"I've never seen you in a pair of jeans before, in fact I thought you didn't own them." Brian said watching her walk into the living room where he sat on the couch.
She glared at him, "I'm still mad at you."
He let out a sigh, "Okay I must admit I was a bit out of line, but you must understand that I only said what I said because I care about you, and I mean… I know Seb pretty well." He paused to take a bite of his sandwich, then continued, "And besides you're married, need I remind you that your husband's not going to like you hanging out with a guy like Sebastian."
She paused on her way to the do, turned to face him with a look of actual bewilderment then responded, "My husband spends his time hanging out with women straight out of Vogue; thus, I don't care what he or you have to say. And now if you'll excuse me, I've got a lunch date to attend to, chow." Then she walked out.
Seated at the café restaurant she had made plans to meet Sebastian at, waiting for him to arrive. By the time he showed up she was already lost on her phone so much so that she could not hear when he greeted her.
He called out to her once more with a knock on the table drawing her attention to him. It was not that her phone had anything interesting to look at, but rather that she was trying hard not to think about her brother and her husband that she ended zoning out while staring at the screen. The harder you try not to think about something, the more likely it is to linger around in your mind.
"That was unnecessary." She commented, but all she got in return was a scowl from him, "It was a joke." She cleared, then let out a sign, "You do not seem that happy to see me. In fact, I would argue you seem upset."
"What was that back there?" he asked.
"What are you talking about?" she too questioned, truly lost.
"You dragged me between you and your brother. I didn't want to be part of your fight." Sebastian replied.
She eyed him, he looked mad. The sight made her feel meek and uncomfortable. Maybe that was because at that moment, looking at his face, he reminded her of Thom whenever he was angry. It terrified her a little. "I, uh, I'm sorry. It will not happen again." She stuttered
Her eyes fell to the table. She could not bear meet his eyes or even dare to look at him. To make things worse, she could feel him staring at her. He really was staring at her, not to make her uncomfortable but rather to understand why her body language just shifted. Something about the way she was behaving right then felt sadly familiar to him, but he said nothing about it.
The feeling of his eyes on her lasted a while before he finally said something, "Hey can I ask? What did you mean when you said that Brian lost the right to protect you as your brother because he let your parents sell you out?"
She finally mustered the courage to look up at him. His features were more relaxed, more like he usually was but with a tad bit of curiosity. She heaved out a painfilled sigh, "You want the long version or summary?", she asked.
"Which ever one makes you comfortable."
"Neither one does."
"You know if you don't feel comfortable answering you can say so, I'll understand." He reasoned leaning back into his chair.
She thought about it and figured that a summary was more suitable in this situation. "The Walkers wanted to do business with the Matthews, so they proposed a family union which involved me getting married young to… well… Thomas. So, it was all a business deal."
"Why would you agree to something like that?"
She took a sip of her drink and looked at him with a smile, "Because…He charmed the hell out of me."
"Charm? That's all it took for you to say yes. I wonder what it took for him to get you in to bed." He joked with a light chuckle.
"Hey look, he's looking for pointers." She retorted.
"No, I'm not, just wanted to know how easy you are."
"Oh, wow Sebastian's being a dick again. What a surprise." she countered sarcasm prominent in her tone.
"Okay, I'm sorry. But seriously why?"
"You really want to know?" she asked and he shot her a glare. Smiling, she decided to finally tell him the truth, "It's because I was afraid, afraid of going out into the world and trying to find love, afraid of getting hurt, so I chose an easy way out. I chose to skip to the end and forgot about the journey, or rather I chose not to take the journey. I chose an out. and to be honest with you, I feel like I've robbed myself of one of life's wonders, the journey of love…"
She let out a broken chuckle and continued, "The worst part of it is that I resent everyone who let me make this mistake, including Brian. All because I was afraid…I still am."
He took her hand and gave her a really cheerful smile, "Then it's a good thing you made the mistake young, because now… now you still have time and lots of time to make up for it, rectify it. Or even change it."
"Well, you surely know what to say to cheer a girl up Mount. And that is a surprise." She eyed him then returned his smile.
"I'm going to choose to take that as a complement."
"It is a complement." She looked right into his eyes, and he was looking right into her, for what felt like eternity.
"Greetings, again miss but are you finally ready to order?" the waiter asked interrupting held gaze and as such she turned her eyes to the menu with a sudden blush rushing to her cheeks.
"What?" he asked a smile still dawned on his face.
"Nothing was just thinking about something you said.", said because she didn't really know why she blushed. "But never mind that, what are you getting?" she continued with a similar smile plastered on her face.
"Hmm, I think I'm going with the burger and chips."
"Me too."
The waiter looked at they and let out a sigh, "And what will you be drinking?"
"Surprise us." She replied and the waiter left. "See, I'm not as boring as you claimed me to be."
"Well, it's just drinks, relax."
"It's a step forward for me, and you suck right now."
"I know, but if I don't annoy you, who will."
"My brother, that's his job." She returned chuckling.
They spent the rest of their lunch date basically talking about Brian and Candice. After lunch, Sebastian left for work and she went back to the apartment where she spent her time doing exactly what she did back at her house, and it felt just as lonely as the house. She hated it, she felt stuck in an endless cycle where nothing was ever done. She needed something to do.
Samantha drowning in how her life felt like it had no purpose other than existing. Though she refused to call it that. It really did not feel like she was living her life but was rather a spectator to other people's lives around her. it was unbearable.
"Hey is Sebastian here?" Brian asked interrupting her spiralling thoughts.
"No and I did not know you're back from work." She lagged a response.
"Yeah, but I'm about to leave."
"Candice?" She asked and he responded with a nod. Brian started to make his way back to the door.
"Hey Bri wait." she said getting up from the couch and placed her book down, "Hey look, I want to say I'm sorry about the way I acted this morning and I want you to know that I understand that you are my older brother and feel the need to be protective of me but I'm fine, I'll be fine. Plus, I can handle Sebastian."
He stepped close and he smiled, "It's okay and I'm sorry too for intervening in your life. I should have trusted you. It's just that I love you lil sis and I don't want to see you get hurt." He patted her head.
"Love you too."
It was Sunday morning, Samantha woke up to that thought. This meant that she had to go back to her life, the big empty house, and the semblance of a marriage. She let out a sigh, then got up to get ready and once she was done, she started packing. She drowned herself in her thoughts, which were mostly about what she was doing with her life, to pass by the packing time.
A knock on the bedroom door drew her back to reality. She walked to the door to opened it.
"I know you're going back to your place, so we did not want to trouble you hence we made breakfast." Brian said.
"By 'made breakfast' you mean ordered breakfast?" she asked.
"Yes" he responded. "We really did not want to bother you."
She leaned and kissed him on the cheek, "You can never bother me", she told him. They then made their way to the kitchen where the food was laid out on the counter.
"Whole breakfast buffet on the counter, hmm, no wonder I gain weight every time I come visit you, Bri." She commented. "Still cannot believe you guys ordered breakfast, who does that?"
"You when you are at the country club." Sebastian responded.
"Never, I eat homemade breakfast, which is the essence of breakfast."
"So, you never eat breakfast you ordered at hotels or motels or when you travel?" Sebastian asked.
"No, not really, I don't really travel. I'm a housewife remember?"
"Yeah, but does he not travel with you sometimes?" Brian asked.
"Only once, it was his father's retirement party."
"So, he leaves you alone when he travels, every time?" Sebastian asked.
"Yep" She replied mindlessly. They looked at each other and murmured something to each other, then at her. "How often does he travel?" Bri asked.
"A lot, why do you ask?"
"No reason other than curiosity." Bri responded then got up and kissed my forehead. "I'm off kids, I have places to be. Send my greetings to Thom sis. And Sebs behave yourself man." Then he left.
"Hey Sebs, what were you two whispering about?" she asked those she probably had an idea.
He stared at her for a while and then decided to answer, "We think your husband is cheating on you, but your brother didn't want to say anything because he does not want to get involved."
Samantha did not need to process what Sebastian had just told her because she knew it was possible; in fact, she thought part of her knew that it has happened or is yet to happen. "I know." She simply said after he confirmed what she always had a feeling about.
"You know he's cheating on you? Why are you still with him?"
"Yes. I'm still with him because I told you, it's business. And my parents would not be happy with me leaving him."
"So instead, you choose to stay in an unhappy marriage?" he asked.
"No… I chose the easy way out, remember?" she said with that sad smile as she grabbed a pancake and left.