She put all her energy into inspecting the layout of her food on the
plate. She didn’t want to see Brooke and Harrison together. If
she
left the room she would have to go right by them. Harrison was
loudly telling a story about his trip to Home Depot with his mom
earlier that morning. Apparently the woman in the lighting section
had been flagrantly hitting on Ms. John. She felt anger toward him
in that moment. There really no explanation. The possibility that it
had something to do with her former feelings for him crossed her
mind and was dismissed. She felt nothing but sisterly affection for
him. Nothing like what she had felt even with George.

The door opened and closed. She rushed to the living room and peeked
out at the retreating forms as they got into Brooke’s car. Her
heart
sank to the depth that it had been at for the past few weeks. The
euphoria that had visited her last night slipped out of her hands
and dripped slowly down the drain. It was twisted and wrong to
almost be able to envision herself getting into that car with
Brooke. She felt a jolt of jealousy. Harrison was taking her only
piece of happiness from her. She was suffering alone again. Sam
prayed for daybreak, for peace, for freedom, and prayed that Brooke
would leave Harrison. She also prayed that she wasn’t crazy.

She still chose not to wrap her head around the why of her feelings.
She wished that she hadn’t let Brooke go to bed after their
bathroom
antics the night before. Because she was suffering alone now. Brooke
had taken away her depression for a couple of hours, it took awhile
for the bruises to heal. Seeing her drive off with Harrison had beat
the blue back into her.

She returned to her sandwich and stabbed it with her butter knife
then forcefully cut it in half. How had she let this happen. Her
emotions were usually easy for her to predict. Even if she
couldn’t
stop the actions that resulted from them it was easier to do damage
control after the fallout if she had expected it. She was ready for
it. Now she was standing in the middle of a place she had never
visited before.

The restaurant was still busy at two in the afternoon. The late
lunch crowd dotted the tables. That was the good part of being in a
diverse place. There were always interesting people around. Since
Brooke had started studying various philosophies she had started
appreciating the differences in culture that she saw present in her
small world. It was this, she concentrated on instead of
Harrison’s
hand reaching across to link itself with hers in an attempt to bring
her back to him. Anyone with eyes could have told him that his
actions were useless. She was so far past drowning in herself that a
Coast Guard crew couldn’t even save her now.