Page 34 of Sun, Sea and Spotted Squid

Sam snatched them out of her hand. “I’m so sorry. Those are mine. You…uh…you can keep everything else.”

With a reason to escape, Sam backed away to the door. The blood rushing in his ears deafened him and he needed the solace of his room. Immediately. “I’ll leave you to it,” he stammered. “I should be studying.”

With one final glare for Wolfgang, Sam forced a happy face on. “I take it you won’t be coming to work tomorrow. I’ll tell them you’re…otherwise engaged.”

He stormed out of that room, across the hallway and into his own. Adrenalin coursed through his body as he flung himself onto the bed.

Fiancée?

Of course they hadn’t had a conversation about the future and Wolfgang owed him nothing. Sam would’ve expected the simple matter of a future wife to have come up by now.

He sprang up and paced the room. His rage needed an out.

The notion of Wolfgang across the way being tended to by a doting family when he’d been fucking Sam in that very bed made him feel physically sick. With a shaking hand, he opened the bottle of wine and took a healthy slug.

I need to get some air.

Grabbing his wallet, he let the door slam behind him as he stormed down the stairs.

Let him hear it. Let him know.

Bar Bruno was his destination. Not in the mood for fancy cocktails, he ordered a beer with a sambuca chaser. The barman studied him, amused.

Sam conceded that four o’clock in the afternoon might be considered early for such an order. But the barman hadn’t had the day Sam’d had.

After three rounds, the world became slightly fuzzy. He would have gone for a fourth. However the locals were watching him with such fascination he decided the bottle of wine at home was a better option.

He was starving too. So once again he got some bits on the way home. This time it was chocolate heavy. Now he needed comfort over celebration.

Everything was quiet on the third floor. Then Sam stopped dead in his tracks. A note had been stuck to his door. He ripped it down and stormed into his room.

Wolfgang’s handwriting saidTo Samon it. Who else would it be for? With trembling hands, he sat down on the bed and opened it.

Sam, my parents have rented an apartment by the beach. I’m going to stay with them there for a while. Could you let Ruben know I will be in when I am better?

W.

The clinical way he’d simply communicated his plans made Sam’s heart ache.

He scrunched the note up and threw it in the bin.

How did I let my stupid head run away like that?

Being on the back of the boat without Wolfgang was bleak. They’d put a new motor on. Sam couldn’t take his eyes from where Wolfgang had fallen.

Wonder who cleaned the blood from the deck.

“Are you okay?” Ruben asked.

He’d offered to stand in for Wolfgang as he recuperated. He sat next to Sam and handed him a bottle of water.

“Yeah, I’m fine,” Sam replied, snapping the bottle open. “It’s been a rough few days.”

Ruben stared out to the sea he’d dedicated his life to. Beautiful sunshine dappled on the waves as they bounced through them. Sam easily understood how Ruben had been entranced.

“You didn’t need to come in today,” Ruben said. “Shock is a terrible thing.”

“Don’t worry about me. Tough as old boots really.”