Chapter 3

Sam stifled a small yawn as she stood up and attempted to haul herself out of the seminar room. The lecture wasn’t as boring as she thought it would be, but the speaker insisted that the lights be shut off and the shades drawn, and, true to form, she found herself nearly dozing off. Why did they have to have these colloquia so late in the afternoon anyway? Surely they’d realize that most of the faculty and graduate students had been here since early in the morning, and would find it difficult to stay awake, especially if the subject matter wasn’t exactly up their alley. True, there was coffee (caffeine) and cookies (source of sugar) set out before the lecture, but sometimes the two stimulants weren’t quite enough.

Sam had just left the room when she felt a tap on her shoulder.

“Quite interesting stuff, eh?”

She whirled around and saw Doctor John Kleagle, mineralogy professor, grinning at her. She gave him a weary look and shrugged slightly.

“Would have been more interesting if he talked about planetary shift,” she smirked.

Kleagle shook his head. “Ah, you astrophysicists,” he joked.

Sam looked at him blankly.

“One day you’ll learn to appreciate the ins and outs of magma evolution, mineral separation and differentiation,” he continued in his slight Australian accent.

“Well, it won’t be anytime soon,” she chuckled lightly. “The day I learn to appreciate that will be the day they actually get some astrophysicists to give talks in this department.”

The man chuckled good-naturedly and patted her on the shoulder. “Have a good evening,” he said before heading away from her and down the hallway.

Sam smiled and nodded. She cast an eye down at her shoulder, as if his patting it mystified her.

“Bye, Sam.”

“Yeah, bye,” Sam absent-mindedly returned to a female faculty member.

She looked down at her watch and realized it was ten minutes after 5. She snorted, remembering how the speaker had gone over the allotted hour, and some long-winded questions from her peers didn’t help matters. After a somewhat early lunch, she was already hungry for dinner. She decided to head back up to her office, shut her computer down, and make her way home. Fortunately she had finished writing up the midterm exam. All that was left to do was make photocopies of it, which she could do the next morning.

After shutting down her computer, she was about to make her way out of the office and lock up when she noticed the flashing red light on her phone again. Sam’s brow knitted in confusion. It couldn’t be the message Daniel had left for her. She’d saved the message, but there was no reason for the light to still be blinking. She curiously picked up the receiver and pressed the voicemail button.

“You have … one new message … sent Thursday, April 10, 4:27 PM…”

Her brow knitted further as she wondered who would be calling her while she was at the colloquium.

“Ah, hi … Sam? It’s me, Daniel. Jackson. I … oh, that’s right, you said you were going to a meeting at 4,” the all-too-familiar voice said sheepishly.

Sam couldn’t help cracking a broad smile.

“Sorry about that … I forgot for a minute there. I just wanted to apologize if I was rude or short with you before, I was just going nuts grading those papers,” he chuckled nervously.

Sam’s smile remained. At that moment, any leftover disappointment she had from what happened before was dispelled. She realized what a sweet, thoughtful person he was.

“Anyway,” the message continued. “I was wondering, if you’re not too busy tomorrow, maybe I could drop by and we could get some lunch. Well, you’re not here now, and I don’t know if you’ll get this message, so, ah … I’ll call you again tomorrow morning. Have a good evening. Take care, bye.”

Sam slowly replaced the receiver on the cradle and laughed softly. How sweet of him to call her and apologize like that, let alone offer lunch. She quickly looked down at her desk calendar and confirmed that she had no meetings or any other commitments around lunchtime the next day.

She gathered up her briefcase and purse, turned off the light, exited and locked the door behind her, humming happily the entire time.

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

Sam locked the door behind her and threw her purse on the couch. She’d had quite a long day and was utterly exhausted. She’d grabbed something quick for dinner at a nearby Tex-Mex place and headed straight home after that. It was good to be home. She had a small house in Colorado Springs, about ten minutes away from the university. It was a bit smaller than the last place she’d lived with her father and brother, but it was nice and cozy.

She entered her bedroom and kicked off her shoes. What she needed now was a nice, hot bath. She grabbed her nightgown and was about to make her way to the bathroom when she glanced into the small office, the blank computer monitor suddenly piquing her interest.

She realized she hadn’t checked her personal email account in a few days. Normally, she would have had enough of staring at a computer screen for so many hours a day; but for some reason, she felt very tempted to check her email. She quickly turned the computer on, waited as it whirred up, and then opened up her email program.

Sam rolled her eyes at the three obvious spam emails she found as she scrolled down. Her brow furrowed in confusion when she arrived at the end of the list. There was an email, from an unfamiliar address, with “Hi there!” in the subject, and an attachment.

Virus, she immediately thought. She clicked on the subject and her brow furrowed deeper as she read the contents in the preview pane:

“Hello, how are you doing? I really liked your profile on ProfessionalMatch.com. It seems like we have a lot of things in common. You seem like the kind of person that I’d like to get to know. If you’re interested, please send me an email back. I look forward to hearing from you.

Joe”

Sam looked at the screen incredulously. ProfessionalMatch.com was the online dating service she’d subscribed to. Why was she getting emails from people on it? She’d cancelled her subscription to it several weeks ago, with the notion that she was never going to meet anyone this way. Under the man’s email message was a rundown of his own profile. He lived in Pueblo, which wasn’t too far from here. He was 37 years old, about two years older than Sam. He’d never been married, lived alone, and was looking for a serious relationship. In addition, he was a social butterfly, although one who was tired of the bar scene. Sam shrugged. He seemed like a nice enough guy.

She scrolled down further to see a preview of the attachment. It was a photo of the man. He was of about average height, seemed big-boned (though he’d described himself as athletic), had short, brown hair and a bit of a tan, as well as a thousand-watt smile.

Sam’s fingers seemed to take on a mind of their own as she hit the “reply” button and typed fervently:

“Hi, thanks for taking the time to email. I read your profile and you seem like a nice guy. I would like to know more about you. What do you do for a living? What exactly are you looking for in a relationship? Hope to hear from you soon.

Sam”

After she hit “send”, she took one last look at the email, still puzzled. She had cancelled the service, and had a printout of the email to prove it. She found the printout and checked it. Yes, they stated that when her subscription was cancelled, her profile would be removed. How, then, was this man able to find her profile? She shook her head, frustrated.

She looked back at the picture of Joe. He’s not too bad-looking, she thought.

But he isn’t as good-looking as Daniel.

Whoa. Daniel??? Suddenly, Sam felt a sharp pang of guilt inside her. Thoughts of the sweet, kind professor of archaeology, who she’d only seen twice, penetrated her mind and left her blushing madly.

“No, this is ridiculous,” she muttered aloud. “Why should I feel guilty? I just emailed this guy. It’s not like I’m entering into a serious relationship with him. We’ll probably just end up as pen pals.”

Still, the thought of someone who seemed decent contacting her made her feel warm inside. After three months and several prospective boyfriends ending in disaster, maybe her luck was finally changing.

Thoughts of Daniel gently tapped her on the back, and brought themselves to the forefront once again. The conflicting emotions were beginning to get to her. The fact that someone contacted her stirred up a bit of excitement, but it was quashed when she thought of the sweet man who she’d just met. She didn’t need a dating service to get acquainted with Daniel. The simple act of emailing the other man made it feel like she was going behind his back.

She berated herself again for thinking so foolishly. It wasn’t as if she and Daniel were seriously committed to each other. Hell, they weren’t even dating. They were just friends who’d recently met. She really had no need to be so worried about emailing this Joe. Even though he said he was looking for a serious relationship, Sam wouldn’t necessarily be the one he was looking to be with. Maybe he wouldn’t even email her back.

Sam laughed softly as she realized how ridiculous she was acting. She closed out her email program, shut down the computer, and prepared for that hot bath she sorely needed.

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

Sam had just entered her office and put her briefcase down when the phone rang.

“Samantha Carter,” she intoned.

The voice on the other end hesitated for a moment.

“Ah … hi, I’m not calling too early, am I?”

Sam smiled faintly as she recognized the voice.

“Daniel?”

“Yeah …”

“No, you’re not calling too early. Great timing, actually – I just found out I have a staff meeting in twenty-five minutes.”

“Oh. Well, I’m glad I caught you, then,” he said, chuckling nervously.

Sam grinned widely. His unassuming manner was endearing to her.

“Do you still want to meet for lunch?”

“Sure, I’d love to,” she replied. “What time would be good for you?”

“Ah ...” he hesitated as he appeared to be checking his schedule. “Would 1:00 be okay?”

Sam’s brow creased slightly as she looked over at the weekly schedule she had printed out and stuck up on a small corkboard.

“Yeah, I usually eat lunch around that time, and my lab course isn’t until 3.”

“Great!” he said happily.

Sam laughed affectionately. “Where would you like to meet?”

“Food court?” he asked hopefully. “I just figured that would be best since it’s close to you.”

“Sounds good,” she shrugged. “Are you sure, though? It’s quite a distance from you.”

“Oh, no, no, I don’t mind walking over there,” he insisted.

“Oh. Okay,” she relented. “See you at 1.”

“It’s a date,” he said genially before hanging up.

Sam stood perfectly still for a few moments.

It’s a date.

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

The food court was bustling with students and faculty of all disciplines, as it usually was around this busy hour. It was located inside the new student union that was situated across from the Earth and Space Sciences building. It wasn’t incredibly fancy, but the food wasn’t too bad. It consisted of the usual fare – usual for a university food court, anyway … pizza, a salad bar, stir-fry, and a deli that featured sandwiches that, in past years, had been hardly edible. The university had managed to increase their budget in this area, however, and the food service was greatly improved.

Sam sat at a table for two, up against a window overlooking the academic mall. She checked her watch and discovered that Daniel was almost ten minutes late. She shrugged, thinking that maybe he got caught up in grading papers again. Maybe he’d stayed up late again, ended up looking as disheveled as he did when she barged in on him the other day, and he was spending all this time shaving, getting his shirt ironed and whatever else to make himself look somewhat presentable. She snickered to herself.

Her laughter faded and she coughed nervously as she noticed someone familiar approaching her table. As he got closer, she was able to confirm his identity. He was dressed smartly in a long sleeved, rust-colored, button down shirt and khakis. He was clean-shaven and bespectacled, and his long hair was combed neatly, forming a sort of halo around the chiseled features of his face. It was Daniel, looking like his old self again.

“Hi,” he greeted, smiling shyly at her.

“Hey,” she returned.

“Sorry I’m a bit late, one of the graduate students insisted on seeing me about some important matter,” he said apologetically.

“It’s okay,” she shook her head. “I knew you’d show up.”

He gave her a quick smile, and then turned to look at the food court behind him.

“So, should we go and get something to eat?” he asked her.

Sam smiled and nodded.

Daniel left his jacket on the back of his chair, and he and Sam made their way to where the food was located. He seemed to take an interest in the stir-fry, and Sam wrinkled her nose when he wasn’t looking. She left him and made her way to the deli. After agonizing over her choices for several minutes, she finally decided on the blackened chicken salad. She got a bottle of iced tea to go with it, and then met up with him before the checkout line. She smiled slightly when she realized he hadn’t gotten anything more exotic than lo mein.

“Blackened chicken, huh?” he asked, reading the label on the top of the salad container. “Is it any good?”

San shrugged. “I don’t know. I’ve never had it before.”

Daniel insisted on treating, despite Sam’s initial protest. She gave up when she realized how intent he was on paying, though, and it made her realize even more what a sweet guy he was. They made their way back to the table, glad to know that it hadn’t been taken in their absence, and that Daniel’s jacket was where it should be.

They sat down and tucked into their meals, during which there was an awkward silence. Finally, Daniel held up his hand.

“Ah … I really have to tell you,” he began, just before swallowing a mouthful of lo mein. “I’m sorry that I was short with you when you came by yesterday. I was … I was just going through a lot of stress, with those papers and all.”

She looked at him solemnly. “You don’t need to apologize,” she said gently. “I know what stress feels like. I was almost going nuts myself devising that midterm exam –“

“But, despite that, you came all the way over to SBS to drop by and see me,” he interrupted earnestly. “I shouldn’t have been so rude.”

“Please, you weren’t rude,” she said softly. “I understood completely. I mean, I felt a bit bad that I couldn’t talk to you longer, but you had a responsibility to finish grading those papers. If anything, I feel bad for having bothered you like that.”

Daniel leaned forward slightly. “You didn’t bother me,” he said.

She looked like she was about to protest as she started to open her mouth. Daniel held up his hands to stop her. “Sam, you didn’t bother me. To be honest, I should have taken a little break. It’s not the first time I’ve almost worked myself to death. I appreciate the fact that you were so concerned about me.”

Sam could feel the faint blush creeping up in her cheeks. “Okay, I won’t apologize for bothering you if you won’t apologize for being late.”

“So, I guess we’re even now?” he asked hopefully, raising his eyebrows.

A grin spread across Sam’s face and she laughed amusedly.

“Yeah, I’d say so,” she replied.

Daniel chuckled affectionately.

Once Sam had calmed down, she looked at him intently.

“It’s funny, we’ve known each other for barely a few days, and … I can’t believe how comfortable I am with you. It’s as if we’ve known each other a lot longer … you know what I mean?” she said thoughtfully.

Daniel studied her face for a few moments before answering.

“I feel that way, too,” he agreed, nodding. “I guess we just seem to have a lot in common,” he surmised.

Sam smiled at him before going back to her salad. He returned the smile and it made her feel warm inside.

The two ate in silence for most of the meal. It became a bit awkward once again, and Daniel finally decided he’d ask the question he’d been meaning to ask her ever since the day he met her.

“Ah … Sam … I hope you don’t mind this, but …”

She looked up from her salad.

“… are you … seeing anyone?”

She nearly choked on the piece of chicken she’d just begun chewing on.


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