The Night Roger and I Started Talking Again. Part 2

There still in the doorway stood my ex, rain drops sparkling in his dark hair, deep eyes that gave the impression of missing nothing scanning the room. His name was Daniel and he was gorgeous. We first dated years ago for a short time. He dumped me. Without warning. Right before I started a new job. A year later he tracked me down, played with my heart some more. I stood strong that time even though it nearly broke me in two and refused him. The last time he found me he was more persistent and I caved, blissfully caved, thinking that this time we would work. Only to have my heart broken again.

Could I get out the back door? Would they let me out through the kitchen? No good, it was on the other side of the room. Maybe if I sit really still and not even blink he won't notice me. He'll walk right by me and then I can slip out the entrance.

I felt as much as I saw him slide onto the stool next to me.

"Hello, Samantha."

"Hello, Daniel," I spoke to the air in front of me. "Fancy meeting you here."

"Georgia." Was all he said. Ah, now it made sense. Georgia, my sweet, lovable, beautiful, vapid cousin. Georgia was how Daniel and I met. They had dated first, in high school. Their break-up was affable and had remained friends. On the other extreme, Daniel and mine's last break-up was ugly, grotesque even. There were a lot of tears, a lot of drunken dialing no matter how cleverly Roger tried to hide my phone, and a lot of inventive curse words, some of them I was rather proud of. Roger was there almost every night taking care of me, making sure I didn't decide to visit Daniel, just to talk, at his job, after thinking it was a good idea to start drinking at 3 in the afternoon. Letting me cry for as long as I needed to without getting all uncomfortable like most guys do when a woman cries, uncontrollably, blabbering incoherently in between big heaving sobs, with snot and mascara running down her face. Yeah...it was bad. I ruined a few of Roger's shirts those first two weeks when it was at its worst. Roger still maintains it was more like six, but he's counting the zombie weeks where I walked around, going through the motions while not really being present. I didn't cry in public those weeks so they don't count as bad.

Apparently Georgia had forgotten the promise she had made during the last family get together. We had been standing in our grandparents' kitchen and she just told me about running into Daniel again, and wasn't it the funniest thing, he asked about me. I made her swear on a copy of The Joy of Cooking that she would not tell him where I was or my phone number or anything. In hindsight I should have taken the extra few minutes to find something a little more appropriate for her to swear on, but it was an emergency and the cookbook was just sitting there.

"What do you want, Daniel?" I sighed into my beer.

"Just wanted to see my alluring bookish friend again. Is that so wrong?" I could hear the smile in his voice. Teasing playfulness inviting me in.

I sighed into my beer. How to play this one? Should I go along with his game? Quip back and forth until I can circle around and teasingly find out what he really wants. Be the Sam that he used to be attracted to or should I just be blunt?

"What the fuck do you want, Daniel?" Okay then I guess I'm going with blunt.

He finally turned to face me. I turned as well, trying to set my mouth in a hard line. I decided to hear him out, but I would not allow myself to be pulled into whatever fanciful story he was about to spin. We both opened our mouths to speak at the same time, and then I blinked and Daniel wasn't there anymore.

Daniel was on his back on the floor. Legs bent as if he were still sitting in the chair, arms protecting his face, he was staring up between his arms at the tall figure standing over him.

"Hey, Roger," I smiled at my friend. "You got here fast."

"I was just leaving the office when I got your message. Thought I swing by before heading home." Roger was staring down at Daniel like he was a pile of rubbish that had been left out for pick up too early. "Good thing I did."

I bristled a bit. What did he mean by that? I was handling myself just fine.

"You have a lot of nerve." Wait, that was my line. Why was Roger saying it? "Get out of here. Keep away from Sam." Daniel stared at Roger for a beat. Roger's face was darker then I had ever seen it before. He was not a man that got angry very often. After assessing his situation, flat on his back, no allies around to help, I could actually see Daniel mentally decide it wasn't worth it to fight back.

Daniel scrambled to his feet. He looked over at me. I guess he saw no sympathy in my face, for he simply brushed off his pants, turned, and walked out of The Moon Duck.

I smiled up at Roger, took a deep breath, and hoped he would understand every bit of it when I said, "My hero."