Punch Drunk Crazy

"Samantha?"

It took her a moment to register the voice from behind her door. Her focus was certainly not on who was interrupting her blissful morning, it was much more on what Tom was doing.

It wasn't until she heard her name again that she realized who the voice on the other side of her apartment door belonged to, and when she did she immediately pushed Tom's shoulders, succeeding in putting enough distance between them to get up off of the bed and pull her underwear back on.

Tom raised his eyebrow in confusion and surprise when she tossed his shirt at him, followed by his jeans and he watched her as she pulled a pair of jeans up over her own legs. That was when he asked, "What is happening?"

"My father is about to walk into my apartment." Sam was sure she had never seen Tom move so fast in the weeks they had known each other, especially when getting dressed.

He practically tripped when pulling his jeans on, and he momentarily saw Sam glance down at his crotch but to both of their relief he certainly wouldn't be needing a cold shower now.

Tom followed her down the hallway, and he made himself appear busy in the kitchen, grabbing a handful of eggs from the carton in her fridge. He just closed the fridge when Sam opened the door and he heard her ask, "What are you doing here?"

He heard the deep voice before he saw him, "I was in town for work, thought I'd stop by… imagine my surprise when I show up at your apartment in Baltimore to have a teenager open your door."

Sam's cheeks flushed, and that was when Tom saw her father walk into the apartment. He wasn't overly tall, a few inches shorter than Tom was, greying hair, in a black suit. Tom decided that Sam looked very little like her father.

They made eye contact, and he saw Sam's father look at her with a raised eyebrow which was when Tom cleared his throat, held up the three eggs in his hand and said, "Thanks for the eggs. I'll replace them."

Sam nodded and she mouthed 'I'm sorry' to him as he slipped into his shoes. Tom nodded and made sure to smile at her as he headed into his own apartment. He wanted to kiss her goodbye, like he always did, but it hardly seemed appropriate.

Once he was inside his own apartment he groaned as he looked down at the eggs in his hand.

Thanks for the eggs?

Mike came out of his bedroom, saw what was in Tom's hand and said, "Oh! Dude I was totally gonna go buy breakfast. Now we don't have to."

Tom rolled his eyes and put the eggs in a bowl on the kitchen counter before he slumped over in a bar stool at the kitchen island. His palm pressed against his cheek, elbow resting on the counter top he let out a groan and told Mike, "I'm not hungry."

Mike raised his eyebrow, "Since when?"

"Since Sam's father just about walked in on me going down on her." Tom muttered, looking up to find Mike struggling not to laugh. Tom rolled his eyes, "You would find this funny."

"No, the situation is mildly horrifying, what I find funny is your luck." Mike stated, letting out a chuckle as he broke three eggs into a fry pan. He then dug around in the fridge, before he tossed Tom a bag full of mini chocolate chip banana bread muffins and told him, "Drown your sorrows in these, and if they're awful please just tell my girlfriend they were good."

Tom raised his eyebrow and said, "If Kelly made them they'll be good."

"Just try them." Mike instructed and so Tom tossed one whole into his mouth, chewed and swallowed and Mike stared at him for a moment before he too reached into the bag and grabbed one. He told Tom, "She's mad at me. Had to make sure they weren't poisoned."

"Thanks dude." Tom muttered with an eye roll, tossing another mini muffin into his mouth.

Curiously Mike asked him, "So what's her dad like?"

"Don't know. I grabbed the eggs from her fridge before she opened the door and then said thanks and left." Tom stated, rolling his eyes at Mike when he snickered. Tom, exasperated, asked, "What else was I supposed to do man? Introduce myself? Hey, I'm Tom, the twenty one year old neighbor who's having sex with your daughter? Don't think so."

"Yeah you'd be coming home with a black eye then." Mike stated and Tom nodded.

"Probably."

"You don't find it… a little weird or anything that she didn't even introduce you? Or didn't even try?" Mike asked him curiously, he knew Tom was a lot more sensitive than people expected. He wasn't one of those overly sensitive cry babies a la Crosby, but when it came to women Tom was much more in tune with his sensitive side than most men. It was what tended to land him in shitty situations relationship wise.

Tom shrugged, "I mean… if this was a normal situation yeah, maybe."

"What do you mean normal?" Mike asked, eyebrow cocked.

"You know. Like if there wasn't a nine year age difference and if we were like… really dating." Tom stated, and then he groaned and went on, "I like her, don't get me wrong, and I want to date her but I don't know… maybe Sam's right. Maybe this is just a really bad idea."

Mike shook his head, "Don't do that. She was probably just surprised that he showed up, and maybe she didn't introduce you because one, she didn't know how to and two, she thought it was too soon."

"I guess."

- - -

Sam closed the door softly once Tom was headed to his own apartment, and she turned to face her father, who was looking around her apartment, as if inspecting it. She wrapped her arms around herself, and watched him, and finally he turned to her and surprised her by cutting straight to the chase, "I'm here to invite you home for Christmas."

Sam raised her eyebrow at him, "You came all the way from Boston to invite me for Christmas... in October?"

He nodded and informed her, "You never answer your calls, you don't return emails so I thought the only way you couldn't avoid me was if I came here."

She let out a sigh and told him, "I don't not answer you on purpose. I've been busy."

"I can see that." He stated.

Her brow raised again, and with a slight edge to her voice she asked him, "What does that mean?"

"How long have you been seeing the neighbor?" He asked her, watching her with a near amused expression, which confused the hell out of Sam.

She was flustered when she answered, "I'm not- I mean... we're not... it's not-"

"It is. I may be old but I'm not stupid." He told her, laughing when she narrowed her eyes at him. Sam moved to the couch, dropping onto it and Chris followed her, taking the spot beside her. He patted her knee and asked her curiously, "So how long?"

"A few weeks. A month maybe." She told him honestly, she didn't see the point in lying to him, he already knew. Go figure.

She watched as he struggled to find his wording, and she knew what was going to come out of his mouth even before he tentatively asked her, "How old is he?"

Her answer was simply, "Don't ask that."

"I am asking."

She sighed, tucked a chunk of her damp copper hair behind her ear and told him honestly, "Almost twenty-two."

He sucked in a breath of air and nodded slowly, before he told her, "Okay."

Her brow raised, "Okay?"

"Yes, okay. I don't care how old he is, as long as he's old enough." Chris told her, and Sam's brow stayed raised so he chuckled and asked, "What?"

"You really don't care that he's almost a decade younger than me?" She was shocked. He was always so full of rules and what was right and what was wrong, there was no grey area with Chris, there never had been. 

He shrugged, "I don't really know the guy, but obviously you do and I trust your judgement."

Glad someone does.

Sam's head snapped back toward Chris when he told her with a smile, "Why don't you invite him to dinner?"

"No." She was quick to say.

So quick in fact that Chris looked at her, eyebrow raised, and asked, "Why not?"

"Because... because I barely know him." Sam exclaimed.

Chris shrugged his shoulders and reminded him, "You know him well enough to get naked in front of him, I think that's well enough to invite him to dinner with your old man."

"Oh my god. Jesus Christ. Absolutely not." 

Chris simply chuckled at Sam's reaction and he told her, "Invite the guy."

Sam sighed, "I'll invite him, but his name is Tom."

Hours later, when Chris had gone to a meeting Sam found herself knocking on Tom's apartment door. Mike answered, and he smirked at her as he stepped aside and asked, "How's your dad?"

"He tells you everything doesn't he?" She asked, eyebrow raised.

"Pretty much, goes both ways though." Mike said with a shrug, before he turned toward the hallway and called out, "Tom, your girl is here."

Sam felt her cheeks pink up at the use of the term 'your girl' but she was glad that Mike didn't notice it. Instead Tom came walking out of his bedroom and he smiled when he saw her, and she said, "I'm sorry about this morning."

He shrugged, and Mike, being Mike, just had to go and ruin the moment by asking Sam, "He tell you how he made me and my girlfriend go shopping with him this morning?"

Sam's brow raised in Tom's direction, and he reached out and smacked Mike upside the head before he grabbed Sam's hand and pulled her toward him. He wrapped both arms around her, and leaned down to speak softly into her ear, "You don't have to apologize."

Mike interrupted them, "Dude, you have a whole new, nice room to do that shit in. Get it out of my face." 

Sam chuckled and allowed Tom to pull her down the hallway, but they stopped outside of his closed bedroom door and she looked up at him with a raised eyebrow. He told her, his cheeks flushed, "I planned on surprising you, you know... have you over for dinner and then knock your socks off in more ways than one with this but... I guess I'll ruin that surprise."

She let out a laugh, and when he pushed his bedroom door open Sam looked inside of the room in surprise. Inside sat a bed, two nightstands on each side, the bed was actually made, there were not one but four pillows on the bed, and a hamper by the closet door. Her jaw could have dropped. 

Looking up at him she asked, "What's this?"

"You told me that you'd never spend the night unless I got a bed, and I guess it kind of made me realize that I'm not a teenager anymore... I should take a bit of pride in my living space." He told her honestly. 

She shook her head and told him, "You didn't have to do all this just because-"

Tom this time shook his head and he interrupted him and told her, "I know I didn't. I wanted to do this Sam. I want you to know that I'm serious about whatever it is we're doing, I'm making the effort to be the kind of guy you would want in your life because I want to be in your life."

He was sure, even for a second, that she might cry upon hearing that. She looked like she might have. Instead she simply smiled and wrapped her arm around his waist, tucking herself into his side and she surprised him by telling him, "I want you in my life."

"But? I feel like there's a but coming." He voiced, and he wasn't surprised when she nodded.

He held his breath as she opened her mouth to start speaking, "But I don't know how this works, how we can make it work. I'm not opposed to giving it a try, but I also want you to know that I'm not gonna be like every girl you've been with and that it might take me a while to... figure things out I guess."

"Do you trust me?" Tom asked her curiously.

She looked up at him and told him honestly, "As crazy as it makes me, yes, I trust you Tom."

She barely finished her sentence before he leaned down and kissed her sweetly, but firmly. When he pulled back she raised her eyebrow and he told her, his voice low and soft, "I hope I never treat you like he did, I never want to, and if I ever start, tell me."

Sam couldn't help but smile at his words. 

She changed the subject by telling him, "So... I didn't just come here to apologize."

His brow raised, "No?"

She smiled and shook her head, before she practically word vomitted all over the place, "My dad would like to invite you to dinner, and you can totally say no, feel free too."

"I'll be there." Tom wasn't sure if she looked relieved or disappointed with his answer. Before she could speak he asked, "What do I call him? I can't show up calling him Sam's dad."

She let out a laugh and told him, "Chris."

"Okay, got it. Can I bring anything?" Tom asked her, and she shook her head.

"Just yourself. I'll see you tonight."

- - - 

Sam was a bundle of nerves, Tom was due over any second, and dinner was still at least forty minutes from being done, which meant that there would be plenty of time for Tom and her father to either get along really well, as she hoped, or for their whole evening to crash and burn. Chris was sitting on the couch with a beer, and Sam was trying desperately not to down the entire bottle of wine that she had just opened. 

She nearly dropped her glass when someone knocked on the door, why was she so nervous? She had a four month rule, that was why. Never, not once, had Sam ever introduced someone she was dating to either of her parents until the four month mark, and she and Tom hadn't even really been on a real date. She hadn't even introduced Stephen to her parents until nearly six months in, though that should have been a warning sign on its own. 

Tom had seemed genuinely glad to meet her dad, or at the very least, willing to roll with it. Stephen had come up with excuse after excuse for why he couldn't meet them, until she had practically just had to spring it on him. There were a lot of differences between Tom and Stephen, and Sam really, really wanted to believe it when Tom when he said that he didn't want to treat her that way. But she just didn't know if that was possible.

She went to answer the door, but Chris got up and told her, "I got it."

"Oh god." She muttered, downing half of her wine glass before he even reached the door. 

Chris chuckled, pulled the door open and stepped aside to let Tom in, and he was surprised, and impressed, that the moment his shoes were off Tom turned to him and offered a hand to shake, introducing himself, "I'm Tom, it's nice to meet you Mr. Montgomery."

Sam smiled to herself, knowing that Chris would be impressed with both his strong handshake and the introduction. She laughed when Chris told him, "Chris. Mr. Montgomery was my father and he was a hell of a lot more intimidating then I am."

"Right." Tom stated with a nod of his head.

He looked surprised when Chris headed to the fridge and asked him, "Wine or beer?"

Tom cleared his throat and said, "Beer."

Chris grinned at Samantha and said, "Beer over wine, my kind of guy."

Maybe this would be okay.