Chapter Two:

 

       Tick tock, tick tock. That was all that Sam was listening to as she was putting her socking’s on. So many things were going through her mind. Being back in the same town that she met her love, not so many years ago.

She knew that she was going to see him. She wondered how much he had changed since they met. She calculated the years: fifteen years, two months, and four days to the day. Why she had remembered this she does not know why, she just did.

Sam took a peak at herself in the mirror. Not too bad, she had blond curly hair, rosy red lips, perky breast. Most men drooled and would stare as she walked by, as if she was a piece of meat. 

       Chance was her first true love. After her and Chance broke up she felt as if she had lost everything. She was always an honor student and, after Chance that did not change. She still graduated with honors. She married after that summer, the following summer when she was just eighteen.

       She married a man names Tony, Tony was twenty one. He had just got out of the army and, this relationship was set up by her parents.

       “You need a man like him,” Sam’s mother said to her.

       This made Sam so angry. Her mother was always putting her nose in her where it doesn’t belong. If she didn’t want to marry Tony then why in the hell should she?

       Her mother never did like Chance but, Tony was like a saint. He was a saint because he had money. Chance had no money but, that still didn’t change the fact she fell in love with Chance.

       She did end up marrying Tony. She felt it was her only choice and, she saw that her and Chance could not be together. She just simply settled for second best. All Tony was a second choice. 

       The wedding was beautiful and, they were married for a month before Sam ended up pregnant. They were married five years and had three children. The reason for the divorce is simple Tony could not keep it in his pants.

       After she met Tony she started nursing. It was a way to support her. It never did take Chance off of her mind. She thought of him often. It was like a ghost. It haunted her in her sleep, when she was busy he even crossed her mind when she was simply reading.

       She usually thought about what they could have been. She would never trade her children for anything. But that did not change the fact she was still in love with Chance.

 

       She did something that might have been wrong. She made an invitation for Chance. Her mother who, took care of all the wedding stuff told her that she had sent the invitation to Chance’s address.

       The day of the wedding, when Sam was getting ready she was glancing periodically at the list of the guest that where definitely coming to the wedding.

       “He is not coming, Samantha.” Sam’s mother said not looking up from doing her own make-up.

       “Excuse me?” Sam asked knowing exactly what her mother was telling her. Chance was not attending her wedding. She should have known the only guy she was truly in love with although, she didn’t know it at the time she should have known to even have the audacity to believe he would have come to her wedding was absolutely trifling.

       “What did you think? He was going to come and stop this wedding?” Her mother said rudely.

       Sam had an epiphany at the moment. Sam’s mother was right, was Chance really going to come to her wedding and take her away on a white horse. This was Sam’s naïve young mind. She was a teenage girl still in love with a guy she could never be with. 

        Sam did not know why she was back after all these years, was it because she needed closure. Deep down inside she still had love for Chance. Sam felt as though she needed to finish what she had started, because of the certain circumstances.

Sam found out a couple weeks ago that she had leukemia. It was at the time one of the stronger cancer there is. The doctors did not know if she would live. She had two surgeries and, received radiation treatment. Nothing helped.

       Her cancer had taken a turn for the worst. The doctors had guessed she would have maybe less than a year to live. Sam had always said that she would come back to say good bye to Chance. She thought right now would be the perfect time.

       She has no idea what she might say to him when she sees him. All she knew he was living in his parent’s old house. She asked around. He had refurnished it. Sam had always had a liking to that home. It was little country cottage and, was so quiet and peaceful. That’s how Sam liked it: Quiet and peaceful.

After she found out she had cancer her whole world changed.

       It was like she was on a time line. She felt as if she had an expiration date. She has been doing stuff she had always wanted to do but, never did. She went to Paris, sky dived, and now she was going to say good bye to her first love: Chance.

       She put on her make-up, put some shoes and she was out the door. She was driving over to the old country home where Chance now lives. She was going over their completely UN announced. Didn’t know what she was going to say. She didn’t know if he was married or, had children, or even remembers who she was.

       As Sam was driving she was clinching the wheel. She noticed how many street lights there where. She noticed that as she was going into the country there were no gravel road, just dirt and bumpy rock.

       As Sam was driving down the street that Chance lived on she had noticed it had not changed much. It looked the same as it did so many years ago. She had seen Chance last when she was so much younger. They were both seventeen years old; now Sam was thirty two in a half now. Chance was the same age as she.

       As she was driving down that street she felt tense. She was driving as fast as the law would let her but, it was not fast enough for her.

       Sam stopped as a stop sign. She looked in the mirror to make sure she looked okay. She didn’t want to look trashy or anything. You could never call Sam trashy; she was the classiest girl you could ever lay your eyes on.

       At that moment Sam’s mother popped into her head. She would never approve of what she was doing. She always had referred Chance as “White Trash,” she never believed that Sam should have ever been associated with someone like Chance. Sam’s mother didn’t even know that she was not still a virgin. Sam even told her ex-husband that she was a virgin when they were married.

       Sam’s ex-husband never filled Chance’s shoes. He never did compare to how she felt for Chance. She thought of Chance when they were making love. She still loved Chance more than ever.

       Sam was in front of Chance’s cottage house. She was mesmerized by the way it looked. It was so beautiful, more beautiful than before. They had always talked about fixing up the house. It looked just as Sam said she wanted. She couldn’t out her finger on why it looked so much like they had talked about.

       As she was pulling into the gravel drive way she saw a dog appear. It was a beautiful golden retriever. Chance had always had a love for those breed of dogs. It didn’t surprise her that he had a dog.

       As Sam put the car in park she saw a man. It was a familiar face, one she knew by heart. It was a face that she could never in her life forget about. It was Chances face. It was a face she hadn’t seen in nearly fifteen years.

       When Sam first saw Chance as she pulled up she felt awkward. What is he going to think of her? She’s a crazy stalker woman. He hasn’t seen her in forever, he probably won’t remember her.

       Sam opened the door to her car and stepped out. They both stood there for a moment mesmerized that their paths had crossed again.

       “Hello” Sam started. “I really hope I am not intruding on you, I was just in town and thought I would stop by.” To Sam this sounded weird and, creepy. It made her sound like a serial killer.

       Sam waited a few seconds and, then finally said “Okay I get it I’ll go. I’m just, I’m just stupid” Sam said turning around to get in her car.

       “No don’t go” she heard a voice say as he grabbed her arm.

       “I’m just surprised to see you, I am glad you’re here” Chance said.

       Sam stood there smiling at Chance.

       “You know you haven’t changed a bit” Sam said.

       “You haven’t either. Your more beautiful forever Samantha” Chance said. This made Sam blush big.

       “Well come in, I have some coffee on” Chance offered. “We can kind of catch up.”

       “I would love that actually” Sam replied taking Chance up on his offer.       

       Sam was thinking of quick conversation, because she didn’t want him to get bored. Then it came to her mind.

       “You know I invited you to my wedding to my ex husband” Sam said. “My mom dealt with it but, I have a feeling you never got an invitation” Sam said.

       Chance turned around with a shocked face. “Sam I never got an invitation.”

       “Well it’s like my mother to mettle in my life.” Sam said.

       Sam could see sweat all over his body. She could stare at his muscular arms and legs all day. He had facial hair all over. It made him look rugged. He was a pair of old tight blue jeans and a flannel shirt on. This made Sam aroused and turned on in a way.

       “So what have you been doing all these years,” Chance asked as he set down two cups of coffee.

       “Nothing really, married then divorced, as you know. I have three kids” Sam said. “Did you ever marry?”

       “No not at all” Chance said. “I fought in the war is all.”

       When Chance said this Sam could feel a sorrow in his face.  

       “Oh you did. What about Derrick?”

       “He also fought in the war but, he died in combat,” Chance said with sorrow in his eyes.

       “Oh I’m so sorry about that” Sam said. “I always had a feeling you would have gone into the Armed forces Chance. You were always right for it.” Said this with a smile on her face, she smiled as if she was being overly nice toward Chance.

       Chance did not say anything just stared at Sam for about a minute and then “So why do you come back after all these years?”

       “I’ve wanted to come back to this sleepy town.” Sam said, after she said this she thought she owed it to him to at least tell him the full true. “Well I’m sick and this is something I’ve needed to do for a while. I’ve wanted to see my first love once more.”

       “Sick” Chance said.

       “Well” Sam began thinking of a way to say it, she pushed her hair back running her hands through her hair. “I have leukemia.”

       “Oh my goodness, that is horrible” Chance said. “I am so sorry.”

       Sam smiled at him before saying “Thanks and, you know Chance I never found any closure.”

       “Samantha I have always loved you. I still do to this day. That is the reason I never married” Chance said.

       He saying this surprised her. She felt exactly the same way for him. She felt flattered in a certain sense and, at the same time she also felt as if she has held him back for all these years.

       Sam sat in silence for a minute. She finally built up the audacity to say “Chance you don’t know how much it hurt me loosing you I mean.” She said this with tears falling down her face. She could feel the old emotion’s she had so long ago for him. She felt like she was seventeen again and, falling in love all over again.

       At that second Chance sat down and cuffed her hand in his. “You know I have waited forever to say that to you. I mean every single word of it too.”

       “Me too” Sam said thinking that answer was pathetic. How is it that’s all she could think of to say? He just poured her heart out to her and the only reply she could come up with is “me too.” She was speechless, he had always made her speachless

       “Would you like to stay for dinner?” Chance asked kindly. “I’m making fried chicken.”

       “I would love that I haven’t had a good ole country meal in years. You know your mothers cooking was the last country style cooking I have ever had,” Sam said smiling.

       She wanted to spend as much time with Chance as she could. She had not noticed how much she truly missed him. She knew that she missed him, but never noticed how much she missed the boy she was in love with so many years ago.

 

       This made Chance happy. He was happy that Sam was visiting. He had always wanted this moment to happen. He was hoping in his mind that he could win her back. It was a long shot but, Chance was going to do it.