Last time……… 

This brought Sam’s attention fully on Brooke. She hadn’t actually
looked at her yet. She could see that something was a bit off. The
playful banter wouldn’t have usually brought out such a strong
reaction, at least these days it wouldn’t. She softened her features
unconsciously in reassurance, which made Brooke relax. Sam knew she
could sometimes come off as unfeeling and cold but she really didn’t
mean to. She picked up both the bagel and the banana and proceeded
toward the kitchen door, then turned and offered Brooke a soft smile.

"Ready?"
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

Brooke looked up from her exciting examination of the marble counter
top and nodded. She followed Sam toward the door and out into the
early morning. The drive was totally silent again. This time both
girls were so wrapped up in their own head that they had no time to
notice anything else before they arrived at their destination.

Sam had been thinking all the way over about her behavior toward
Brooke. What had really fueled their conflict and their
reconciliation? She found herself wanting to know everything about
Brooke that she didn’t know already. Thus her mouth made a silent
decision without consulting her brain.

"Hey," Sam softly called when they had parked, "I have lunch at
eleven thirty. Would you like to maybe come by and grab something
with me?"

What was she doing? She was asking Brooke to come and have lunch
with her. This was getting out of control. She couldn’t stop
anything from coming out of her mouth. Someone had taken over her
body and was making her do very un-Sam like things, like randomly asking
Brooke to lunch. She examined her newly manicured fingernails, not
really seeing them. She heard Brooke audibly swallow.

Wow, this was confusing. Sam was asking her to come by for lunch.
It’s just a thing, she told herself, it’s just lunch. She nervously pushed her
hair behind her ear and looked at Sam, who was still examining her
nails. She didn’t think she could say no.

"Sure," she finally answered, "I’ll be here, but if you only have
thirty minutes then were are we going to go?"

Sam finally looked up and regarded her companion. She pointed out
the window at the small dinner right next to Kranky’s. Brooke
followed her hand and blushed.

"Oh, right." How stupid of me.

She was silent again. The slack in the conversation seemed to be
growing by the foot. Sam decided this was time to make her exit. She
opened the car door and hopped out. Before she left she stuck her
head back into the car.