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Josie's eyes widened when she noticed that the lights were still on and the driver's side door was left ajar. She stood a few feet away and watched as Sam reached inside the car, pulled the keys out of the ignition, and turned off the lights. Next, he pushed down the lock on each one of the doors before walking back to stand beside her, shoving the keys in his pocket on the way. She noticed that he had a mysterious grin on his face, and she couldn't stop a giggle from escaping her. "What's the smile for?" she asked, reaching for his hand.
Sam squeezed her hand twice and kissed her on the cheek before answering. "I'm just amused, I guess," he told her. He chuckled a little at that.
Josie couldn't recall ever seeing Sam so giddy. It made her feel lighthearted too, in spite of the fact that she was a bit concerned. "Well, I'm glad that you're amused, Sam," she told him, smiling, "but how are we supposed to get out of here now?"
He let go of her hand for a moment and began pacing in front of her, rubbing his thumb and forefinger thoughtfully against his chin.
"Hmmm�That's an interesting question, isn't it? Let's see�We are the last ones to leave, there's no one around, and neither of us lives anywhere near here. What should we do?"
"Sam!" Josie exclaimed, bursting into laughter. His pacing that way showed her what she already knew: that he was born to teach. His steps in front of her were graceful and calculated and she felt for that moment that she was actually back in his literature class.
"All right, all right, I know," he began, finally becoming serious again. "This is not a problem though, Josie. Actually, I know this neighborhood pretty well, and there's an excellent cafe about five blocks down the street. How would you like to go there and grab a bite to eat?"
At the mention of food, Josie's stomach began to growl, reminding her once again of how hungry she was. She nodded. "That sounds perfect, Sam."
The two of them made their way down the sidewalk that ran parallel to the street. Sam placed his arm protectively around Josie's shoulders and she slid her arm around his back. She felt safe and secure, and she took this opportunity to survey her surroundings. Though it was dark outside, the street was lined with Victorian streetlights and quaint shops were on either side. She saw a few clothing stores, antique shops, and her eyes lit up at the sight of a vintage bookstore. "I go there all the time," Sam told her, as if he'd read her mind. "They have the most amazing books you've ever seen. Sometimes I'm even lucky enough to find the first printings of some classics."
"Wow!" Josie exclaimed, obviously in awe. "I love old books. My grandfather had boxes of them in his basement, and he gave a few of them to me before he died. He was one of those people who kept everything. I didn't find any real classics among those books, but there were some old textbooks in the bunch that belonged to him when he was a little boy."
"That's amazing," Sam mused. "We'll have to come back to that store together sometime. I know you'll love it. Unfortunately, it's not open now."
Before long, the two of them reached the caf� that Sam told her about. Red and white-checkered curtains hung in the two big windows on either side of the front door, and a big neon "OPEN:" sign took up a large portion of one of the windows. The name of the establishment, "The Caf�" was in big block letters over the entryway. "Original name," Josie commented as they entered.
Sam laughed. "I know. I tried to get the owner to change it, but he didn't like any of my suggestions."
Josie followed Sam to a booth beside one of the big windows. There were two red and white-checkered place mats on the table, one on each side. Josie slid into one side of the booth, thinking Sam would take the other side. Instead, he moved the other place mat to her side and slide onto the seat next to her, angling his arm around the back of the chair. "This is a nice place," Josie commented, looking around. She noticed that Sam's face was very close to hers, so she didn't get much of a chance to see anything else. Of course, it wasn't like she wanted to. She loved being this close to him and enjoyed the thrill it gave her in the pit of her stomach.
"Really? I didn't notice," Sam whispered, leaning down to kiss her softly on the lips. The kiss didn't last very long, but he put his free hand on her cheek when it ended, caressing it slowly. Josie leaned her face into his hand, marveling at the power his touch had over her. "Josie, do you know how many times I've pinched myself tonight?"
She laughed.
"No, really! But I think I should stop doing it because my arm is starting to get a little sore." He took his hand from her cheek then and showed her the spot above his wrist that he'd been pinching. She noticed that there were fingernail marks imprinted there and the area surrounding it was red and sore looking.
"Oh, Sam�" Josie whispered, her brow furrowing with worry. "That looks like it really hurts. Don't do that anymore!" Still concerned, she took his wrist in her hands and kissed the sore spot on his arm. "There. Is that better?"
Sam smiled dreamily at her. "Much better. Doesn't hurt a bit anymore."
"Excuse me. Can I take your order?" Josie and Sam were interrupted by a bubbly female voice, and they both turned their heads to see a petite dark-haired woman standing in front of their table, pen and pad in hand. She looked like she was probably around their age, if not a year or two younger, and she chomped loudly on a rather large piece of bubble gum, her mouth gaping open. "Oh my gosh!" she exclaimed. "You're Josie Geller, aren't you?"
Josie looked down at her lap, her cheeks burning. Finally, she smiled and looked back up at the woman. "Yes, I am," she said, just barely above a whisper.
"Wonderful!" the waitress exclaimed. "Then you must be the mystery man!" she concluded, indicating Sam.
He nodded. "Yep. Sam Coulson."
"Well, you certainly are handsome! No wonder she went to so much trouble," the woman exclaimed. "Anyway, what can I get for the two of you tonight?"
"Oh, no!" Josie gasped. "Sam, we haven't even looked at the menu!"
"Hmmm�You're right," he agreed. "Well, what are you in the mood for? The Caf� has just about anything you could want."
"Except anchovies," the waitress informed them. "No anchovies. Very, very disgusting. Have you ever had anchovies on a pizza? Very bad. Don't try it! Why, just last week these two kids came in�well, I guess they really weren't kids, more like teenagers�and they wanted anchovies on their pizza. They said they never eat pizza without anchovies! Can you imagine? Anyway, so I told them that we don't have anchovies and they left. How rude!"
Sam and Josie glanced at each other, puzzled by the woman's tangent. Both of them laughed, and then Josie remembered that they still had to order. "What do you have that's�chocolate?" she asked sheepishly.
"Hmmm�Well, we have chocolate cake, hot fudge sundaes, hot fudge brownie sundaes, hot fudge banana sundaes, hot fudge strawberry sundaes, hot fudge graham cracker sundaes-"
"Um, we'll have a large hot fudge brownie sundae," Sam interrupted. "Two spoons. Oh, and a tall glass of milk. Two straws."
The waitress scrawled their order on a pad of paper before darting back toward the kitchen. After she'd finally gone, Josie and Sam looked at each other again, and Sam saw that Josie's mouth was agape. "What's the matter?" he asked her.
"That is exactly what I would have ordered!" she exclaimed. "How did you know?"
"I didn't. I was just hoping you'd like it. Sorry that I didn't ask first, but I was beginning to feel like Forrest Gump listening to Bubba talk about the different ways to prepare shrimp!"
Josie burst into laughter and buried her face in Sam's neck. "You too?" she whispered. "If you hadn't cut her off, I don't know how far she would've gone. Hot fudges sundaes with marshmallows, hot fudge sundaes with nuts�"
"Yeah, exactly." She lifted her head to look at him again, and he stood up suddenly.
"Where are you going?" she asked.
"There's a jukebox in the corner, and I thought I'd select a song or two," he told her.
"Oh. Okay." She watched as he made his way to the back corner of the small caf�.
Sam only had to stand in front of the jukebox for about thirty seconds before he walked back over to their table, holding his hand out to her. "Would you like to dance?' he asked her.
"But where's the music?" she wondered, standing up and taking his hand.
As if on cue, the jukebox kicked in and "(Everything I Do) I Do it For You" by Bryan Adams began to play. Josie sighed as he pulled her gently toward him, melting into his arms. Sam whispered the words to the song in her ear as they swayed back and forth together in time with the music. "Look into my eyes/And you will see/What you mean to me/Search your heart/Search your soul/and when you find me there/you'll search no more�"
Josie closed her eyes, feeling the warmth of Sam's body envelop her. She could hear his heart pounding hard in his chest and feel his warm breath against her skin. Just being near him intoxicated her senses and made her feel completely free. She had finally found her "penguin."
The longer Sam held Josie, the more he couldn't help but compare her to Lara. What had he been thinking those five years that he'd been with her? Oh, it wasn't that Lara was a bad person. He harbored no hard feelings against her. They were just two very different people that did not belong together. They didn't click, didn't fit together right. On the other hand, he and Josie were a perfect fit. He could read her thoughts before she vocalized them and she did the same with him. It was almost as if their souls had been connected their whole lives, and there was only a matter of time before they'd find each other. At that moment, holding Josie close to him as they swayed to the music, he thought that he and Josie were meant to be together. Even if she hadn't gotten the undercover assignment at South Glen South, he felt confident that they would have met somehow anyway. Some things just had to be.
By the time the song had ended, the waitress came back with their milk and sundae. They sat down again beside each other and began to feed the sundae to each other. It was then that Sam realized he had a lot of explaining to do. "Josie, there's a lot that we need to talk about," he insisted. "I'm so sorry if I hurt you in any way."
"Sam, it's okay. I'm sorry, too. I understand why you felt the way you did. I hurt you every bit as much as you hurt me, so I guess we're even."
"Yeah, I guess�but�I'm sorry I was late. When I read your article, I�I'd been packing up everything in my apartment. I was going to leave Chicago forever. I was using the newspaper to wrap my hockey trophies, and that was when I finally saw your article."
"You were leaving?" Josie whispered. "Where were you going to go, Sam?" She had a sinking feeling she already knew the answer to that question, but she wanted to hear him say it.
Sam swallowed hard and Josie saw his Adam's apple bob up his neck. "I was going to New York�to be with Lara. But you have to understand, Josie. I had fallen completely and hopelessly in love with you, and my heart was broken. I thought that the whole thing had been a game for you, so I decided that I couldn't stay here anymore, that I had get away�and though it seems ridiculous, Lara felt like the answer. It was stupid, so stupid, but what other options did I have. I just-"
"Stop, Sam!" Josie insisted. "Just stop!"
"What?" He couldn't read her expression, couldn't tell if she was angry with him.
"You said that you're in love with me�" she said the words so softly that he almost didn't hear her.
"Yes, Josie, of course. I love you. I've loved you since the first time I saw you, even if I didn't realize it then. I'm just so sorry about how I acted. It was wrong. I'm sorry. If you'll just let me explain�"
"Sam, I understand, and I don't care. I can imagine how you must have felt. And�I love you too."
Josie was on the verge of tears at that moment and Sam saw this in her eyes almost immediately. Taking her face in his hands, he kissed her forehead, her eyelids, and finally her lips, long and passionately. It was his way of showing her that he would never hurt her again.
Before Sam and Josie left The Caf�, Sam went to use the restroom. He left his cell phone on the table, and he wasn't gone for more than thirty seconds when it started to ring. Not wanting Sam to miss out on a potentially important call, Josie picked it up. "Hello," she said cheerfully.
"Who is this?" a female voice demanded on the other end.
Josie was miffed by the caller's rudeness, but she decided to be polite in spite of this. "This is Josie Geller. Who is this?"
"This is Sam Coulson's phone, is it not?" the female voice asked, obviously growing more annoyed by the minute.
"Yes, it is, but he's in the restroom at the moment," Josie informed her. "May I ask who's calling? He should be out in just a minute, so you will be able to talk to him."
"All right�I suppose I can wait," the woman replied. "This is Lara, Sam's girlfriend�"
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