knuckles turned white as he gripped the phone through the unnerving silence.
“Thanks, um, I wear a size seven.” Sam gulped and put the rest of her sandwich down. Her heart skipped a beat and her palms began to sweat. She stared down at her ring finger. After her last divorce she wore a band inscribed with mom to deter men from speaking to her when she went out. However, it had been over two years since any ring had adorned that particular finger and apparently men had not needed any additional need for determent. Then the practicality of wearing a ring surfaced. “Not to seem picky or anything but I prefer white gold not yellow and I don’t like rings with prongs because they can catch on things or scratch up the kids.”
“Ok.” Jake jotted down the notes so the jeweler could see her requests. “Anything else?”
“Well,” Sam paused, how do I approach this? I don’t like big flashy jewelry but I could be getting a nice ring that I can keep or sell later if necessary. I’d rather have a nice ring I can keep. “I don’t like anything really big or gaudy. Something plain and tasteful is more my style.”
“Ok.” Jake smiled at the jeweler who had just pulled out a ring that would definitely suit Sam. “Can we get together later so I can give it to you?”
“I guess. I’m not done working until 9 though.”
“Do you want me to just bring it over tonight? I can pick up some dinner on my way. What would you like?”
“Okay, I guess.” She hesitated. “I like Italian food.” Sam felt as though she had entered the Twilight Zone. Jake Jameson was about to come over to her apartment for a second time. He was buying her dinner and bringing her a ring. She looked down at what she was wearing. Oh no, khaki pants and a polo shirt with the school logo. I don’t have time to change before I get home. Don’t panic you have about eight hours to come up with a plan.
“I’ll see you around nine, then, at your place. Ciao!”
“Ciao!” The phone went silent in Sam’s hand. She looked at the time. She had just spent five minutes talking to Jake Jameson on her cell phone. She did a quick recap of the recent events in her head. Jake proposed to her on national TV. Then he came to her apartment, had a drink with her and asked her to pretend to be his fiancé. Now he was coming over again, bringing her dinner, and buying her a ring she could keep. Sam felt giddy inside. The one thing she hadn’t done was tell anyone about this. What good is it to have an exciting life if you couldn’t blab about it? She looked at the clock. There was no time left in her lunch break, but later on the kids would go to music class and she would have an hour. Technically, it wasn’t a break it was the time she needed to do paperwork. However, it did overlap with another teacher friend’s P.E. time, which meant they had thirty minutes to talk.
Her afternoon math lesson dragged on, Sam was pretty sure she was talking in circles. The kids were definitely confused and she wasn’t helping. She couldn’t focus and neither could they. Why was time such a difficult concept for kids to understand? Of course, it finally made sense to me when I was about twelve and these kids are just eight. In the end, she succumbed to handing out a worksheet on addition. She hated worksheets and preferred hands on activities but all the Judy clocks in the world couldn’t help these kids in all their confusion. So she collected the clocks and passed out the worksheets and waited for the next fifteen minutes while the relieved children quietly completed their work. Finally, the time came for them to line up and proceed to music class. Sam quickly dropped them off and sought out her friend Tina who was one of the few coworkers who was also a friend. She found her where she always found her, waiting anxiously outside the faculty restroom.
“Tina, I need to talk to you.” Sam half whispered.
“I know I saw the paper. Don’t move.” She disappeared into the restroom. Sam paced anxiously outside the door.
Could she have recognized me? If she knew it was me who else knew. Sam heard the toilet flush and the sink water flow. Then Tina came out once again.
“Let’s walk.” Tina said. “So who do you think she is?”
“What do you mean?” Sam asked.
“I saw the picture of your man, Jake Jameson, in the paper. He proposed to some bimbo on Sunday. Isn’t that what you wanted to talk about?”
Sam laughed. The two of them had imaginary boyfriends. Sam’s was Jake Jameson and Tina’s was a gorgeous football player Taylor Jackson. “That is exactly what I wanted to talk about.”
They approached Tina’s classroom. “I cut out the picture for you from the paper.” She entered the room and rummaged through papers on her desk while Sam contemplated how much she should actually tell her. Tina could definitely be trusted, but what if she told someone who couldn’t be trusted. Tina held out the picture to Sam who took it form her hand. She hadn’t seen it yet.
Suddenly, Sam was staring at her smiling face as she hugged Jake Jameson. She was definitely not recognizable in the grainy black and white photo. “Tina, remember that shirt you gave me because you didn’t like the way it fit you?”
“Yeah.” Tina was still rummaging through the papers on her desk. Apparently, there was something else she needed. She stopped and looked up while Sam pointed to the shirt in the picture. Tina walked over slowly and took the picture from Sam. She looked at the picture then at Sam. Sam rearranged her hair with her fingers so it fell over her face the way she had worn it that day. “No way.” She gasped in disbelief.
“Way.” Sam smiled.
“How?” Tina whispered.
“It’s a long story actually.”
“Let me see the ring.”
“He’s bringing it over tonight.”
Tina sat back in her chair. “I can’t believe you weren’t kidding. This whole time we were talking about our imaginary boyfriends I thought you were kidding. How did you keep such a secret? How long has it been?”
Sam just smiled and shook her head. “I don’t know where to begin. It’s kind of a shock.” The two stared at each other a moment.
“I don’t know what to say.” Tina finally said.
“Just don’t tell anyone it’s me yet, okay. I don’t know if I’m ready for that.” She stared at Tina. This was a test of her loyalty if Tina didn’t say anything then she might be able to let her in on the rest of the secret. The truth was Sam was dying to tell someone. It was a pretty funny story, but she didn’t think she could trust anyone especially when money could be made off of it. Jake also felt his career was on the line and so far he had not given her a reason to turn against him.
“I still don’t believe it. I can’t believe it’s you.” Tina sat flabbergasted.
“Yep! I better go. I’ll show you the ring tomorrow.” Sam turned and walked out the door. That was so weird. She thought. I can’t do this. I can’t pull this off. I don’t have that type of self-control to stay quiet for a whole month and let people think I’m actually engaged to a movie star. Sam took a deep breath. The next problem to conquer was changing clothes before tonight. There was no time to go home and no time to go shopping. Sam had to come up with a plan. She thought about her dilemma for the remainder of the evening. First things first, she didn’t want her kids to be home tonight. She placed a phone call to her mom.
“Hi,
