“Wait a minute, what happened when you guys got back home from the vacation?” He asked, clearly, not happy with her vague details.
“He played it safe. He would call me every day. He’d steal kisses when my brother wasn’t around. A few nights before he left he took me on a real date brought flowers and everything.” She smiled wistfully. “I thought he would be my first… but he then he left, without a word of explanation or goodbye.”
“He just left out of nowhere?” He asked disbelievingly.
“Pretty much, I mean I don’t know why he left so suddenly. I always assumed it was because of me. He had everything going for him here. He and Luke were going to open the garage together. He had plans. The only thing he hadn’t factored was me. His conscience wouldn’t let him break my heart. He was in too deep and his friendship with Luke would suffer. So he ran.”
“Is that what he told you?” Phillip prodded.
She shook her head and sighed. “He never had to. I learned that after I graduated college and went to surprise him. See, at first I told myself it was his mother. She was a bitch and always was riding him that he was never going to amount to anything. I thought she forced him to leave. So when I graduated college, my parents surprised me with a trip to California. I have an uncle out there.” She explained and took another sip of her soda. “Anyway, I traded the ticket in and instead I got a one way ticket to Seattle. It sounded like an excellent idea at the time.” She scrunched her face. “Not so appealing now.”
“Girlfriend, how is it that we’ve been friends for so long and you have hidden the ballsy, Samantha from me?” He leaned on the table, propping his elbows on the edge hands under his chin. She had his undivided attention.
“Don’t get too excited. I lost my balls somewhere along the way up to his office. To this day he doesn’t know I was ever there.” She looked away and for the briefest of moments she allowed herself to wonder. Wonder if she would’ve gone about things differently, how would they, have wound up. Would he have been happy to see her? Would it have changed anything? She shook her head. It didn’t matter because what she had seen in Seattle had left her broken. She boarded the plane home the following day, with her heart shattered into a million broken pieces.
“You flew across the country to see him and he has no fucking idea?” Phillip asked, outraged.
“I don’t want to talk about this anymore.” She said lowly.
“Of course you don’t, because out of everything you’ve ever confided in me about, this has to be the dumbest thing you ever did. You should tell him you went to see him.” Phillip demanded.
“No! I never want him to know. What does it matter anyway? It won’t erase the last seven years.”
“No, it won’t, but Samantha, he deserves to know.”
Anger boiled in her veins and she couldn’t believe her ears. “Are you kidding me? What gives him the right? He never thought I deserved to know why he left in the first place.” She pushed back her chair and stood up. “I may have left Seattle without as much as a hello, but he left me without as much as a goodbye.”
Phillip studied her for a few moments, and she began to fidget under his scrutiny. “There’s more to it, and you’re not spilling.” He leaned closer to her. “What else happened?”
She had never told a soul what had happened in Seattle. As much as she tried to block out the memories, they still lived inside her. The embarrassment and pain, that had transpired, from that trip, was still etched in her heart. She didn’t want to be the woman scorned, but the choice wasn’t hers, it had been ripped from her.
“I can’t believe I’m telling you this.” Sam said, turning away from him. If she looked at him when she told him, she’d only feel more of her pride slip away from her.
“When I made my way to his office in Seattle, I sort of just walked right into his office.” She closed her eyes and remembered how the palm of her hand was sweaty as she turned the door knob that day, she had visited Nick. She opened her eyes, looking down at her sweaty palms, this time there was no doorknob to turn, and she wiped them along her shorts.
“Nick was busy, so busy that he never even heard the door open.” She laughed sarcastically. “But then again, how could he have heard anything with my best friend screaming out his name, while he fucked her brains out on top of his desk?” Sam stood up and let out a deep breath.
“Nick had always flirted with my friends. I don’t know why it never bothered me.” She laughed at herself almost in disgust. “I think I was stupid enough to believe he was just flirting with them, but it was me he really wanted. I guess I truly never believed he had anything going on with any of them, especially Erica.”