Matt's P.O.V
It was around seven o'clock when Chace and I went to my dad's restaurant for dinner as we had agreed. He came out of the kitchen and served us his meals himself. The night was young well - until, I saw her. She was sitting in the centre of the restaurant by herself. By that point, I hadn't seen Sam in nearly two years, since she vanished without any warning with my car and thirty grand.
"Bro, you've said that like a thousand times now" Daniel rolls his eyes, "I get the picture, your honey stole your ride and cash then took off"
"Right" I nod, "her hair was longer and another colour. The last time I saw her, her hair was chocolate brown, but now it was brown at the top and got lighter to the bottom..." I continue.
I couldn't keep my eyes off her. It was like seeing a ghost. A version of the girl that I used to love - a version that I no longer recognized or connected with on any level. The only link she and I shared were our pasts. Our messy complicated pasts that intertwined like a long piece of string, each time we met created a knot that couldn't be detangled.
"What's up with you?" Chace asked, stuffing his face with shrimp.
I clenched my jaw, my eyes still focused on her. I had bee staring at her for twenty minutes by that point, just trying to figure out what I was going to say to her.
Slowly, I said "Sam's here"
Chace's eyes widened in disbelief as looking over his right shoulder then his left. "As in here here?" He asked while doing so.
"As in over there" I pointed to her.
She was across the room, far from both of us, sitting in front of a pizza. For two years, I had wondered what I would say if I ever were to see her again. When the moment finally arose, I found myself too stunned to do much at all.
"Jesus she is too" Chace lowered his voice, "what are you going to do?"
"I don't know" I admitted. Chace just gave me a look, like a, are you serious look. "Hey, what do you want me to do? Go up to her, throw her pizza to the floor and say why the hell did you leave?"
"That's exactly what I want you to do! I need you to get angry," Chace stood up theatrically, "I'll be outside" and with that, he walked out of the restaurant, leaving me and my thoughts alone together at the table.
"Did you enjoy that, Mr Marino?" A familiar voice asked from in front of me.
I looked up to see my dad standing there in his black chef's uniform.
"Yeah, it was alright" I assured while standing up, my attention still focused on Sam.
"Just alright?" Dad laughed, "hey" he began snapping his fingers in front of my face.
"What!" I snapped.
His smile dropped. "Hey, look, kid, I'm trying here"
I rolled my eyes.
"No, you're not" I grit my teeth. "What, do you think that this makes up for it all?" I looked over to the plates on the table. "Do you think you cooking dinner for me once will make up for all the missed birthdays? Do you think that this makes up for not showing up to my graduation? Not showing up for anything that was remotely important to me?"
He didn't say anything, he just stood there motionless. A moment of silence followed, allowing me to look over to Sam's table to find that she was gone.
Out of anger, I looked back at my father and uttered the words "see you in another ten years" and left the restaurant.
From the sidewalk, I watched as Sam drove off in my Range Rover.
"Hey, did you catch her?" Chace asked, throwing her cigarette onto the sidewalk before crushing it with the heel of his shoe.
"No, I didn't" I sighed, "did you get a cab?"
"Right over here" he looked over to the cab parked at the kerb.
"Alright, let's go to that Strip club that you were telling me about" I half-smiled.
"Alright!" He said excitedly as we both jumped into the cab.
It was God knows how long later when we arrived at the strip club that Chace has been raving about. The first thing we did was look around and then take a seat in the centre near the stage.
"There's a lot of pink" I observed my surroundings.
"That's what you're looking at?" Chace looked at me concerned, "are you feeling okay?"
I rolled my eyes just as the announcer said: "Hit it for Kitti"
That's when the stripped came out from behind the curtains and started pole dancing. I knew the girl all too well. My jaw fell open and my eyes widened in disbelief.
"Holy shit" I cried, nudging Chace, "it's Sam"
Turns out, Sam had spent the last two years working as a stripper in New York. It was a big change from the little Mormon girl she used to be. I looked at her eyes, she looked tired. I couldn't even imagine what her life had been like the last two years. I found myself getting angry just watching her. I wanted vengeance for what she had done, but at the same time, I was still in love with her.
It was later in the night when she was talking to some guy that was standing right in front of me and Chace.
"Hey there" she approached the guy in front of us, "want a dance?"
The guy shook his head and walked away from her, making us in Sam's view.
"I'll have one" I grinned at her, "hi there, sweetheart, remember me?"
Sam looked and met my gaze. "Matt" she gasped.
"Lap dance, thanks" I cut her off just as another stripped began giving a disinterested Chace a lap dance next to us. His attention was focused on Sam and I. "So, how you been? Enjoying my car?" I asked Sam.
I get straight to the point. God, I hope that she's sweating. My intention was to hurt and humiliate her like she had to me, two years prior.
"Look, Matt-" she started.
"What about my money?" I asked, resulting in Chace breaking out into laughter.
"I did what I had to do to get out of there" she explained as bowing and flicking her long hair. "And I'm sorry if I hurt you in the process"
"Oh, you didn't hurt me" I shook my head, "but hey its good to know that you're not lying dead in a gutter somewhere...thanks for that phone call"
"Bite me" she snaps right back.
This woman was not the Sam I knew, she was so angry.
"Happy to" I bite down on a bunch of cash before digging my face in between her breasts. "What are you doing here Sam?"
"Working," she told me.
"You left your life in Chicago to become a stripper in some sleazy club in Queens?"
"Go to hell" she cried. "You have no idea what it was like for me in Chicago!"
"Well, maybe I would have if you let me in once in a while!" I reminded her.
"Me let you in? you're not exactly an open by either you know!" She cries as still dancing.
"What happened to you?" I asked, "what happened to the girl that I fell in love with?"
I didn't know if I liked the new version of Sam. She was different. Different isn't always a bad thing but it didn't look good on her. I wanted the Sam I knew and loved back. I also wanted revenge and answers and well, her. My mind was filled with so many questions that I was too overwhelmed to even begin asking.
When the song ended, Sam screamed the words: "she's dead! Has been for years" she then stormed off.
There was a minute of silence while I collected my thoughts.
"Well, that was quite the reunion" Chace laughed.
"What happened to her?" I sighed, digging my head into the palms of my hands.
"She became a dirty dirty stripper" he smirked, "at some sleazy club in Queens," he mocked.
I needed to know the truth. I didn't want Sam's memory keeping me up at night anymore. How could I know so little about someone who was once such a big part of my life? I didn't want her to be someone that I used to know.
"You got enough money for a cab?" I asked Chace, now standing up from my seat.
"Yeah," he nodded, "what are you going after her?"
"I have too" I sighed, "otherwise I'll spend the rest of my life wondering about what happened" and just like that, I ran outside and found a cab. "Can you see that Range Rover over there" I pointed a few cars ahead of us.
"Sure" The cab driver responded.
"Follow it" I ordered.
He nodded along and asked me if I was chasing a girl. I asked how he knew and he told me he had been a cab driver along time and this wasn't his first rodeo. He was an older guy with grey hair and a five o'clock shadow. I explained to him that I was chasing my ex-girlfriend and as a result, I told him the whole story, just like I'm telling it now. Only this is where the story ended when I told it to him.
"I think I still love her" I admitted to the cab driver.
"So you're going to confess your love for her?" he asked while parking the cab at the curb, in front of an apartment building.
"No" I shook my head as giving him thirty dollars, "I'm going to find out why she did it"
I jumped out of the cab and followed Sam into her apartment. She looked afraid of me at that moment. After all, we hadn't been alone in a room together in two years.
"What do you want from me?" She asked.
"I want to know how you could do it?" I clenched my jaw, "I want to know how you could just leave like that! No phone calls, no nothing!"
"It was something that I had to do!" she screamed.
"What for us or for you?" I argued. It was then when Sam pulled a handgun from her purse and pointed it at me. I recognized my gun straight away, I forgot that I had left it in my car. "What you're gonna shot me with my own gun? Come on Sam"
Slowly, I took a few steps towards her, still maintaining eye contact. I pulled the gun away from her and placed it on to the coffee table beside us. My face was only a few inches away from her at that point.
"Don't" she whispered, letting a tear escape from the corner of her eye.
We had sex that night on her sofa. I fell asleep afterwards and when I woke up, she was gone. I went back to her apartment later that day where I was greeted by a woman that wasn't Sam. I asked the woman if Sam was there and she told me that she didn't know anyone by that name. I even went back to that strip club that night and asked around; everyone there told me the same thing - that there was no one named Sam that worked there.
So just like that, Sam had vanished, again.
*Present day*
"Was she going by a fake name or something?" Daniel asks.
I shrug "no idea"
"What ended up happening with your dad?" he asks.
"He came to my hotel room just before Chace and I went to the airport. He asked if we could talk so I gave him thirty seconds..." I continue the story.
"Look kid I'm real sorry for missing out on most if your life and all" My dad admitted in his thick New York accent and his hands in his pocket, "really I am, but it wasn't my fault"
"It wasn't your fault? How do you figure?" I scoffed.
"You're mother was the one who told me to leave...I didn't do it by choice"
"She told you to leave because you were a nut! A drunken asshole were her words exactly" I folded my arms.
"Hey, who do you think you're talkin' to? I'm still your old man, kid, whether you like it or not" He firmed his gaze.
"Oh yeah, what are you gonna do about it, hit me? cause you've gotten pretty good at that over the years" I cocked a brow before I walked away from him.
And that concludes my first to New York.
Each trip was just as eventful as the others.
"Was that the last time you saw her?" Daniel asks.
I shake my head.
"Maybe I would hate her a lot less if it was" I admit to him.