Chapter Thirteen

 

JAMIE

 

“Hey, babe,” Sam answers the door, kissing me briskly on the cheek as he welcomes me in before walking back to his office.

“Are you working?” I try to excuse myself from having the difficult conversation I don’t want to initiate.

“Yeah, I’ve got to finalize this report. How was your day with Lisa?” He asks, as his fingers click away on his keyboard.

“It was fine. I can come back,” I offer, seeing that he’s busy.

“No, it’s fine,” he scrunches his eyebrows together, continuing to focus on the computer screen.

“Well, I kind of wanted to talk about something,” I drawled, my words long and drawn out like the lyrics to a song.

“Go ahead, I’m listening,” he glances up at me with a soft yet comforting smile, and I take a deep breath before beginning.

“It has to do with the party, and the girl that was flirting with you,” I watch his face, but he doesn’t have much of a reaction at all.

“Tasha?” He raises one eyebrow, looking up at me.

“Yes,” I nod, as he continues to type away.

“I told you not to worry about her, baby,” he adds, not looking up while he speaks.

“I know you said that, but I’m still not comfortable with everything, Sam. I get that she’s a friend of your family’s and I’m not trying to be a nag about it. I just feel like she’s inappropriate, the way she was all over you, and basically asking you out on a date. If a guy did the same to me, I wouldn’t accept, and I don’t think you should either.” I finish, taking a deep breath after expressing everything I discussed with Lisa.

“It’s not a date, Jamie,” he shakes his head, mumbling to himself as he shuffles through a stack of papers before typing on the keyboard again.

“To her, it is, Sam. But it shouldn’t even matter. I’m your girlfriend, and I’m telling you it matters to me. You need to say something to her, or I will.” I demand, my anger re-emerging as he refuses to give me his undivided attention.

“What do you expect me to say, Jamie?” He finally pauses his work, looking up at me with disdain in his eyes.

“That you have a girlfriend!” I yell, my patience wearing thin.

“Jamie, you're ridiculous. I don’t have time for this!” He barks, startling me with his aggression.

“Oh really? Because you’re the one that just told me now was a good time,” I remind him, and he draws a deep breath as if he too is growing annoyed. The nerve of him!

“Is it not obvious to you that I’m busy?” He holds his hands up, glancing around his desk at the piles of paperwork.

“This is all a joke to you, isn’t it?” I ask with a hand tightly gripping my hip.

“What are you talking about?” He sighs.

“Us! You don’t even take this seriously. I’m trying to tell you I have a problem, but you don’t even have time to discuss it,” I struggle to reason with him.

“Oh, this is most definitely a joke,” he chuckles, standing to his feet as he stalks towards the door.

“Are you serious?” I holler, following behind him as he makes his way to the kitchen.

“Jamie, I don’t care about her. I’ve told you that. Now you come over making ultimatums? What’s the point of all this?” He runs his fingers through his hair while walking behind his full bar.

While I may have a drink with my friends occasionally, Sam hardly ever drinks, so I know he must really be upset. Watching as he pours an amber liquid into a glass tumbler, I feel my own patience running thin. How has he turned this on to me, making it seem like I’m bothering him?

Sam is so stubborn at times, but this isn’t an issue I’m willing to shy away from as I tend to do in these situations. He needs to know how this is unacceptable, but it’s becoming clearer by the second that he is not willing to give an inch.

It’s almost like he is refusing to tell her that he’s dating me like he’s embarrassed about our relationship just as his family appeared to look down their nose at me. Before I know it, that insecurity bubbles up and spills right out of my mouth.

“What did your family say about me, Sam?” I ask, watching the blood drain from his face as his aggression fades, and instead he sips from the glass.

“Is that what this is about?” He finally responds after a long delay, but he’s failed to answer the question, which only leads me to believe it must not have been a favorable response.

“You don’t want to tell me?” I push.

“What difference does it make, Jamie? I love you, and that’s all that should matter,” he reasons.

“Are you seriously not going to tell me? How could they have a problem with me? I didn’t do anything wrong!” I yell, throwing my hands in the air.

“They don’t have a problem with anything you did, babe. It’s just that you’re not from Sutton Hill,” he says as if that’s a reasonable explanation.

“They don’t like me because I don’t live in your snotty neighborhood?” I repeat, hoping he can hear just how silly he sounds.

“You don’t get it. They’re just really tight-knit,” he justifies their behavior, and I feel myself flying off the handle.

“No, I don’t get it, Sam. You say you love me, so how could you be standing here defending such ridiculous behavior?” I question.

“What do you want me to do, Jamie? They’re my family,” he roars before gulping the rest of his Whiskey.

“I don’t know how much clearer I can be about this, Sam. I want you to tell them we’re together. I don’t want to be some secret or embarrassment,” I grit my teeth to lower my voice, fighting my urge to yell at the top of my lungs. It’s like speaking to a brick wall the way he refuses to see my point of view.

“You’re not a secret. I just took you to meet my family, for Christ Sake!” He walks back towards his office, as I follow once again.

“What family, Sam? Your sister who opened the door to look me up and down like a piece of trash? Or your brothers and mother who you refused to introduce me to?” I ask sarcastically.

While I hadn’t said anything, I noticed that Sam chose to only introduce me to Alyssa, and from her warm reception, I can understand why. His mother knew I was there with him, yet she never did come to speak to me, and I thought it would be too pushy to introduce myself.

Initially, I wasn’t sure whether his lack of an introduction was intentional, but from the look on his face, as he looks everywhere but in my eyes, I’m now sure it was done on purpose.

“Jamie, listen. They’re just from a different world. To them, you not being from Sutton Hills is all they need to know,” he shrugs his shoulders like there’s nothing he can do.

“Why did you even take me if you weren’t going to introduce me, Sam?” I ask, puzzled by both his behavior and explanation.

“I thought that’s what you wanted,” he says, sitting back in his desk chair.

“You thought I wanted to be taken to your family’s house and sit alone in a room while you flirt with your sister’s friends?” I can’t hide my sass.

“What difference does it make if I love you?” He asks with wide eyes and a distressed tone.

“Sam, how could I build a future with you knowing your family doesn’t want me around?” I simplify the problem.

“This is stupid,” he scoffs.

“No, what’s stupid is the fact that I’ve spent twelve weeks with someone who’s ashamed to introduce me to the people he loves, although you claim to love me,” I counter his insult.

“I’m not doing this with you, Jamie. I have work to do,” he shakes his head, tapping his keyboard to waken the monitor.

“Well, you let me know when you have time for me, Sam,” I announce loudly before storming out of the office.

I hear the exasperated breath escape him as I make my way into the dining room, but he doesn’t so much as say a word. By the time I reach the front door, I realize he’s not even going to chase me and begin to question where I fall in his list of priorities.

If this isn’t enough for him to stop working for twenty minutes, then what will be? Not to mention, he all but confirmed what I feared – his family doesn’t like me, and he thinks it’s okay. How can I imagine a future with someone knowing I’ll never be accepted by his family? Even more, he’s not even willing to profess his love to me.

Settling into my car, I feel the tears stinging at the corners of my eyes, and know that this may very well be the last time I talk to Sam, because even still he’s yet to so much as come to the door. My hope forces me to sit there in his driveway for another five minutes, but he never comes.