d Sam's infuriatingly gorgeous presence, his ideas and...
She missed Sam.
Trinity debated deleting the memo as she strolled into the lobby. There was no point to it, really—she wasn't sending it to inform him of anything, or to effect a change. She could practically hear Sam's disapproving voice in her head asking her: what's the point?
Maybe it was an act of defiance against that voice that made her hit 'send'.
She swerved immediately in the aftermath of her decision and headed for the hotel bar. After the conclusion of her first week at the West Coast office, she could really use a drink.
There was one other person there already drinking when she arrived. Her gaze glanced off a pair of broad male shoulders filling a light jacket. He was hunched down, reading something on his phone. Poor guy, she thought sympathetically. Must have had a long flight. His posture made him look as tired as she felt.
There was an undrunk Manhattan sitting on the bar beside him. For once, the bartender appeared to have made it in the right glass.
Trinity's eyes widened.
"Sam?"
Sam never came out in public in anything less than a suit, except for the days he took off early to jog. Regardless, it was Sam who turned to look at her now. His dark hair was rumpled and hanging in his eyes, and it looked as if he hadn't shaved in twenty-four hours...a record almost as long as her memo. Her eyes slid from him to look at his phone, and she realized he must have just finished reading her little dispatch. Before, when there had been a whole country—and the likelihood of a whole ocean—between them, it had seemed like a good idea.
How was she supposed to answer for it now?
"Trinity." His tone was half-wonderment, half-relief, and Trinity's heart gave an unexpected start at hearing his voice.
"What are you doing here?" She hesitated, longing to join him at the bar, and afraid the spell would break and he would disappear again the minute she brought herself any closer. "I thought you were supposed to be in New York for another week?"
"I needed to get back sooner than expected," he replied. "There was something pressing that I needed to attend to. It couldn't wait."
Their conversation paused awkwardly as they continued to take one another in. Trinity wondered how she must appear: tired, her tawny hair flat against a face already tinged with the glow of sunburn. Her makeup had likely all but vanished by now
"Can I sit down?" She surprised herself by being the first to break the silence.
Sam rose and pulled a stool out for her. Trinity nodded in mute thanks and sat down. Her fingers wrapped around the Manhattan before she could direct them otherwise; she turned it around and around as Sam settled in again beside her.
"I read your memo," he said.
Trinity nodded. "I'm sorry. I wasn't really thinking when I sent it. I know you don't like long memos, I was just...stuck in L.A. traffic. And bored." And thinking about you.
"I save every memo you send me," he replied. "I have ever since we first started working together at the agency."
Trinity rocked back in her stool as if blown by a sudden strong wind. She blinked, but Sam's expression remained as serious as the grave. "...what?" She gave a helpless laugh as his words finally touched home. "I had no idea!"
"I know it's sentimental." Sam stared at his own Manhattan, looking sheepish as it rotated on its coaster.
Trinity shook her head. "No. I promise I'm not laughing because of that. It's just that...I save all of yours, too."
They lapsed into a more comfortable silence than before. Out of the corner of her eye, she saw Sam's grimace twist upward in a little half-smile.
"So. Why did you come back early?" she prodded. "Was Eddie driving you crazy?"
"No more than usual. Mainly I was driving myself crazy," Sam admitted. "Thinking about you. Thinking about how I left things between us...again."
He turned in his stool to face her, and Trinity reciprocated his posture instinctively. It was impossible for her to keep an emotional wall up between them anymore. She couldn't deny the effect seeing him now had on her. She still loved him with all her heart.
His knee brushed against hers, and Trinity didn't draw back. "I've decided to stay in L.A.," he said finally. "I have a different perspective on things here now. If I took another job, I'd just be running away from it all again. I need to learn to adapt, and I've decided there's no better place to master that skill than out here on the West Coast. I need to learn to put up with a little discomfort and remain in pursuit of what I want."
Trinity's eyes narrowed. "Are you sure? But you hate L.A.," she reminded him. "You were never shy in the past about making that known. In fact, I thought leaving here was your entire goal!"
"My goal was to be with you." Sam's hand came between them to catch hers. Trinity couldn't deny how good it felt to be seized by him, to be held, with no hesitance or calculation. They had struggled to find a working medium all along, when the reality was she could never be in Sam's vicinity without yearning for him. She loved him just as much as she always had, if not more, considering all they had been through together up to this point.