Full Circle

“Hey, Sam. What's up?”

Samantha scoffed at Matt’s text and slammed her phone down on the table.

“Whoa, what did your phone ever do to you?” her dad joked, sitting across from her, digging into his bowl of chocolate ice cream.

She snapped up to look at him, still clearly agitated. She noticed his smile disappear and her hard eyes softened.

“It’s nothing, dad. Everything is fine,” she reassured.

She slipped her phone back into her pocket and continued to eat her fudge Sunday.

“You want to talk about it, sweetie?” her dad murmured with a mouth full of ice cream.

Sam cringed. Did she really want to discuss her boy issues with her father? Hell no. But, Knowing him, he wasn’t going to drop it. She groaned inwardly.

“You really want to hear about my boy problems?” she asked, hoping to scare him so he'd drop it.

His face suddenly turned wary. Like most fathers, he’d rather not hear about his little girl’s boy issues, but he hated seeing her upset. He had to fix this, even if what he will hear might kill him.

“What did Corey do?” he asked, sighing.

“Dad, Corey and I broke up.” His eye brows shot up in shock but then smashed right back together as he thought about the things Corey did to hurt his baby. Sam noticed his angry face and cut in before he could say anything.

“That’s a long story for a different day. The guy I’m talking about is Matt,” she said slowly.

Now he was confused. He held up one finger, “Ok, let me get this straight. You’re no longer dating Corey. So, does that mean you’re back with Matt?”

Samantha massaged the side of her head, thinking of a way to simplify this conversation. But, she has no clue why Matt is being vague and distant with her. Ever since they hooked up two weeks ago in Vegas, he’s been different and if she actually knew why, she wouldn’t be having this conversation with her dad. Here goes nothing, she thought.

“I’m not dating Matt again. Not yet, anyway. However, he’s not with Anna anymore and we still have feelings for each other-“

“Oh God. Feelings? What kind of feelings?” He asked through stiff lips, crossing his arms over his chest.

Samantha rolled her eyes and groaned. Typical, dad.

“Dad, just listen. Okay, so we’ve been getting close again over the previous weeks. However, something happened in Vegas and now he’s holding back, in a way…”

Samantha could feel her face heat up from embarrassment. Did she really just hint that she did something with Matt in Vegas . . .to her father? She hoped like hell he didn’t catch that subtle hint but by the look on his face, he did. He let out a deep sigh and rubbed his hands down his face. He made a clucking sound with his tongue before finally speaking.

“I really want to strangle that kid right now” he admitted. “Anyway, after years of watching soap opera’s with your mother, I think I may know what’s going on here.”

He hesitated.

“Whatever. . . you know. . .happened in Vegas between you two, might have freaked him out a bit. Maybe he feels guilty about whatever happened.”

Samantha thought long and hard about what her father said and surprisingly, he might be on to something. Sex does tend to complicate things.

“You know, that actually helped me put things into perspective,” she said, smiling.

“Good. I’m glad I could help."

Despite the humiliation, Samantha felt better after talking with her dad. He always seemed to know what to say and she was eternally grateful for that. After finishing their ice cream, Sam hugged him goodbye and left. When she arrived to her house, Matt was sitting on her porch steps. It was almost as if he knew she wanted to talk with him. Samantha grabbed her belongings from the passenger seat and stepped out of the car.

“Hi, Sammy,” he greeted, standing up from the steps.

“Hey, Matt,” she replied, manually locking her car door.

She walked up the steps while shuffling through her keys. She could feel Matt’s gaze on her. He didn’t say anything though.

“You can sit on the couch,” she said, entering the house.

Matt nodded and followed behind her. He sat down on the couch and waited for her to get settled. Sam sat next to him and sighed.

“You didn’t reply to my text. I got worried,” Matt said, leaning forward with his elbows placed on his thighs.

Samantha didn’t have the patience to have small talk with him. She wanted answers.

“Is there something wrong?”

“No. Why?” he asked.

Samantha scoffed and stood up, her hands resting on her hips.

“You’ve stopped trying, Matt. You spent weeks showing nothing but affection and now you decide to distance yourself?”

“Sammy, you know I’ve been busy writing with the guys-“

“No, I’m not talking about that.”

Frustration radiated off of her as she paced the room in front of him.

“Then what the fuck are you talking about?” he asked, also getting frustrated.

Sammy stopped pacing and stood in front of him.

“When’s the last time you called me baby? Or hugged me? Or even kissed me?” she asked. “All of that stopped after we had sex two weeks ago,” she said softly, looking away from him.

The frustration he felt disappeared as he realized what she was saying. She was right. He hasn't done any of that lately.

“I’m sorry.” He sighed and stood up from the couch.

“Truth is, I felt guilty the morning after we had sex because it was a drunken hookup and that's not how i want to start a relationship with you. We're moving too fast. We need to slow down and do this the right way. I don’t want to start right where we left off 7 years ago. Do you understand?” he asked, hesitantly.

The light bulb suddenly went off inside of Sam’s head. She never thought about them moving too quickly. But now that he mentioned it, they were. She'd only been back home for 6 weeks and they had already slept together without making things official.

“I understand completely. And I’m sorry, Matt.”

He smiled and hugged her. “It’s ok, baby.”

Samantha pulled away quickly and pointed her finger at him playfully.

“Don’t call me baby, Sanders. You have to earn that right.”

Matt pouted with fake hurt.

“Damn, this is going to be hard. Pun intended,” he joked.

Sam laughed and turned away from him. Then she spun back around, facing him with a smile.

“What are you doing?” he asked.

“Starting over, duh.”

“Oh!" he said, catching on.

He thought back to the first time he asked her out, when they were 17. He rubbed the back of his neck nervously and smiled down at her, dimples on display.

“So I was thinking. Would you like to go out to dinner with me tomorrow night?"

Samantha smiled wide. He had asked her that exact question 9 years ago. And for the second time, she reached up and sofly embraced his cheek before replying, “I’d love to.”

Notes

Hello! Here's the final chapter before the epilogue. I hope this chapter makes sense. Comments on what you think will happen in the epilogue? :)