"Sam! I love this song!"
"Me too."
"Let's dance Sam!"
"I don't dance."
"Oh, come on, it's me, and you're drunk, and nobodies here."
Sam looks around the bar. It's empty. When did everyone leave?
"Please, Sam? I love this song."
When she's standing there she looks so beautiful. Her hair has fallen, and she looks drunk, and happy, and finally relaxed enough to be herself. Sam is overcome with a furious desire to touch her, to hold her, to be against her. He wishes he could tell her how he feels in this moment. Because of the alcohol, he would, if he knew the words to describe it right. But words don't ever fit how he feels for her. He thinks then that maybe some things are meant only to be felt; forever unspoken and misunderstood, lonesome and unfair.
Then he looks at her again. He can't stop himself.
He grabs her, and pulls her close. She falls into him. Her hands find his shoulders, and he holds her waist. They sway together. They dance, closer than friends dance. No one is looking at them. They move with an intimacy usually saved for when they are alone. Grace rests her head on Sam.
He thinks a new Sam is born when he holds her. The brave Sam. The Sam he wants to be. The man who doesn't exist without her, who doesn't breath in him alone. They continue to sway, now cheek to cheek.
She feel so soft against him.
Sam sits slumped on his chair waiting for Grace. He can't feel his legs beneath him.
He’s going to tell her.
Be brave, Sam.
Forget Lilly, forget everything, forget everyone.
Be brave, Sam.
Tell her. Go on, love her.
Love her forever.
Grace comes back to the table. She sits down. She looks like she’s been crying.
For a few seconds, no one speaks.
Be brave, Sam.
"Grace, I - "
"Sam, I have to go."
"What?"
"Yeah, I'm just really fucked, and Luke just texted me back and apologized and I just have to go see him. I'm going to just take a cab home, I'm just really fucked. I need to go to bed, I'm really fucked. I don't feel well."
"Oh, okay. Sure."
She gets up, and so does he, but the sound is sucked out of the room.
All he can hear is his own voice in his head, saying, “Be brave, Sam.”
"Sam, tonight was really fun," says Grace, but she sounds like she’s under water.
"Yeah, it was really fun," he can feel himself say, but he’s surprised when it comes out of his mouth.
It echoes.
"It was really good to see you, I really missed you," she says.
And Grace leaves Sam just how she found him; alone at a table with half a drink left.
She walks out the door.
Be brave, Sam, he says to himself once more.
He doesn't stop her.
All he can hear is his heart beating; that human noise he sat there making, not daring to move, not even when the room went dark.
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