Punch Drunk Crazy

"Hey space case." Sam shook her head and turned back to her computer screen, where Paula was sitting via Skype. She grinned, "Who are you staring at?"

"What? Nothing-no one."

Her response was a little too quick to be convincing so Paula asked, "Is he cute?"

"Shut up." Sam said, rolling her eyes as she glanced over to Dom again, he was leaning against the reception desk that she could see out of the window of her office. She turned back to the computer and when she saw Paula watching her with a raised eyebrow Sam's cheeks flushed and she explained, "He's just a coworker and it's nothing. I don't even like him. Actually he's extremely annoying. He keeps asking me out."

"So say yes." Paula stated as if it were the most obvious thing in the world.

"What?" Sam exclaimed.

Paula laughed and told her, "Look obviously he's cute or you wouldn't be staring at him. He's interested in you, and I just think maybe, call me really progressive and forward here, but maybe it would be good for you to go on a date."

"I don't think it is. I mean… it hasn't even been that long since Tom and I broke up." Sam said softly, chewing on her bottom lip.

"Sweetie it's been almost two months." Paula stated.

"I don't know if I'm ready."

"What you're saying is you don't know if you're over Tom, and you don't know if you want to be over Tom." Paula stated, decoding Sam's speech.

Sighing Sam nodded her head as she rubbed her temples and said, "I just... I miss him. I miss how easy things were with him, I miss how he made me feel, how happy I was. How can I know I made the right decision and miss him this much at the same time?"

Because you don't know that you made the right decision Samantha.

Paula surprised her by telling her, "Go on a date with this guy from work. One date. You'll know right away if you really want to be done with Tom or not."

"What if it just makes me even more confused?" Sam asked her curiously.

Paula shook her head, "It won't. You'll know Sam. You'll know five minutes in if you want to date other people or if you want to date Tom."

- - -

Tom was pissed off, even more so than usual. He couldn’t pinpoint why exactly, all he knew was that he was mad. He had every reason to be on top of the world; they had just won both of their games this road trip and would be heading back to Washington with two wins in the books, they had played so good tonight it seemed as if everyone was on the same page and same wave length. Yet, while the whole locker room bustled with excitement and yelling, pranks and jokes Tom was sitting in his stall, showered and dressed waiting for everyone to be ready so that he could go back to the hotel and go straight to bed.

“Willy, you coming out with us?”

Tom didn’t even look up from staring at his feet to see who asked, he simply said, “Nah.”

“Dude, no offense but you’re a total buzz kill lately, what gives?”

Tom clenched his jaw in an effort to keep his mouth shut, and he was thankful when Mike warned whoever it was that had spoken, “He’s having a rough week, just leave him be.”

“That’s exactly why he should come out with us. Let loose, have a few drinks.”

Tom, finally tired of the chatter and talk about him as if he wasn’t in the room, looked over at Matt and told him, “The last thing I need as any more help from you.”

Matt’s brow raised as everyone in the room turned their attention to their two teammates as Matt asked him, “What the hell does that mean?”

Mike didn’t have the chance to play buffer and shut Tom up before he could say, “Ask your fiancé.”

“Okay, what the fuck does that mean?”

He was aware that he was causing a scene, and that he would likely get reprimanded by the coaching staff, or even management tomorrow but he didn’t care. He simply looked over at Matt and told him, “Ask her what she said to Sam that made her spend three quarters of our game crying in the bathroom.”

Brooks, trying to diffuse the situation, told Tom, “Let’s just call it a day and get back to the hotel.”

It was far too late for diffusing, Tom was already seeing red, but he chose to take his rage out with words, thankfully, rather than flying fists like he really wanted to. He told him, “Amber wasn’t the only one involved, don’t try to make things better when your girlfriend helped cause all this fucking bullshit.”

“Dude, what the fuck?”

Mike jumped in to tell them, “Sam broke up with him, obviously he’s a little… emotional. Let’s just stop the conversation now.”

“And what, you just assume it was our girlfriends? Maybe there was another reason she dumped you. Maybe you’re just not that great and she finally realized it.” When Matt muttered this Mike found himself looking across the locker room at TJ, as if begging for his help.

TJ sighed and said, “He’s not making shit up. Emma was there and she was… she told me what happened and frankly, I’m not out to step on anyone’s toes here or piss anyone off but I’d be pretty embarrassed if Emma ever said what they said to Sam to anyone."

When even that didn’t diffuse the tension in the room Mike Richards got up from his stall and pulled Tom up by his arm, he looked at Michael and told him, “I’ll take him back to the hotel, obviously this isn’t something that’s gonna be settled tonight.”

So Tom followed Mike side by side out of the locker room, and out of the arena, and they sat in silence the whole way back to the hotel. But Tom was surprised when instead of dragging him up to his hotel room Mike lead Tom into the hotel restaurant, where they found a table in the back and Mike ordered them each a beer.

He told Tom, “You look like you could use something stronger, but I personally think that’s a bad idea.”

Tom nodded his head, “Probably true.”

He was then told, “You also look like you could use some food, and maybe to rant to someone who has no idea what happened or who this Sam chick is.”

Tom sighed and said, “She was Mike and I’s neighbor.”

“Was?”

He nodded, “She moved out. Probably because of me.”

“So what happened?” Mike asked him curiously.

Tom didn’t answer until after their waiter had come back with their drinks and taken their dinner orders, but he did eventually mutter harshly, “She spent a total of fifteen minutes in our wives room that’s what happened.”

Mike nodded slowly and asked again, “What happened?”

“I don’t know what I was thinking. Why I thought her sitting in the wives room would have been a good idea. I should have known what was gonna happen, I should have seen it coming but I was just… so excited to show her off and have everyone meet her that I didn’t even think of it. It really never occurred to me that she would be made fun of and joked about right to her face.” Tom downed half of his beer in one shot and Mike simply watched him. When Tom looked over at him he said, “She’s older than me.”

“How much older?” He asked curiously.

“Nine years.” Tom stated softly, bracing for the shock he was expecting to show on Mike’s face, but it never came.

Instead Mike shrugged and shared, “I dated someone six years younger than me in LA.”

“Why didn’t it work?” Tom asked him curiously, he thought maybe if Mike had any idea what he might be going through now he could give him a few tips.

Mike surprised him by saying, “I slept with my ex on a road trip back in Philly.”

“Oh.”

“I’ve made a lot of mistakes man, some small and some really big, but the one thing I’ve learned from them is that you can’t expect miracles; you can’t expect people to know what you’re going through or what you want if you don’t tell them. I may not know you that well, and I definitely don’t know this girl, but obviously you have some pretty real feelings for her, not very many guys I know would go head to head with their teammates over a girl. I respect the hell out of that, at the end of the day hockey’s a game, sure it’s great and it’s important, but your life outside of the game is just as important. You can’t play good hockey if your personal life is a mess, take it from me. If this Sam girl is worth you almost tearing your own teammate’s heads off, isn’t she worth fighting for?”

- - -

Sam was sitting at her desk in her office at three in the afternoon when Julie knocked on her door, pushed it open and said, “There’s someone here to see you, but they don’t have an appointment.”

“Who is it?” She asked curiously, not looking up from her computer as she typed an email out.

Julie glanced behind her, before she looked back at Sam nervously and told her, “He says his name is Brooks, he also says you know him… he plays for the Caps… if that helps.”

This time Sam stopped typing and looked up, and though the situation certainly didn’t warrant it the expression on Julie’s face made her chuckle. She nodded her head and told her, “He can come in.”

“Okay, oh and Mitchell says he can fit you in for a meeting Wednesday at ten in the morning, but he has a deposition at eleven.” Julie told her, and Sam nodded, so Julie left and a few seconds after that there was a soft knock on the door before it opened again.

Brooks closed the door behind him, and his cheeks were flushed as he said, “I hope this is okay, me coming here.”

She nodded slowly, she didn’t know why he was here but she figured she would find out soon. So she smiled to be polite and asked him, “What can I do for you?”

“Tell me how to apologize to someone who deserves much more than an apology on behalf of someone else.” He stated honestly, and when Sam’s brow quirked his cheeks pinked even more and he cleared his throat and explained, “Tom might have mentioned what happened with Carly and Amber, and I asked her about it and… I’m really sorry for everything Sam. What they said wasn’t cool, and I just wanted you to know that I don’t feel that way, and I’d never condone what they did. Knowing that’s why you broke up with Tom… I feel awful.”

Sam shook her head and told him, “That wasn’t why I broke up with him.”

“Really?” He asked her skeptically, giving her a very pointed look to say that he knew she was lying.

She sighed and said, “Okay, that wasn’t the only reason I broke up with him. It’s hard to explain, and frankly I’m not sure I want to explain it to you, and that has nothing to do with what happened at that game, it’s just… I don’t know you, and I appreciate the apology but what happened between Tom and I is a personal thing.”

“Absolutely, I understand. I just wanted to apologize and… he misses you, he won’t say it but he does. He’s getting through the days but he’s not happy, and from the looks of it neither are you. Maybe just give him a chance? Tom’s a different kind of guy, he’ll surprise you, he surprises everyone. He’s not what you’d expect from just looking at him and I know you know the kind of guy he is so, maybe just think about giving him a chance?”

Sam was surprised, she hadn’t expected one of Tom’s teammates, someone she barely knew, to show up and tell her these things but, from the singular night she spent with them she knew she shouldn’t have been surprised. It was all very obvious that they had each other’s backs, no matter what. The fact that Tom had kept in what really happened for months just so that he didn’t cause any problems in their locker room, when even Brooks knew he had every right to be angry and make sure they knew it, spoke to the kind of friendship they all had, and it spoke to the kind of guy that Tom was. It spoke to exactly what Brooks had just told her.

When Sam didn’t answer right away Brooks said, “I’ll let you get back to work, but just… think about it.”

Once he was out of her eyesight Sam pulled her phone out and texted Paula.

I don’t know what to do. My head says to forget it and my heart says Tom.

She was surprised when she got a response back only a minute or two later from Paula.

You should always follow your heart, but I do still think you should go out with the guy from work and see if your head still matches what your heart wants or if your heart is just a little louder than reason.

Sam put her phone down on her desk and let out a breath of air, she glanced out of the large window of her office and her eyes wandered over the scene of Washington before her. She couldn’t help but wonder if maybe she should ignore her heart all together and put Tom behind her, let him get on with his life and start moving on with hers. That would be the easiest decision. She could chalk this moment up to being emotional over what Brooks had just told her, and her guilt over hurting Tom and simply put it behind her and let them both get on with their lives.

She got up from her chair when she saw Dom coming, and before he could walk past her office she opened her door and smiled at him, “Got a second?”

He glanced at his watch and nodded, “I have a few minutes before my next meeting.”

“Great.” Sam said with a smile, moving aside to hold the door open for him.

He stepped into her office, watched her close the door behind him and then when she turned back to him he asked her, “So, what did you need?”

“I was thinking.” She started, pausing for a moment as if unsure of how to continue.

So his brow raised and he asked, “About?”

“What you asked me, last week… does it still stand?” Sam asked him curiously, and he smiled as his brow raised even higher.

“When I asked you out? Yeah, it still stands.” He told her, and when she smiled gently he asked her, “Would you like to go out for dinner tomorrow night?”

Sam smiled as she told him, “You can pick me up at seven.”