Finally Getting Love Right (7 page)

“It is not my fault you got caught. You were warned to be more careful.” George said sounding mad.

“You told me you would go away and never come back! That you would let her live her life and stay out of it!” Wills voice rang out.

“I did leave. I left for all the wrong reasons. I kept up my end of the bargain. You turned into a self-righteous uncaring person Will! I would never have left if you would not have found out about Sam and I. You blackmailed me into leaving and I had had enough. It is not my fault you couldn’t keep her happy. You should have done what you told me to do. You should have taken your own advice.” George said trying to be calm.

“Why would I have done that?” Will asked still angry.

“You should have respected her enough to leave. You took a kind, honest, openhearted woman and turned her into someone who is scared to love anyone. You are the one that ruined this.” George said.

Sam knocked on the door lightly. They didn’t hear it though and kept on fighting over why Will should have left a long time ago. Sam was furious. She couldn’t even imagine that George would know about what Will had been doing for years and never come to her and tell her. She knocked once more this time she pounded on the door instead of the tapping she had been doing.

“I am in a meeting. Come back later.” George yelled through the door and then he continued yelling at Will. “I am not taking responsibility for you anymore. I have always been around waiting. She would have found me soon enough. I am telling her everything.”

“You wouldn’t dare.” Will snarled. Sam had had enough. She decided to stop the madness and go in.

“ He may not dare William but I sure as hell do.” Sam said as she walked in.

“Sammy, what are you doing here?” George asked embarrassed.

“I came to see you before I left for vacation honey.” Sam said smiling and walking toward him.

“Oh is it that time already.” George said catching the hint of hilarity in her voice.

“What are you talking about Sam? You are not going on vacation! I would have known.” Will said trying to sound sweet.

“Actually I am Will. If you would have paid attention to my life instead of your affair with Elle you would have known . Just like you would have known that I found George a few months ago. He didn’t have to find me. I found your emails in the dresser drawer when I was re-arranging. You were always ridiculously ignorant when It came to me. I am just glad I found you when I did. It gave me a good reason to say yes to George’s proposal.” Sam said leaning up to kiss George.

“No way.” Will said. “You would never marry him.”

“Yes I would. The date has been set.” She replied. “No get out of here and don’t come back. I will call the cops again if I have to.”

Will stormed out of the office slamming the door behind him. Sam stared at the door for a few moments. She wasn’t ashamed of lying to Will after all this time. It felt good to play a joke on him. He deserved it in her mind.

“Well what date did we decide on?” George asked half-heartedly.

“We will not be getting married George.” Sam said.

“I know Sammy. I was joking.” He said looking vaguely hurt.

“I only did it to hurt him. I will be leaving now though because I am very mad at you and I don’t want to say what I came here to say anymore.” Sam turned and started walking out the door.

“Please don’t go Sammy.” George said quickly reaching for her arm.

“Why?” Sam said but she didn’t turn around. She refused to let him see the tears that were forming.

“What did you come to say to me?” George asked concerned.

“Nothing. It was nothing.” Sam said squirming her arm free of his light grip.

“Obviously it was something. I know you wouldn’t just come here. I also know that you didn’t just walk up to the door and knock. What did you hear?” He said lightly.

“Blackmail, leaving for my own good. Things like that.” Sam said turning around slowly.

“I am sorry you had to hear it that way. I was going to tell you the other day I just couldn’t bring myself to do it.” He said.

“It’s ok. The most important part of that conversation I heard as well.” She said looking for a chair to sit in before she passed out.

“What was that?” he said as helped her sit down. “Are you ok? You don’t look too good.”

“I am fine. I just need to sit for a minute.” She replied. “The best part was when you said that you were going to tell me.”

“Oh.”

“He would have let me keep believing you hated me. The fact that you were going to tell me what he had done, even when he wouldn’t, it means a lot.” Sam said struggling to get the words out from behind the tears welling up in her eyes. “Why did you leave that day?”

“I left because he showed up. I was at the jewelry shop picking out something for you when he came in and sat next to me. He followed us Sammy. He was going to use a secret from my past against me if I didn’t leave. I was scared that he would tell you what that secret was regardless. When he left he said that he would be watching. So I paid for my purchase and went to meet you. I left because the secret I was hiding I thought was so hideous that you wouldn’t understand. After I left I felt so guilty. I took care of what was holding me back.” He said solemnly

“What secret George?” Sam asked hesitant. She wasn’t entirely sure that she wanted to know.

“I have a kid.” He said slowly.

“Why wouldn’t I have understood that?” She asked.

“It was something that I had not taken responsibility for. I thought you would take that as a sign of weakness.”

“So you didn’t do what every person on earth expects of you. That doesn’t make you weak. It makes you human. I would never have faulted you for that.” She said sympathetically.

“I know that now.” He said. “I have something to ask that might sound weird to you.”

“After my week I highly doubt that.”

“I keep getting this feeling like there are sparks between us still. Do you feel that way to?”

“I actually came here to ask you that same thing. I feel it in the pit of my stomach. I just don’t know where all this is going and I need to know.” Sam said

“How about we just take it day by day and see where it goes?” George said.

“Ok’” Sam began as she stood up “Well I have to go the girls are waiting. Will you come to Tj’s Saturday night as my date?”

“I think I can manage that. What is the occasion?” he asked

“My friend is asking his girlfriend to marry him and I am singing.” She said shyly.

“Sounds like a plan.”

Sam walked over to where George was standing and gave him a hug. They said their goodbyes and she hurried home. As she was sitting in her driveway she decided to call max.

“Hey Max” Sam said.

“Hey Sam. You don’t have to worry about the store I got it covered.” Max said.

“I wasn’t calling about that. I actually called because I had an idea.”

“Oh, What’s your idea then?”

“I was thinking I could sing one of my songs for you guys on Saturday.”

“Hasn’t she heard all of your songs though?”

“No. I have a whole collection of songs that no one has ever seen.” Sam said smiling.

“Ok. That sounds good.”

“Actually I was thinking you could help me out with it?” Sam asked.

“How so?”

“I was thinking that you could have her meet you there. You could tell her to be there half hour earlier than the time it’s going to happen. She will think you are standing her up and that is when we will appear on stage. We will sing to her and then you can call her up and ask her to marry you.” Sam said. “What do you think?”

“It is a brilliant idea!” Max said excitedly.

“Good I will meet up with you Saturday at o’clock. Then we can arrange the final details and you can learn the song while you get a sense of where you want to be on the stage.”

“Ok, See you then. Have fun on vacation.” Max said hanging up the phone.

Sam walked into her house to find that the girls were all peeking out the window. She had to laugh at how nosy they were being. They usually tried to at least hide their curiosity. Sam guessed that they were just over excited about the vacation. She walked into her house with a smile on her face.

“So?” The girls said in unison.

“We are going to take it day by day.” Sam said still smiling.

“Let’s go then. We are going to be late.” Kylee said.

They four of them got Sam all packed and double checked all the locks on the doors. They jumped in Liz’s’ SUV and headed for the airport. After getting through security, they went toward their terminal. The plane was on time according to the flight board. They got to the gate just in time to board. Sam still couldn’t believe that they were heading on a spur of the moment vacation, however, She was going to thoroughly enjoy every second of it.

.

CHAPTER 4: MAX PROPOSES

When Sam arrived home from her vacation she walked into her house. It was nice and peaceful. She dropped her bags onto the floor inside the doorway. She walked over to the answering machine that was blinking at her. She had 2 messages. ‘Message one’ the answering machine began ‘Hi this is Betty the clerk of courts. Your court date is set for 2 months from today. If you have any questions, would like to file a notarized agreement, or would like to drop the charges feel free to call me. Thank you. Message two: Hey it’s Max. I figured that you wouldn’t have your cell phone on you because I know Charlee did not bring hers. I just wanted to remind you that we are meeting at 2. See you then.’ The answering machine stopped and prompted her to save or delete the messages.

She walked into her room and passed out onto her bed. When she woke up it was sunny outside. She decided to go for a run. Sam usually tried to get in some type of exercise at least once a month but it did not always work out the way she intended it to. She ran for half an hour. When she got home she got showered and ready for the rest of her day. At 1:30 she grabbed all of her songs and headed out the door to Tj’s.

Sam got to Tj’s and was surprised at how busy the restraunt was today. She had not been here much at this time of day. The last time she was, there were maybe 20 people there. There had to be at least 100 people here this time. She guessed that it was a good sign that more people knew about Tj’s now.

Sam walked right into the VIP lounge without telling anybody she was there. The lounge was pretty big as far as lounges go. There was room for 150 people and there was a stage on the back end of the room. Sam walked to the stage and opened the curtain. She walked backstage and grabbed 2 stools, setting them in the middle of the stage.

“You are here early.” Tj called to her from the lounge doorway startling her.

“Yea I know. I am getting ready for tonight with Max.” She said looking toward him.

“So what is this big event?” He asked.

“Oh.” Sam started realizing that she hadn’t told anyone about what the purpose of tonight was. “Max is asking Charlee to marry him tonight.”

“Finally.” Tj said chuckling.

“I know right.” Sam said with a slight smile.

“You booked the whole lounge for that?” He asked.

“Well yes. This is a special occasion.” She said “Max will be here any minute. We are going to sing a song for her and when it is over he is going to ask her.”

“That sounds good. I will leave you too it then.” Tj said as he turned around and headed out the door.

Sam pulled the piano out by the stools just as Max arrived. He looked tired. Max walked slowly up to the stage where Sam was waiting.

“What is wrong with you?” Sam asked her voice mixed with concern and excitement.

“Nothing, I didn’t get much sleep last night. I am so nervous.” Max said.

“You have nothing to be nervous about.” Sam said trying to sound reassuring.

“Yes I do. I don’t sing for people. I teach singing.” Max said looking as though he might vomit.

“I know that can be scary Max. You decided to do it this way. I will try to help you through it.”

“Ok. I do want to do this. I am just not sure if I can pull it off.”

“Do you realize that I don’t do this either?”

“You have before though.”

“Yes I have. That is why I know you can do this.”

“Why did you stop performing?” Max asked curiously.

“I opened the store. After that I just didn’t have time anymore.” She answered.

“Oh. Ok let’s do this then.”

Sam and Max spent the next hour deciding on what song they would do. They ended up choosing a song called
The Love of my Life
. It was a song that Sam did not take lightly. She had written it when she thought George was going to eventually ask her to marry him. Sam really hoped he didn’t realize it tonight. They rehearsed for an additional hour until Max had almost perfected it. When they had finished Max had a big smile on his face.

“I take it that you like the song.” Sam said with a giggle.

“Yes. It makes me feel like it is something I would have written for her.” He said still smiling.

“That was the goal.” Sam said. “Shall we go finalize the details?”

“Yes, but first I want to show you something.” He said as he pulled a ring out of his pocket.

“It is beautiful!” Sam exclaimed. It was a gorgeous silver sapphire ring. The main stone was a dime sized sapphire. It was surrounded by a ring of tiny diamonds. “She is going to love it!”

“I hope so. I know she loves sapphires. That is why I chose this instead of the traditional diamond.”

The two kept talking about how much they both liked the ring as they headed into the office Tj was using this week. His office was average sized, bigger than Liz’s and smaller than Sams.

“Hey Tj” Sam says as they entered his room.

“Hi guys.” Tj answers back as he looks up from his computer.

“We want to finalize all the details for tonight.”

“Ok, Let me pull up the file real quick.” Tj says clicking his mouse as he moved the cursor over the screen.

“I want tonight to be perfect.” Max chimed in.

“Ok, Looks like the only things that are not finalized are the lighting, the food, and dessert.”

“I already have the dessert covered.” Max said.