Free Claiming What's His by Melissa Phillips Page A

Sam.”
    He turned around and left, leaving her standing in her living room, more confused than ever.
    Holy cow.
    What on earth was that ?
     

Chapter Five
     
     
    It was Saturday morning and Sam was not happy.
    She walked through the front door, dragging her feet, swinging her bag side to side as she grumbled, wondering and hoping and praying that today would be better than when she woke up.
    Sam had a fitful night.  She tossed and turned, unable to shake Alex’s visit out of her head.  It had consumed her every thought and she hated it.  What they had long ago ended long ago.  She wasn’t going to relive it and go through it again.  Somehow, she managed to fall asleep sometime near three in the morning.
    Her alarm went off its usual time, five in the morning.  She hit the snooze button for an extra ten minutes of sleep. 
    This went on two more times. 
    Sam finally woke up after the third snooze, where she threw the covers off her.  She tried to set her feet on the ground but her brains were working quicker than her body, having getting stuck between the covers.  She fell off the bed, luckily her head missing the corner of the nightstand. 
    Once she managed to get to her feet, she stumbled into her bathroom and turned on the shower, hoping a warm shower would make her feet better.  When she peeled off her clothes, she stepped into the shower stall where the water was ice cold, making her shriek loudly.  She hated to take a straight cold shower even if it was a hundred degrees outside.  She always liked to start it warm first then work her way slowly to cold water.  But apparently the hot water wasn’t working so she had to suck it up and wash herself quickly.  She made a note to call the maintenance office to have them take a look.
    Sam got dressed and headed to the kitchen to make her a cup of coffee, knowing that this would help her terrible morning, at least a little.
    Wrong.
    Sam opened the cabinet and pulled down the coffee canister, only to realize that she was completely out.  Yesterday had been one of those days where she forgot to do some grocery shopping. 
    Since there wasn’t any coffee, she was willing to let that bypass and go for a can of Coke since Coke would cheer her right up (she never bought the diet stuff because she believed that drinking ‘diet’ defeats the purpose of drinking soda in the first place).  When she opened the fridge, to her fourth disappointment of the morning, there was no Coke.
    Coffee , she thought, I need coffee .
    She needed coffee, badly.  If she didn’t have coffee, at the rate that she was going, she could easily rip someone’s head off, or maybe poke out an eye or two.  It may be a bit drastic (yes, a bit) but Sam never functioned without her morning fix.  Ever since she started drinking it in high school, she loved it. 
    The smell, the taste. 
    Mmmm .
    She could easily pretend that she had a cup there, but that would only last about point two-five seconds.
    She needed coffee… now .
                  Sam walked into her office, placed her bag and phone on her desk, walked back out and headed into the kitchen.  She had passed by Cozy’s earlier and saw the long line of customers and thought it would be best to drink coffee at the office than die from Cozy’s caffeine withdraw.  She fixed herself a cup and went back to her office when Maggie walked in with two in her hand.
    “I’ll love you a little less than Buttons and Cuddles if you hand me that cup of coffee,” Sam pleaded, setting her freshly made office coffee down and stretched out her hands for Maggie to place the cup in her hands.
    “You’re actually willing to throw Buttons and Cuddles into the mix of love against me?”
    “Yeah, but I said I’d love a little less than them. ” Sam clarified, ignoring Maggie’s annoyed look and eyeing the coffee in her hands with determination.
    Maggie took pity on her and gave her the cup.
    “Which you already do, Sam.  You