. I looked in the mirror and asked myself who I wanted to be. Then I sat down and wrote a list of the things that I wanted to be able to say about myself. The first thing was respected and the second was educated." She shrugged.

"Well, you are, on both accounts."

"And so are you." She smirked. "You're Academy Award winning!"

"I'll drink to that!" I held my bottle up and touched my bottle to hers.

"So have you seen any of my movies?" I asked. I hoped she'd had and that she was, and I know this weird, but I hoped that she was proud of me.

"Uh, I've seen a couple. I mean, I've read articles and I know you've worked on about six movies and won awards for three." She leaned her head back on the chair. Her eyes were a little glazed. It was funny. I never took Samantha Puckett for a lightweight.

"I've directed seven," I corrected her.

"I said about Fredward, don't get you panties in a bunch!" She snickered.

"So which ones have you seen?" I continued to fish.

"Are you searching for a compliment or something? I still don't give those out easily you know!" She teased.

"No, I'm just curious." I moved onto the couch beside her, and she was alarmed by my new closeness. Even with the odd look on her face this felt more comfortable to me. It felt less like an interview and more like a conversation.

"Uh, Foreign and The Lost." She looked away from me, and her cheeks took on a new hue of red.

"Sam?" I wanted her to look at me. Glazed or not, her eyes put anybody else's eyes to same. It wasn't the color necessarily, but more so the passion and the intensity behind them.

"Yeah?" She glanced at me briefly.

"You're glazed." I teased.

"Shut up!" She hit me slightly but it still hurt. I tried not to let on like it did. "I hate that I'm a lightweight. When I go on dinner meetings I have to call the restaurant in advance and ask for a fake out. They bring the client wine and I drink sparkling cider or cranberry." She laughed. "But I needed this tonight. You have no idea." She sighed and took the last sip of her beer.

"Oh yes I do! I spent a whole day with females discussing wedding arrangements trust me I need this just as much as you, if not more so." I placed my empty bottle next to hers on the table.

"Whatever, you were into it a lot more than I was." She shifted her position so that she was leaning away from me and pulled her feet onto the couch.

"Yeah, you were too busy talking with your new dream lover," I teased. I thought about pulling her feet onto my lap. We used to sit that way all the time, but I wasn't sure she'd be comfortable doing that now.

"Right because I have one of those," she murmured. She shifted a little more and then placed her feet in my lap. At least I knew that mentally we were on the same page. "You always made an excellent pillow." I smirked as I looked down at the black heels she was wearing. I took them off and began to rub her feet.

"Yeah, so I've been told." This small amount of contact was great, but it wasn't enough for me. I needed Sam to be completely comfortable so that we could discuss everything … and hopefully try again.

"Uh, Freddie?" I looked up at her and she was staring at me awkwardly. "You don't have to rub my feet I know they're all stinky." She giggled. I lifted her foot to my nose and I sniffed loudly. They smelled lovely, but I decided to play with her a little.

"Wow that is pretty rank!" I teased and then tickled her foot. She squirmed relentlessly trying to retrieve her foot.

"Freddie, stop!" She squealed and giggled. She went to kick me and then stopped herself. I was impressed her self control had gotten a lot better. Impressive and extremely attractive from where I was sitting. I'd been kicked millions of times by Sam, it's not one of the highlights of being her boyfriend.

"Okay, okay!" I stopped tickling and started rubbing her feet again. She sighed and scooted a little closer to me, so that more of her legs were accessible. I inched my way ankle to her calve muscles, I really surprised she hadn't stopped me, and then I heard snoring. I laughed to myself. I couldn't believe that after all these years she was … that we were still attracted to each other. Something inside of me was dying to hear her say it. I wanted to hear her tell me that she loved me … even it was just one more time.

Author's Note: Shocking discoveries. I figured we all needed a little something pleasant after ilove you. I can't believe that they broke up! However, it does flow into my storyline pretty well lol. This way I can put our favorite couple back together where they belong! Anyways, please read and review. No flames!

Also please fill out my poll on my profile page! I'm trying to gauge which pairing I write for best.