Love In A Nick Of Time (4 page)

Allen picked up the phone called the front desk to get Samantha’s room number. He slammed the phone back in the cradle, shit he didn’t even know her last name. Allen was flooded with several emotions at once: fear, pain, and anger, he chose to focus on the anger. If Samantha left the hotel she had better have a damn good reason. There better be a message waiting for him or there would be hell to pay.

Allen called the front desk to see if Samantha left him a message. To his disappointment, there were no messages for him; she just took off like a thief in the night. Samantha wouldn’t just run away from him like that; not after the loving they shared.

Maybe she was scared of what they found together. Did she really think it was only going to be for one night? To hell with what she thought. Regardless of how she felt she owed him and explanation. Allen wouldn’t be satisfied until she was back in his bed, and his life.

***

Samantha sat on the plane thinking about the man she left behind. She was such a coward. She should have stayed and begged Allen for more time. She could have postponed her trip home. Instead, she ran like the hounds of hell were chasing her. When she woke up, Samantha heard water running in the shower. She got out of the bed and quickly put on her dress. She slipped her feet inside her shoes, grabbed her purse, and headed for the door.

She’d been rejected enough in her life. The last thing she wanted to hear Allen say is that he had a great time, but their night was over. Samantha would just cherish her memories with the man with the obsidian eyes.

Samantha hailed a cab back to her hotel, upon entering her room she got in the shower trying to wash the night away. There was no way she would ever forget Allen Archer. She didn’t regret her time with him, but she was a realist there’s no way a relationship with him would work. He lived in Washington and she live in Omaha. She never heard of a long distance relationship that ever lasted.

***

Samantha and Jenna spent the first week after the conference in some capacity working through their new client’s recovery process. Under normal conditions they wouldn’t be this involve. Their client had an incident before Samantha provided training for its employees. She didn’t mind the work because it kept her mind off of Allen.

The last three weeks was filled working long days trying to forget about the man who’d unintentionally taken her heart. Samantha spoke to Kevin yesterday and his wedding plans were right on track, less than a week away. She didn’t want to be in the wedding. Both Debra and Kevin insisted that her presence in the wedding was necessary. Of course she didn’t want to let them down. Samantha and Kevin came from a broken home. When Kevin found the love of his life in Debra she was over the moon. At least someone was happy.

“Hey partner, you seem a million miles away. I just spoke with another very happy client and he recommended us for a job for his affiliate locations.” Samantha gave her a halfhearted smile and look back down at her monitor.

Jenna realized that Samantha has been a little distant since she came back from Chicago. Something besides a conference took place out there. That first week was spent working their client’s disaster. After that incident, they were working hard establishing new prospects which really didn’t leave time to discuss Samantha’s trip.

“I’m glad to hear that someone finally appreciates our efforts.” What was that old adage when work was going well, that usually meant your personal life was going to hell. Her focus now was obtaining more clients. Omaha was a small business community and word of mouth would definitely be good for business. With this economy, many companies would prefer to outsource their disaster recovery program than hire a full time staff. Samantha would strike while the iron was hot. Capsizing the moment and forget about her personal life for now.

“I’ve got a great idea. When we finish up here, we need to have a Margarita night.”

“We haven’t had one of those since you married Michael. I don’t think you can still hang.”

Jenna frowned at Samantha. “What do you mean I can’t hang? I’m still one of the girl’s!

Samantha really was getting into the swing of things “sweetie you haven’t been one of the girls since you married Detective Johnson. Something tells me he wouldn’t approve of you participating in anything involving alcohol and men bashing.”

“Shows what you know, he’s working late tonight. I’ll call Connie and ask her to join us.”

“Tell her to bring us some new samples. Now is a good time to update my toy chest.” Samantha was talking a good game she didn’t really want more sex toys, she wanted the man she found in Chicago.

***

Samantha followed Jenna home from work. She was ready for a Margarita or whatever alcoholic beverage Jenna had in her house. Connie was waiting for them on the porch with a large suitcase in tow. “Let the games begin!” Samantha was enjoying her second Margarita when Jenna let her little bomb go.

“Okay Sam, Connie and I want to know what happened at that conference in Chicago.”

Oh shit, now Samantha realized why Jenna wanted this girl’s night out. “You little fink! You thought you could get me drunk and pump me for information. Nothing happened worth mentioning!”

Connie and Jenna look at each other with a knowing look. “If nothing happened, why have you been in such a funk since you got back from Chicago? We’re your friends who else can you tell if not us. Now what’s his name?” Samantha got this far away look in her eyes before she responded.

“His name is Allen Archer.” Samantha took another sip of her Margarita. “I should have known better, the feelings I have for him are like something out of a fairy tale. I never believed in that love at first sight bullshit, until I saw him on stage. He’s an Asian, with wavy black hair, over 6’3, has the build of an athlete, and his black eyes held me in a trance.”

Connie rubbed her hands together, now they were getting to the details. “Seems to me like our girl here forgot all about shopping around for her black prince; so tell us what happened?”

“We came to an understanding.”

“What the hell does that me? Did you have sex with him or what?’ Connie was quickly losing her patience. “I’ve got to be at work in the morning, so spit it out.”

Samantha remembered everything from the moment she met Allen. “Yes, we had sex.” She almost said made love, the only person in love was her. “We had sex against the door, on the floor, and we wrecked the bed. He just kept reaching for me and I couldn’t get enough. I fled his room the next morning while he was in the shower. I was too much of a coward to face him. I didn’t want to hear him thank me for a wonderful evening before he kicked me out of his room. She swallowed the rest of her drink, and began to cry.

Connie and Jenna tried their best to comfort her; Connie got the Margarita pitcher and refilled Samantha glass. “Honey I’m sure you meant more to him that just a one-night stand. You stayed with him the whole night right. He didn’t just screw you and ask you to leave. Usually men want to stay in your room so they can run out.”

“We were at each other the whole night into the early morning. We didn’t make plans for the next day because he knew I was leaving for home. I made it easy for him to shake me off. I fell for him so hard, and I think he kept part of my soul. Even when I caught Brian cheating on me, I didn’t feel anything except thankful that our relationship was over. Allen has the power to destroy me in ways I never thought possible. How did he get that much power over me in such a short amount of time?”

Jenna dried Samantha’s face with a tissue. “A while ago a good friend told me something I needed to hear, and I’m going to return the favor. Tomorrow you’re going to contact the conference organizers for Allen’s contact information and go get your man. If you think he’s the one you owe it to yourself to find out if he feels the same way. If he doesn’t feel the same way, we’ll have a screw that bastard party!”

“It’s such a risk. I don’t think I can face the possibility that he doesn’t want me.”

Connie loved Sam, but she just about had it with her whiny attitude. “Everything important involves taking risks! What are you going to do mope around for the next week before you leave for Kevin and Debra’s wedding?”

Jenna gave Samantha a little shake. “What happened to the woman who told me to knock off this dumb shit and go get my man?”

Samantha had to laugh. “It’s easy to give advice when it’s not your heart on the line.”

Connie poured everyone another refill. “Here’s to courage, if Allen wasn’t worth the trouble you wouldn’t be in the state you're in. Now enough of this feelings shit. I want to show you my new selections of bullets, clit stimulators, and edible panties.”

***

Allen was angry and frustrated. It had been more than a month since he saw Samantha and he was having no luck finding her. He had a listing of all the attendees of the conference and her name wasn’t on the list. Allen even he had a private detective searching for her to no avail. After all, the “Midwest” encompassed a lot of states. Besides that he didn’t know Samantha’s last name.

He needed to get his head back into his company. It’s bad enough that Kevin caught him at a weak moment, asking him to be in his wedding. He agreed to it without thinking about the implications. Allen didn’t like weddings and he certainly didn’t want to be in one.

He was on his way to Kevin’s office to talk about removing him from the wedding party. Kevin’s a good friend and an exemplary employee, but there were just some things he wasn’t willing to do. Kevin was on the phone when Allen walked into his office; he took a seat and looked at the pictures on Kevin’s desk and wall.

They were the typical family pictures, but there was one picture in particular that caught his eye. It was a picture of Samantha, his Samantha in a cap and gown. She looked really young in the photo. She was in several other pictures with Kevin and Debra. He couldn’t believe it; the key to finding Samantha was under his nose the whole time.

“Hey Allen did you want to see me about something?”

“No I just wanted to make sure I had the correct date for the wedding.”

“Why didn’t you just have Mary call me, you didn’t have to make a special trip.” Kevin didn’t believe Allen’s lame story for a minute. At first he thought Allen came down to try and extricate himself from the wedding. He and Samantha had a lot in common, neither really wanted to be in the wedding.

“Oh you know me, I’m just a perfectionist. I don’t want to mess up your big day.”

Kevin laughed out loud. “You’re so full of shit! You probably came down here looking for a way to get out of the wedding. I was just talking to my sister Samantha. The wedding is less than a week away and she’s still fighting being the maid of honor.”

This was his opportunity to get some information about Samantha. “I didn’t know you had a sister.”

Kevin handed Allen a smaller, more recent picture of Samantha. “Here’s my baby sister, she’s my only full sibling; however, we do have a shit load of step-brothers and sisters courtesy of our mother. I’ve lost count of the half-brothers and half-sisters our father has provided us with. They were lousy parents. When Sam and I were growing up we only had each other. Neither of us has been in a serious relationship before. Then I met Debra. When you meet “the one”, you can change your mind about a lot of things. I just hope one day Samantha finds that special someone.”

“Who knows maybe she already has.” He had her now; he didn’t have to search any further. Samantha Graham would be on his territory in less than a week and they were going to have one granddaddy of a reunion.

***

By the time Samantha reached the hotel she was sick to her stomach. She called Kevin right away to let him know she was in town, but she would not make the rehearsal dinner. Kevin told her that he would stop by to see her later and bring her dress. She took some Alka Seltzer Plus and fell across the bed without bothering to undress.

***

Where was she? Samantha missed the wedding rehearsal and the dinner. “Hey Kevin I haven’t seen your sister yet is she coming tonight?”

“She got sick on her plane ride in, I told her to stay at the hotel and rest up for tomorrow. It wasn’t necessary that she be here tonight. I miss her but I want her to feel better for the wedding. Really, all she has to do is walk down the aisle with you. How hard can that be?”

Allen was hoping to confront her tonight. He didn’t want to shock her at the wedding. He was tempted to go by the hotel and check on her, but he didn’t want to end up feeling sorry for her and letting her off the hook. “Well I hope she feels better.”

“Thanks man I really appreciate you asking about her. I’m going to check on her again later tonight when I drop off her dress.”

Allen was frustrated as hell. He wanted to confront Samantha at the rehearsal dinner and drag her home to his bed. He’d been thinking of nothing else since he found out she would be at the wedding. He waited this long, he could certainly wait one more day.

***

Samantha woke up early in the morning. She felt 100% better and was ready to enjoy Kevin and Debra’s wedding. Kevin stopped by last night to bring her dress and to check on her. She must have really looked bad because she could see the concern on his face. She promised him that she would be okay and she went right back to bed. Samantha looked in the mirror, she looked tired but she didn’t look worse for wear.