Sam crawled into her bunk and tried to hold back her tears. It was useless. Her first instinct was to call Jen but Sam knew she'd be at work. She next thought of running to Justin but she knew he had something going on in his own life and she didn't want to bother him again, besides the fact that they would have virtually no privacy on the bus. As she drifted off into a restless sleep, her thoughts drifted back and forth between all of the wonderful things Lance had brought into her life.
*****
"Hello?"
"Hey Jen, it's me."
"Hey Sami baby, what's shakin?"
Sam giggled, "Well I have a question for you."
"No, I don't know who wrote the book of love," she said laughing. "I'm sorry I'm in full dork mode tonight. What's up?"
"You are crazy girl. But anyway, when you sent out the payment for my Visa card, did you throw in a little of your own money or something?"
"Uh no, why would I do that?" Jen asked.
"Well because when I called today to check the balance it says that I don't have one. I know I sent more than the minimum payment, but not that much more."
"That's strange. What were you checking the balance for?"
"Because I was thinking of going on a mini shopping spree, but that's besides the point. Are you sure you didn't send more than what I asked you to?" Sam asked again.
"I'm positive. Where would I get the money to?"
"True. I wonder what's going on then."
"I'm sure their computers were just having a brain fart. Check again later and I bet your big ol' balance will be back," Jen teased.
"Yeah I suppose you're right. I have to run girl, talk to you later."
"Okay, bye."
Sam hung up the phone and dialed the credit card company again. She went through all of the automated steps and waited for her balance again. It said once again that she had no balance. On a hunch she called the rest of her creditors and one by one was told that she had no balance on any of her accounts. She talked to a representative with one of the companies.
"Is there any way you can check and tell me for sure if my account was paid in full?" Sam asked.
"Yes ma'am. You're last payment was on the 14th of this month and it shows that the account was in fact paid in full."
"Is there any way you can tell me what the name on the check was?"
"Possibly, I can transfer you to another department and they may be able to help you out."
"No that's okay," Sam said. "I know where I can find out quicker. Thank you."
Sam called Jen again.
"Wow, two calls within a half hour, I feel important," Jen joked.
"Very funny. What the heck is going on Jen? I just called all of my accounts and all of them have been paid off. Now I know you don't have the money to do that and I know I didn't do it, so who did?"
"Well, lets see, who do you know that has that kind of money and wouldn't think twice about doing something so generous?" she teased.
"Are you serious?" Sam screamed.
"Yep. He called me last week and asked me to send him any bills that you had and even gave me money to cover your half of the rent while you're gone."
"This is unbelievable. How come you didn't tell me about it?"
"Because he begged me not to, he wanted it to be a surprise," Jen laughed. "And it obviously was."
"Yeah you could say that. I can't believe he did this. I'm going to ring his neck."
"Calm down Sam. Try to remember how amazingly sweet this was of him. In fact I had to bite my lip to keep from laughing at the big cornball."
"It is sweet but I don't need anybody to take care of me," Sam huffed. "This was a lot of money."
Jen laughed slightly, "It's a lot of money to us, but he probably had it in his wallet. And nobody said you needed to be taken care of, but sometimes it is nice to have someone do it anyway."
"I'll keep that in mind," Sam said as they said good bye and she went off in search of Lance.
She found him in one of the suites with some of the other guys. Jen had managed to calm her down but as soon as she saw his face her anger came flooding back to the surface.
"Just who the hell do you think you are?" she yelled at him.
Chris and Dani just looked at each other, not sure if they should make a run for it or stay put. Sam noticed them sitting on the couch and turned back to Lance.
"I need to talk to you in private," she said glaring at him.
"You can use our room if you want," Dani offered.
"Thank you," Sam said walking with Lance to the door.
"Somebody's getting in trouble," Chris joked.
Dani hit him in the stomach, "Shut up Chris.
Lance shut the door behind them and waited for the firing squad to continue.
"What gives you the right to stick your nose into my personal affairs like that? Did I ask you to be my hero?" Sam asked with her hands resting on her hips.
Lance just smiled at her.
"Damn it Lance, I'm serious. What were you thinking?"
"Okay calm down," he said sitting down in one of the chairs. "I assume you're referring to me paying off your bills?"
"Yes," Sam said impatiently waiting to hear his explanation.
"Well, I heard you on the phone awhile back talking to your mom about maybe having to borrow some money until you got back on your feet. I could tell how much you even hating bringing it up so I thought if I could do anything to make sure that beautiful smile stayed on your face as much as possible, then it was worth it. No matter how mad you'd be initially. So I called up Jen and begged her to help me out," Lance chucked. "And that wasn't easy let me tell ya."
Sam smiled at him. She could feel the anger beginning to fade. "I do appreciate it, but why didn't you talk to me first?"
"Where would be the fun in that? And besides you would've said no."
"How do you know?" Sam asked.
"Because I know you, you're too independent to accept help so I had to force it on you," he teased.
"Yeah you're right. And just so you know, I'm paying you back every cent."
"I expected that too. I have no problem with that but you're not paying me any interest," he smiled. "And did I mention that I'm giving you a raise?"
"After two weeks? For what?" Sam asked.
"Because I'm the boss and I want to."
"There's no way I'm going to change your mind about this is there?"
"Nope you're not the only stubborn one around here," he teased. "Oh and by the way, can I just say that you have quite the impressive credit card collection for a 21 year old."
"I know it's scary isn't it? But thanks to you most of them are getting closed," Sam said smiling at him.
"See there's that smile. It was all worth it," he said putting his arm around her shoulders as they joined everyone else in the sitting room.
*****
Sam rolled over onto her back. "Why does he have to be so perfect?" she said to no one in particular.
"You know when you start talking to yourself it's a very bad sign."
Sam stuck her head out of the curtain to see JC standing there. "Yeah I know. I'm scaring myself here."
"You want to talk about it sweetie?"
"No thanks. I'm not in the talkative mood right now."
"Jen isn't home huh?" JC asked.
"Am I really that predictable?" Sam asked. "And no she's not."
"When am I gonna get to meet this Jen I hear so much about?"
"Soon, I hope. Really soon."
"Good, we could use some fresh blood around here. It's getting a little stale."
Sam laughed at him as his phone rang.
"I'll talk to you later, I have to take this," he said disappearing to the front of the bus.
***