Chapter 12 - Samanta

Her shift was finally over and she was drained. Fridays were overwhelming. She made a hand gesture for Carlos, letting him know she'd be expecting him at their wardrobe, but he was not off yet.

“Overtime” he mouthed to her with a stern look.

Sam nodded and went to pick up her stuff. On her way out, she came near her friend.

“How long are you staying?” She asked.

“Don't know, Gordon asked me to help so…”

“Fine. I'll wait.”

“You don't have to, Sam.”

Samanta checked her watch and realized it was almost 5pm and remembered her sister was having dinner at a friend's house, so Sam didn't have to make dinner.

“Teresa's not coming for dinner tonight, I can wait a couple hours. I can use them to catch up on my reading” She said showing him her copy of “A Thousand Miles up the Nile” by Amelia B. Edwards.

Carlos smiled and nodded.

“Alright. I'm off at 7. Will you wait?”

Samanta responded with an ear to ear smile.

She walked away from her work place, sat on a metallic bench and proceeded to catch up on her reading. She got so caught up on it that she would only stop every so often to sip some water from her bottle and then carried on reading. The story caught her in a matter of seconds, without even realizing, 3 hours had gone by when she stopped to look at the time.

She sprung from the bench and looked over to the cafe, Carlos was nowhere to be found and he was supposed to be off 15 minutes ago.

Samanta came a little closer to try and figure out why her friend was taking so long?

When she looked closely, she noticed the place more crowded than usual for that time of the day. They were over loaded. Carlos turned to Sam with a very concerned look.  

“I'm so sorry!” Sam could read on his lips, who was coming over. “I'll just finish dispatching these costumers and leave.”

“How long would you say?” Samanta asked.

“About an hour. You can go if you want, you must be sick of waiting.”

“I've been waiting for almost three hours. I don't think one more hour could kill me” Sam touched her friends cheek tenderly. “I won't go. I'll wait and we're having dinner together. It's Friday, it's on me.”

Carlos smiled and felt his heart skip a beat. A sudden urge to hug and kiss Sam came over him, one of those kisses that take your breath away, but he remained calm and snapped out of it. Samanta was his friend. Only that.

Sam went out to let him wrap things up. She sat down on the  same bench she was before and tried to isolate herself from the noise in the airport, so she decided to play some music. She looked for her iPod in her purse, but she couldn't find it. Looked again desperately, but it wasn't there, that was very weird, she did not use it at all yesterday. She remembered putting it in the front pocket when she came to work, but it was not there. Without a better option, she pulled out her phone and plugged her ear buds. She did not like using her phone to listen to music, her battery drained out in one second and she would rather use her phone available in case her sister needed to call, but she made an exception that day. She turned up the volume as high as it could go, she wanted to not be able to hear her surroundings, just her music. She closed her eyes and laid her head on the back of the bench. She was exhausted but she was not leaving without her friend.

As she had her eyes closed with her music on, she could sense someone next to her. She ignored it and stayed in her ephemeral isolation.

She sensed a delicious smell that made it obvious this was a man next to her.

She opened her eyes and she could not believe what she saw. … it was him.

*****

A boy with blue eyes and a beautiful smile was staring right at her. Seeing him so close up made her heart race. She snatched the ear buds from her ears.

“H-hi” Sam stuttered.

How to describe what Dominik felt at that moment? Words fail me. A mix of anxiety, nervousness and excitement. Anxiety to find out more about this girl, nervousness somebody would recognize him and, in a matter of seconds, he would find himself surrounded by photographers and the media, also excited to be doing all this.

He managed to trick his publicist with the excuse that he would lock himself in his room and rest and watch some movies. In reality, he had escaped the hotel dressed as a waiter. Once out, he put on a black hoodie and a pair of shades he had packed in a bag. Even when it was night out, those shades had always helped him go unnoticed.

“Hello” he answered with a wide smile. “What are you listening to?” He curiously asked, gesturing to let him take one of her ear buds.

“Uhmm. Some classical music.

“Who are you waiting for?” He asked, resembling a child, the kind who question everything they see and hear.

“A friend” Sam muttered looking towards the shop while trying to avoid eye contact with Dominik. Those blue eyes were really intimidating to her.

At that moment, Samanta realized this was the first time she managed to see him clearly. She had that feeling of familiarity once again. She knew she had seen his face before somewhere, she just couldn't pin point it.

“Mind taking a stroll?” Dom asked and Sam turned towards him, in awe from his request. “While your friend comes?” Samanta frowned, unconsciously. “Or would you rather wait sitting here?” he asked.

Sam nodded and stood up, accepting his invite. She nodded for Dom to stand up, too.

“Shall we?” She insisted.

Dominik stood still like his mind and body were no longer connected. He had to put in a huge effort in order to get up from his seat. He could not understand what he was feeling. Along his life, he had fallen in love with numerous girls, he felt physical attraction and warmth, but he had never known - or been able to- come up close with one of them and it caused him a big feeling of exclusion, shame and despair many times. The only girl he was ever up close and personal was with Dihanna and that was only because she took the lead. Never the less, Samanta  caused him a need to come up to her, find her, listen to her, see her... She wanted her to know exactly how he felt. Like she was the cure to his "emotional detachment."

“How long have you been working for Starbucks?” was the first thing to come to  Dominik.

“This coming Monday will be seven months” she answered.

Dominik walked with his head down, he would never risk being caught.

“What else do you do, apart from work?” he turned his head trying to dodge the stare of an on looking tourist staring at him. «Crap! Please don't recognize me, don't recognize me,» he prayed to himself.

“Who are you hiding from?” Samanta let out in response to the man's strange behavior.

He walked as though he was trying to block angles from which he could be caught by security cameras at the airport, walking with his head down, hands in his pockets..

“No. Not hiding. What makes you say that?” Dominik looked up and put on his shades again.

“Yes. Under that hood, behind those sun glasses” she stated.

“The hood is because I'm cold and the shades because I am sensitive to light” he answered resolutely. Dominik had a gift with words, he was convincing to the bone, but this had no effect on Samanta.

“I'm not dumb, Dominik? That is your name, right?” he nodded slightly. “You're trying to go incognito. Why?”

“You really don't know who I am?” answering her question with another question.

He could not help feeling disappointed. How come this woman did not know who he was? He had been on Pepsi ads, Adidas ads, Rexona ads, Gillette ads and Ray-Ban ads over the past three years. His face embellished billboard signs all over the world.

“Well, with that whole costume on, how could I?” she mocked him.

Dominik laughed out loud from this. He could not deny it, he was in disguise. Trying to avoid people recognizing him, and apparently, it all worked on her.

You definitely are a public figure —she added—, otherwise you would not be acting like a rock star leaving a venue after their own show.

«Smart. Very smart. Definitely» he thought.

“Ok, honestly, most of my public are males. It's very strange when a girl is interested in what I do.”

“Are you a porn star?” Samanta stop out of the blue and remembered that one night at Carlos' when they were looking at random F******k profiles "looking" for a girl for him when, suddenly, a bunch of pop-ups opened up inviting them to visit all these pornographic websites. Her friend's curiosity pushed him to click on one that took them to a site where, unable to avoid it, they ended up watching some videos.

«That's it. That's where I remember him from», Samanta thought as she noticed she was blushing.

Dominik laughed out loud again from her idea, not to mention the frightened look she had on her face.

“No. I’m not a porn star” he cleared it out immediately. “Besides, according to recent studies, 90% of women are interested, in fact, very much so, in pornography. Also, if I were in porn I could not say women are not interested in what I do, everybody loves sex.

Sam thought that was one bold statement. She had only been talking to this man for a few minutes and he was already talking about sex? On the bright side, Dominik found this conversation so trivial, he was used to always speaking his mind, he never stopped to consider anybody else's opinions. That was him. Unfiltered.

Samanta gulped and had to clear her throat before she spoke.

“What do you do, then?” She asked, notably curious.

“Sports” he answered, trying to divert from the topic. He didn't want to go into it with details. He wanted to learn about her.

“What do you do, apart from work?” Dominik inquired.

“For now, just work. I'll find out whether I made it into UCLA or my dream will come true.

“Your dream?” he looked at her carefully.

“Since I was a child, I have always dreamed of studying in…”

“Holy Molly! It's been crazy today” a voice said suddenly, interrupting the conversation. Sam looked over to find her friend. “Gordon has to go to New York in two days and he was instructing me on how to run the shop while he's out” Carlos kept talking.

“Dominik, this is Carlos, my best friend” said Sam immediately.

“Pleasure” Dom held his hand out towards the boy who had just come to meet them.

However, Carlos stood petrified, he did not say a word. His eyes nailed on to Dominik and he opened his eyes more and more every second.

“Carlos? Are you ok?” Samanta was concerned about her friend's behavior. He seemed to be having a stroke.

Dominik knew and cursed mentally. He had been recognized. H felt like running but he held himself. He had come back to the airport trying to get Samanta's number, at least, and he would not stop until he'd got it. He looked at the boy who was looking at him excitedly and shyly smiled, shrugging.

“Dominik “The Bullet” Weigand” Carlos mumbled.

“What?” Sam was so confused. “Do you know each other?”

“Are you kidding, Sam? Is The Bullet! Dominik Weigand!” Carlos shouted unwillingly and some people turned to see them.

“Please keep it down” the man requested.

“Man!” the just arrived put his hands on his head, unable to trust his own eyes.

“I'm so lost here” Samanta commented, looking back and forth at her friend and Dominik.

“Oh, come on, Samanta! Don't tell me you don't recognize him” said Carlos. Samanta looked closely at the man standing next to her. “It's Dominik Weigand, this season's MVP and most coveted player. He's a fucking living legend!” Carlos shook his hands up high emphasizing his words.

Dominik felt embarrassed and awkward, he did not like attention.

“I think I should better go” Dom muttered. “Before somebody else recognizes me and the media comes swarming in seconds.”

Samanta felt like her brain cells were not doing synapses, she could not manage to process all this information so hurriedly.

“What you did during the Champions final…” Carlos kept on going, he was like a little boy meeting one of his biggest idols, “was AMAZING, how you pulled that one shot and fooled the keeper on that penalty shot.”

“It's been a pleasure seeing you, Samanta” Dom said quivering. “It's been a pleasure, Carlos” and gave the boy the most awkward look.

Samanta was still in shock, but, all of a sudden, words came out of her mouth, a combination of numbers.

Dominik frowned.

“What?” he asked.

“My phone number” she looked him in the eyes and could not hold a silly smile.

She thought it was so cute how Dominik had preferred keeping a low profile, hiding who he really is. He could have very well just hit on her letting her know who he was and ensnared her with the coveted, rich, famous man front, but he didn't. And she loved that. She wanted to stay in touch with him. At that moment, she clasped the stupid hope that he might call her.

Dominik pulled out his phone and typed in the number Sam said, feeling victorious having achieved his goal.

“I must go, I have to rest” said Dominik unable to take his eyes off the girl looking back at him.

“Good night” she murmured.

Dom looked at Carlos and nodded.

“See you later” he said.

“Sleep tight, man, you gotta give it your all tomorrow” responded Carlos.

Dominik smiled. HE took a deep breath, turned around and headed for the airport exit gates.

Sam followed him with her eyes until she lost sight of him. An elbow butt made her put her feet back on the ground.

“Did this really just happen?”

Samanta failed to hold back her laughter, her friend was a total character. His passion for soccer was huge and he proved it once again.

»When the fuck were you planning to tell me it was none other than Dominik Weigand who you ran into yesterday?” Carlos went on.

Samanta shook her head hard, forcing herself to react.

“I just realized that. Right now” she answered.

“Piss off, Sam! That's his face on that sign” Carlos pointed his finger toward a huge sign placed high up on the entrance to a sporting goods store.

“I knew it! His face kind of rang a bell” she muttered.

“You've been watching the whole World Cup pre-elimination rounds with me. Not to mention the Champions League” Carlos showed his disdain.

“Correction. I've been reading while you watched those games. You know I'm not a sports fan”  his friend replied. “I'm sorry I failed to recognize a star soccer player.”

“What was all this about though?” Carlos could not help but feel a little. Jealous? From his friend's behavior.

“What do you mean?” Sam did not understand his question.

“You spat out your phone number like you were the bingo hostess.”

Samanta laughed out loud from her friend's analogy. She remembered how she gave her number out to Dominik, and, the best of all was that she did not regret any of it. It was true she did not know this man, but she could not wait to do so.

“Let's get out of here” she said. “I'm starving. Let's go find a place to eat.”

Once she said this, she turned around and started walking towards the food court.