Breaking The Routine

Chapter 17 Prologue

I know this may seem really weird to have the prologue AFTER the epilogue but I felt the information was a little repetitive to the first chapter so I put it here in this weird little spot for those who are interested! This is a little peek of Sam's world, I hope you enjoy!

************

Be a good girl, Samantha.

That was what everyone always told Sam. When she was four years old holding her father's hand with nervous fear that was what he always told her before entering the hospital room where her mother lay dying. It was what the doctors always said when they came into the sterile room to talk to her father about how her mother was dying. It was what all the guests told her at her mother's funeral a few months later. Be a good girl. Samantha.

That was exactly what Sam had tried to do all her life. When other ten year old girls spent their afternoons after school playing with their friends Sam went directly home, put away her backpack in her room, and started doing the household chores: dishes, laundry, dusting and so on. She also prepared her father and herself a real home cooked dinner and did her homework without having to be told.

It was also the reason as a teenager she never went out with her friends, snuck out to go to parties, or flirt with the bad boys of her high school. Her boyfriend, Jeff, was approved by her father as a "good boy" and they went out whenever her father gave her permission, but she always behaved like a good girl. She didn't give into her hormones or his till their senior prom and though she never admitted it to anyone or even to herself she only did it then because it was the expected.

The only rebellious streak Sam had shown ever was her devotion, against her father's and Jeff's will, to her best and only friend since she could walk, Tabby Mathews. Besides this everyone agreed that Samantha Peters was a good girl.

Sam sat at her little desk where she worked at her father's accounting company. She never planned on working for him but in this little town the options for employment were very limited. Either work as a sales representative in one of the few stores or as a waitress in one of the three dinners in town. Neither of those options was good for Sam's reserved shy nature plus those jobs usually went to teenagers anyways.

Tabby suggested she try for college but Sam wasn't as smart as her and knew she wasn't cut out for the life of higher education. So her only option was to work for her father and to her surprise after three years working there Sam actually enjoyed it.

"Happy Birthday Sam," Tabby cheered happily handing her a wrapped rectangle. "Now that you're twenty-one we can legally go get smashed," she added with a impish glint in her eyes. Sam laughed as she unwrapped the gift and felt her breath get caught in her throat. It was a collage of pictures of them together through the years.

"Oh Tabby this is wonderful! Thank you so much," Sam told her emotionally and Tabby hugged her tightly.

"That's what best friends are for," The blonde told her cheerily. Tabby started working for her father soon after Sam did. Her father only hired her as a favor to Sam but with in the week Sam knew her father couldn't be happier. Tabby was easily one of his best employees. "So any plans for tonight," Tabby asked with an expectant face. Sam smiled slyly.

"Jeff is taking me out tonight," Sam started ignoring the look of repulsion Tabby expressed. Jeff and her had been dating for four years now but Tabby didn't think Jeff was good enough for Sam only because he never remembered their anniversary or her birthday. He refused to give her any gifts on these days or Valentine's Day or Christmas. It wasn't that he didn't care about her, it's just he thought it was wrong to give gifts because he was told too by a Calendar. Sam understood and stopped letting it bother her so much.

"I think tonight might be the night," Sam told her friend with an eager smile and Tabby shook her head. Lately Jeff had been a little secretive and keeping his comings and goings to himself. Sam was sure that it was the tell tale signs that he was going to ask her to marry him!

"I seriously don't get what you see in him Sam," Tabby told her with a firm disapproving expression. "He is boring, bitter, and rude! He doesn't appreciate you at all and half the time he ignores you as if you were an annoying buzzing fly," Tabby told her and now Sam shook her head.

"He isn't like that at all Tabby! He may not be overly expressive of his emotions but he loves me and has his own way for showing it," Sam justified and Tabby shrugged with a look that stated clearly, "if you say so but I am not buying it."

The day dragged on slowly and Sam was showered with "happy birthday," from everyone in the office, except Jeff but Sam knew he took his work seriously and was probably very busy. Jeff and Sam sat at the elegant restaurant at the town fifteen miles from theirs, eating their meal when the evening finally set in. Sam kept stealing glances at him, admiring his stern beauty, sometimes he reminded her of her father.

He was always so serious and stern but like her father he loved the disaster that she was and forgave her for all her short comings. After tonight she was sure she was going to be able to tell everyone she was the future Mrs. Jeff Chambers. She smiled at the idea, Samantha Chambers, it sounded so perfect, so right!

Jeff cleared his throat once had finished his meal. "Today is a very special day," he started and Sam bit her lip to keep from squealing with excitement. "It is to be one of those days that I know I will remember forever, a day that will change the rest of my life," he went on and she nodded eagerly. "Today Sam," he stated making Sam want to scream at him to just say it.

"I got accepted to a college in L.A.," he explained and Sam looked at him in awe not sure if what she heard was correct. Her heart felt as if someone was trying to squeeze it to a pulp while her stomach clenched into knots.

"You're going to college....in L.A." Sam started. "And that...is why today is a special day," she added and he nodded clearly not noticing that she was upset. Sam licked her lips with a nod and swallowed her desire to burst out into tears. "Congratulations Jeff," she told him hoping to sound authentic. "How long will you be gone?" she added with a worried tone.

"Hopefully forever," Jeff stated flatly and she felt as if he had just kicked her in the stomach. "I told you're father today that this is my last week there at the company today. As soon as I finish college I will have a job waiting in a company that is a friend of the family," he explained and Sam fought hard to breath.

"I think your father is a great business man but he lacks ambition and I can't work with someone who has no ambition. If your father had any real ambition he would move his company out of this rat hole of a town, I am getting out of here while I still can. There is nothing worth anything in this town," he continued to explain with bitterness.

Sam bit down on her lip harder. "What about me and what about us," she asked him when she felt in control and he gave her a look that made her feel like an idiot for missing something obvious.

"You know as well as I do that long distance relationships never work Samantha," he told her with cold rationalism.

"It wouldn't be long distance...if I go with you," she said with nervous hesitance and he shook his head. novelbin

"Sam don't be foolish, you don't belong in L.A. but here in this town," he told her and she wondered what he meant by that since it was clear he thought so poorly of this town while tear did

escape and slide down her cheek.

"But we love each other Jeff, I don't care where I am as long as I am with you," Sam insisted but he gave her a cold smirk.

"Sam please try to understand. I am not saying this to be mean or cruel but to be honest. You're a nice woman, you're a great friend but you don't have what it takes to keep a man interested for the long run. If I was a lesser man I would have probably dumped you after our first night together," he told her and Sam felt as if she was going to get sick.

"But I am better than that and you're a not a bad person so I tried. Oh God how I tried but boredom can only be dealt with for so long," Jeff told her getting up from the chair and Sam felt so embarrassed, she was really that bad of a girlfriend?

"I am sure I can change Jeff," she pleaded with him. "If you tell what I am doing wrong I know I can fix it," she added and he shook his head.

"Some things can't be fixed Sam," he told her. "It's just best we leave it like this. I suggest you stay in a hotel tonight," he told her leaving the restaurant and her.

Sam wasn't sure how long she sat at that table before the waiter kindly asked her to leave and then she got up from the table in a daze. Sam couldn't believe what happened! The love of her life, the only good thing in her life said she wasn't good enough. Sam bowed her head the tears flowing freely now as she walked to the closest hotel she could find.

The next day she told her father she was feeling ill and went over to her apartment, the one she had shared with Jeff ever since she moved out of her father's house. The apartment seemed cold and unwelcoming as if even it knew she hadn't been good enough. Silently she packed her things with silent tears, still wondering how she couldn't have seen the truth after all of these years.

Once everything was packed she called the taxi, she drove to the old shamble of a house her grandmother had left when she had died when Sam was only twelve. She pushed against the warped door for it to open and looked around the dusty disaster that was the living room. It was just like her, broken, unwanted, and abandoned.

The next day her father called her in his office when he had seen her. "Jeffery has told you of his plans to leave to L.A. I suppose," he stated coldly looking very unhappy and she nodded mutely sitting down in one of the chairs in front of his desk. "Are you...going to go with him," her father asked with hesitance and Sam looked at her father surprised at what she saw. His cold stern expression was marked with worried uncertainty.

"No I am not going with him father. He is leaving the company...and me," Sam told him and she watched as an expression of relief washed over his face for only a second before it was replaced with his stony mask.

"It looks like in the end we can only count on each other," he told her flatly and now she smiled a small smile as she nodded. Sam may not have what it takes to be a good girlfriend but she had enough to keep her father with her and he loved her despite everything she did.