Reminiscing

“Aww come on, turn this crap off.” Samantha said

“Why? This is a great movie. Two people who started out as friends become lovers. I think it’s romantic.” Tricia said

“This would never happen in real life. One of them always never feels the same way.” Samantha said

“Come on Sam, where’s your romantic side? Don’t you believe in love?” another friend chimed in

“Yes, I believe in love but movies like this have you believe this kind of thing happens every day to people. That’s why I hate movies like this.” Samantha said

Tony walked over from the kitchen to the living room where Sam and the others were surfing the channels. He bent over and kissed Sam on the top of her head and asked, “You ladies find anything interesting on TV?”

“We did but your fiancé was being a buzzkill and made us turn it off.” Tricia said

“I’m not a buzzkill I just don’t like how they create movies like that and expect us to believe it happens all the time.” Sam said

“Well, we can’t all be as lucky as you and Tony who found each other like you did. How’d you two meet again? I can honestly never remember the story,” Tricia said

“Oh, come on how can you not remember? We must’ve told you like ten times,” Sam said

 Tricia glanced at Sam trying to recall their story until Tricia said, “Wait I got it. You two have known each other for a long time and started out as friends but later become a couple, right?”

“That is correct. We met in school a while ago and became friends and then fell in love with each other,” Sam said

“Ok then why did you make fun of the movie we were watching? It’s the exact same situation as the two of you. You could’ve even starred in the movie,” Tricia said

“Our relationship is nothing like the movie. First off, the two people in that movie were older than we are. Second, they met later in life where we met in school within a group of friends. Totally different.”

“Sam how could not see this?” Tricia said

Sam’s face turned beat red not knowing how to respond. She turned to Tony and said, “We’re leaving.”

“Why are you being childish about this Sam? I don’t see what the big deal is. I know you can’t stand this movie but don’t understand why,” Tricia said

“I don’t wanna argue about this with you. We are not the same as the couple in that movie. End of story. Come on Tony, let’s go.”   

After the party Sam and Tony headed back home with Sam not wanting to discuss why they had to leave the party suddenly until Tony spoke up.

“What happened back there? Why did we have to leave the party?” he asked

“Listen can we talk about this another time because I am starting to get a headache” she said

The next afternoon Sam had lunch with her mother. Sam told her all about the party they went to last night.

“Oh honey, I don’t know why you dislike that movie, but you shouldn’t get upset at what Tricia said,” Mom said

 “Because everybody keeps telling me that Tony and I are just like the couple in that movie. You know I hate movies like that because they are not based on reality. They think everyone falls in love that way, but it doesn’t happen. Tony and I fell in love the natural way, not cause of some movie,” Sam said

 “If you remember you used to watch that movie with Dad before he died. You even quoted some of the lines in the movie with Dad. It would be your running little joke. Both of you thought I didn’t know what you were doing but I did.”

A couple of tears rolled down Sam’s face as she remembered watching it with her father. Sam spent lots of time with her father and was a Daddy’s girl.

She’ll never forget the day he passed away. He was coming home from work early to take her to one of their special Daddy-daughter dates they have been doing every month for the past 7 years.

She waited outside on the front porch looking both ways down the street anxious to see his blue Buick sedan come down their dead-end block.

But he never arrived. Her mother got the phone call a couple of hours later. He had been blindsided by a SUV that was running from the police. The man robbed a bank and stole the SUV to escape.

Sam was devastated and sunk into a deep depression for about a year and a half. The group of friends she met at school pulled her out of it especially Tony.

Yes, the truth is Tony and her did start out as friends and got along great. She always knew Tony had feelings for her, but she wasn’t ready to have another man in her life. The pain was too much for her to think about until she was in a better place.

 Mom wrapped her arms around her daughter as Sam wept. They talked about how both missed certain things about Dad.

“Do you remember the time he bought you a bicycle and spent all Christmas Eve night putting it together only to have it fall apart when you rolled it out of the house?” Mom said

Sam laughed, “What about the time Dad tried to make you dinner for your birthday and almost burned down the house?”

They laughed and cried as mother and daughter shared memories of the man they both loved very much.

Sam hadn’t felt this good in a while and even forgot about the little argument that night before.

“Enough with all these sappy memories, let’s see if we can find something good to watch on TV,” Sam said as she grabbed the remote and started flipping through the channels.

She stopped on a movie she hadn’t seen in years as her mother asked, “Why did you stop? I thought you hated this movie.”

It was at that moment Sam realized what she despised about When Harry Met Sally. It reminded her when Dad left her and how angry she was that he wasn’t coming home.