Chapter 11
Samantha
*One month later*
The only sound in the apartment was the steady sound of Dons typing. As was usual for a Friday night, Don was plugging away on his laptop, while Samantha read a book nearby. This was a routine that they had settled into over the years: he used the time to catch up on his weekly workload, usually sprawled out on the couch with the laptop sitting on his stomach, while Samantha sat crossed-legged, on the floor with a book in her lap, her back propped up against his side of the couch. She would usually brew a pot of tea, pour out two cups, and then settle in next to the couch to catch up on her reading. Although it may not seem that exciting to some, it was usually one of her favorite parts of the week. It was a time where she could fully relax without the stress of everyday life getting in the way.
When she told Monica about their Friday night routine, Monica almost fell over laughing. She didnt understand how those moments felt for Samantha; her enjoyment of reading a new book mixed with the pleasure of sharing silent smiles with her boyfriend. Although Don was mostly focused on his work at these times, he always looked down at Samantha from time to time to give her a small smile. It wasnt anything fancy, but it was nice.
Samantha usually found the relative silence comforting, but not tonight. Tonight she had a hard time focusing on her book because she had other things on her mind. It had been over a month since she had gone out to the Rock Lobster and she had been having difficulty processing all that had transpired on that day. Her memory of that day was vivid in her mind, the edges of each scene crisp against the background of more mundane days. She remembered standing in the parking lot of the Rock Lobster, waving goodbye to Derik as he drove away, right as Monica stormed out of the club with the look of a glee in her eye. Somehow she had learned the truth about Derik and had tried to catch him in the parking lot. Who knows what she would have done if she had been successful, but Samantha was grateful that she never had to find out. Monica had missed him by mere seconds, and the thought of what kind of avalanche that encounter would have brought down on her and Dons relationship made Samantha shudder. If knowledge of Deriks massive dick reached Don there was no guessing how he would have handled that information. He was so sensitive that she wouldnt have been surprised if he cut Derik off as a friend, and that given how few friends they had time for nowadays, that would be nothing short of heartbreaking.
Upon seeing that she had missed her chance, Monica had turned on Samantha. Standing in the cold, dark parking lot, she berated her with questions about how Samantha found out about his dick, how long she knew, and if she had fucked him yet. The questions were like a wave crashing against Samanthas ears. Monica was always a fan of gossip, and it seemed like this time Samantha had done too good of a job piquing her curiosity; it was too much for her and she started demanding answers, right there in that parking lot. As Samantha stood her ground against the wave of inquiries, not sure what to admit to her friend, Monica exclaimed Just you wait until little man Don finds out! Monica had never had a history of being able to keep a secret, and Samantha, in that moment broke down and pleaded for Monica to keep her silence.
Looking back, Monica probably thought that Samantha was having some sort of a break down. The stress of the day had finally caught up with her and Samantha had started crying right then and there. The tears fell like quiet streams from her bleary eyes as she stood staring at her friend in the darkness. Thinking about what repercussions the knowledge of Deriks dick could have on her and Dons relationship, what it could mean for theirs and Deriks friendship, coupled with the fact that with Monica knowing, it was only a matter of time until he learned the truth; it was all too much. She was also frustrated about how she, herself, felt about his dick. It seemed to awake a strange sense of sexual curiosity inside her that she didnt know she had, would this feeling lead her to eventually cheat on Don? She hoped not, but at this point she could be sure about anything. This was completely new to her and she was having trouble making sense of it. All of these thoughts caused her silent tears to flow freely. She just stood there, staring at Monica with those wet, red eyes, and it was enough to shift Monica from berate-Samantha-with-questions mode, back to kind BFF mode. Monica obviously could tell right away that more was happening than she was aware of and she slowly guided her friend back into the club, through the hall and into the nearest restroom, to help her dry her tears.
After Samantha had regained her composure and dried her face, she sat on the edge of the toilet seat and waited for the questions to come. Since she had started crying Monica had remained completely silent, although she was undoubtedly curious, she was waiting patiently for an explanation. Just as before when Samantha was worried about her phone, she simply waited until Samantha was ready to talk, in her own time. She stood across from Samantha, leaning with her back up against the wall with a look of friendly patience on her face. In that moment, Samantha couldnt help but think that for all of the issues caused by Monicas partying and her tension with Don, she really was a good friend.
They left the restroom, found a relatively isolated area of the club to sit down, and over the next hour Samantha started explaining her unusual day and all of her worries to Monica. She started with her morning and how she had seen the impossible bulge in Deriks shorts while he slept. She even described, to her immense embarrassment, how she had leaned down to look up his shorts and was almost caught by Don. At this Monica released a small giggle, laughing at the surprising immaturity of her friend, but she kept all comments to herself until the very end. Samantha described her worries about what would happen if Don found out, and all of her concerns about how she seemed to feel differently about Derik now. She also explained how she still didnt know if she was able to lock her phone in time and how she didnt know how Don would react to seeing a dick pic on her phone. All the while Monica remained silent, simply nodding at certain parts of the story as if to encourage Samantha to let it all out.
Once Samantha had told Monica everything, she had felt really silly for crying. She wasnt used to keeping things from Don, especially something that could harm their relationship, and she supposed that it was the stress brought on by this new situation that had caused her feeling of desperation. When it was clear that she had told her full story, Monica reached over and grabbed her hands.
Samantha, listen to me she had said. I know that Im not the best at keeping secrets, but I promise you that I wont tell Don. Looking into her eyes, Samantha knew that she was being sincere. She continued: I completely agree with you. It probably will make your life very difficult if Don knew what Derik was packing. Dont worry; Im not going to tell him. At this point a sly grin had spread across her face. Of course, if you ever want to knock him down a peg or two, just give me a call.
At that moment, with her joking about the situation and her giving her word not to tell Don, Samantha had immediately started to feel better. They began to talk candidly about Derik and his package, as if it wasnt a big deal, which according to Monica it wasnt.
Lots of guys have big dicks, Sam. she had said. Sure, Im like ridiculously, crazy surprised that Derik is blessed with a tree trunk down there, but at the end of the day it isnt going to brainwash you into cheating with Don. Believe me, sister, size isnt everything.
Although, Samantha took comfort in the words of her friend, she couldnt shake the feeling that Monica was sugar coating the truth for her benefit. From the way Monica had in the past bragged about sleeping with a man that had a big dick, you would think that size counted for something. If it didnt make sex better, then why would she always be happy to find a man that was blessed in that department? Since Samantha had only ever been with Don, she didnt really know if a bigger dick equaled better sex, but from listening to the way Monica and her other girlfriends talked about it, it sure seemed to make a difference. Since Monica was putting such an effort to make her feel better, Samantha kept these thoughts to herself.
Now, Samantha looked up at Don as he worked. She really did love him. Even though they had their issues, she really did think that he was a kind and intelligent man that would do anything for her. This is why she was so worried that night at the club; she didnt want anything to disrupt their relationship. He sat there staring at the screen of his laptop, but upon realizing that Samantha was looking at him, he turned and gave her a small smile. No words were needed; the smile was his was of simply saying Im happy that youre here with me. He turned back to his work, but Samantha took a few moments to look at him. He had the scruff of a beard on his face, from skipping shaving for a couple of days; it was more like rough fuzz than anything else. A single lock of his black hair had fallen across his face. He had always been a little skinny, for a grown man, but she thought that he was sexy in his own way. Don had the body of a man that ran way too much and didnt eat enough, although the opposite was actually true for him. He was just one of those guys that were always skinny no matter how much they ate. Monica always bragged about going home with musclebound he-man types, but Samantha was happy with going home to be with her skinny boyfriend, he was her man, and that had always been enough for her. To Samantha, Dons best feature was his smile, and although he didnt show it too often, it made its rare appearance all the more special.
Samantha turned back to her book, but found her mind wondering. After looking at her boyfriend, she began to think about how much he differed from their friend, Derik. Whereas Don had a slim frame, Derik had always been thick, and broad. Even after he had lost that weight, almost fifty pounds in all, he still had the wide shoulders of a linebacker. He was shorter than Don too, almost by a full foot. He stood just a few inches taller than Samantha and Monica, and that was only if they werent wearing heels. Another major difference was their hair: Dons was thick and black, while Deriks was, well
nonexistent. He had confessed to them that his hair had started thinning just a few years after high school, and after deciding that he desperately did not want to become one of those creepy comb-over guys, he made the decision to start shaving his head.
To most people, Don would undoubtedly be the more attractive man out of the two of them. He was taller, fitter, and had a fuller head of hair than Derik. But what Samantha found most interesting about their differences, and she had only realized this now as she sat with her book, was that all of these physical shortcoming never, once, seemed to bring Derik down. Other men may have become self-conscious when they realized that they were so short, or that they were becoming bald at the age of twenty, or that no matter how much weight they lost they would always look husky. But, Derik didnt seem to care about any of that. This brought her to another major difference between the two men: their smiles. While Don seemed to hoard his smiles for use on a rare rainy day, Derik gave his out like candy on Halloween. He was smiling all of the time, as if he was living the best life he could.
Samantha always thought that this was a little strange. It wasnt that Derik lived a terrible life, but he certainly wasnt living on easy street either. Growing up his father was an alcoholic, a pretty bad one judging from the stories she had heard from him. Derik wasnt beaten as a kid or anything like that, but he did tell her that there was multiple times where, as a small boy, he would wake up to find most of their furniture in the back yard. His dad would sometimes smash things in anger when Deriks mom refused to drive him to the liquor store. At one point it had gotten so bad that he had found himself staying at a friends house most of the time to avoid seeing his dad drunk. Derik didnt seem to be emotionally scarred, but she did know that it was because of his father that he chose to only drink water when they went out. She knew him well enough to know that he was secretly afraid of becoming his father.
Nowadays, with Deriks dad moving across the country after his divorce, his dad was less of a concern for him, but he was still far from living the easy life. He had gone to college, taking classes part time while he worked to pay for some of the classes out of pocket, and after years of hard work received his bachelors in History,... only to learn that it wasnt really going to help him find a job. There just werent many jobs in the area that required a degree in History. He currently worked as a dishwasher for a local hospital, and although it wasnt the most glamorous of jobs, he seemed to be in good spirits about it. A few years ago he had returned to school, this time taking online classes towards receiving a Masters in Library Science. Samantha knew that he had been trying to get a job as a librarian for years, it was his dream really, but he hadnt once received so much as a call back after dropping off a dozens and dozens of resumes. After nearly a decade of trying, he decided to try to get his MLS in an effort to bulk up his resume. She knew it was frustrating, you needed experience to make your resume look good, but how do you get experience if no one will give you a chance? So Derik had decided to, once again, spend the massive amounts of time and money that was required to go back to school, this time at the masters level. It was a gamble, after all his bachelors didnt open any doors for him, but he was determined to someday work as a librarian, and if it required him to get a MLS to achieve that goal, that was exactly what he was going to do.