Chapter 16: Make Up Or Break Up

(Author's Note: First of all, thank you so much for reading this novel. I've decided to turn this into a free novel for everyone to read. I just hope that you can donate $1.00 for every chapter that you've enjoyed reading or whatever you can afford to a charity that helps the poor and the hungry. Thank you for your generosity. )

( San Francisco, California: Wednesday 5 pm, Pacific Standard Time)


           "It was one of the roughest days at work", Sam thought to herself, as she lay slumped down at the back seat of her stretch limousine. Her limousine was being followed by her four secret service agents who were riding in   two black suv's . Samantha was on her way to Grey's house in Vallejo which was about 50 miles east of San Francisco, and with the way traffic crawled, it was going to take her at least a whole hour and a half before she gets there. Her day at the office was horrendous, with the arrest inside her building of the Aryan spy, "St. Peter", which caught her off guard, to the numerous Federal agents that disrupted their already busy schedule and operation, to her first day of formally orienting Betsy into her new position as CEO and President of Cure Corp.  personally introducing Betsy to each and every department head of her company. Samantha had Betsy write down all her management secrets and  kept on stressing to her best friend the importance of showing an attitude of confidence to all of her senior executives during conferences and meetings.
         
            Samantha was tired, hungry and emotionally disturbed by worrying about Chase's health and a disheartening revelation that she discovered about Grey's past. Even more distressing to her was her feelings for the both of them. As the traffic snarled to a bumper to bumper speed, her mind drifted to what Admiral Rivera told her which was for her to be careful about manipulating her present life due to her knowledge of her future life. "So was it wrong for her to obtain secret information about Grey's past to help her understand why they won't end up being married to each other in the future?... Would confronting Grey tonight create an alternate future and change their fate?..What's there to lose...they won't end up together anyway...Might as well find out the reason and get a closure sooner than later...", she thought to herself. She didn't have a choice, she was suffering too much from her current emotional predicament. After a few minutes in deep thought, she felt some hunger pangs as she grabbed some granola bars from the car's mini fridge and after she had her fill, fell asleep from sheer exhaustion.

          (Grey's house in Vallejo, California)

          It was already 6:30 pm and while Ritchie was boiling some pasta for dinner  in the kitchen, Grey was glued to the TV for more news on Samantha. TV news anchor, Nancy Vanderfield started reporting as she said, "Good evening America, tonight our President is on his way back from Egypt after a high stakes sting operation against an Aryan plot to topple our government and eliminate democracy and freedom in our country. We will rebroadcast our President's speech from Cairo tonight at eleven pm.... There is also some rumors floating around that a nuclear bomb was intercepted by Homeland Security and the FBI earlier at the port of San Francisco we've asked a spokesperson from each of these two intelligence agencies but they both refused to comment due to the delicate nature of this event....In other news, a new revelation has surfaced that Samantha Peters, daughter of world famous doctor,scientist and billionaire....Mark Peters who four years ago had discovered and developed a more efficient, less intensive and a hundred times more effective way of curing cancer patients.... Unofficial reports say that Miss Peters was instrumental in halting the release of nuclear weapons by North Korea's dictator President who as you might know died a few hours ago.....There are also some speculations that Samantha Peters had been involved in past dealings with leaders of rogue nations into easing their tight rule on their people in exchange for cancer cure.....Turning to other news , Vyonicks, the new high tech start up company that produces electronic bionic smart limbs for amputees is being bought by it's chief rival, Macrostrength Industries which is owned by multi-millionaire John Layer who also owns the tobacco company called "Relax Cigarettes"....After interviewing Vyonick's company spokesperson, we learned that their mission was to develop super bionic limbs for soldiers who had lost their limbs during battle and who are willing to return to the combat arena.....They explained that these bionic limbs gives a disabled soldier a better fighting chance due to increased speed, strength and force that these bionic limbs offer....Just like the classic TV show from the 1970's, "The Six Million Dollar Man", starring "Lee Majors"...And now for some local news.....the crime rate in San Francisco and east bay area's has increased by 12%....San Francisco police spokesperson thinks that it is due to the centralization of all crime gangs by the notorious Richard Sambrolini who is believed to be the mafia boss and leader of this criminal organization.....Finally on other news, US Republican Senator Peewee Herman the fourth has decided to run for President in...."

                  Suddenly, Grey heard several vehicles pull up by the side of his house, turning off his TV, he looks out the window and see's a black stretch limousine followed by two black suv's. Grey knew at once that it was Samantha, being well aware that she would show up after she tried calling him three times earlier but he refused to talk to her due to their misunderstanding. She instead left him three voice messages indicating that she'll be coming over after work to discuss some important personal issues with him. After Samantha stepped off the limousine, she was quickly flanked by her four secret service men and women. As they started walking towards grey's front door, Grey suddenly notices Samantha's mad facial expression, the same look he see's just before they get into one of their big fights. Grey's heart rate quickly doubles as he nervously tells Ritchie that he is going to lock himself in his bedroom pretending to be asleep. Ritchie nods with a quizzical look as he opens the door to greet Samantha.

                 Ritchie and Samantha had known each other for more than a year. Being Grey's best friend, Samantha kept her acquaintance with Ritchie cordial, but she always tried to keep her distance from him. Ritchie was the type of person who likes to tell sexually explicit jokes and stories and it did not matter who he was speaking with. He even got kicked in the groin once by a nun for telling a sex joke inside a Catholic church. That is why Samantha always tried to keep her conversations with Ritchie short and to the point.

                 Upon entering Grey's house, Samantha already had a hunch that Grey will be hiding inside his bedroom. Ever since they've been together, Grey would always retreat to  his "Cave", or bedroom whenever he senses that they're about to have a big fight. Grey could never withstand Samantha's nagging, but knowing the way to get Grey out of his room, she heads straight for his kitchen and starts to wash his dirty dishes, which surprised all her bodyguards. She knew that Grey wanted a future wife who is domesticated just like his "Stay-at-home", mom who adopted him. Even though Samantha hated  pretending to act domesticated, she knew that this was the only way to get Grey out of his "Cave". It was like bait, like using worms in fishing, or a piece of meat to catch a wild animal or like dangling a piece of fruit in front of a caveman. A minute after she started washing his dishes, she remembered to pull down the window shades near the kitchen sink. The last thing she wanted was for the press to get photographs of her washing her boyfriend's dirty dishes after she just stopped a nuclear war from happening in Asia.

             After a few minutes of pretending to be sleeping, Grey got curious and slowly peeked out of his room and see's Samantha by the kitchen sink washing his dishes, while Ritchie was preparing their dinner. Grey could hear the both of them argue while Samantha's bodyguards were giggling. Grey knew right away that Ritchie must be telling Samantha some of his sexually explicit jokes which he knows always infuriates Samantha.

              Feeling guilty from seeing Samantha suffer from Ritchie's unethical and immoral behavior, he finally walks out of his room and heads for the kitchen. He interrupts Ritchie's story telling, as he glances at Samantha's agitated demeanor while she continued to wash his dirty dishes. He then tells Ritchie to stop bothering Samantha while she was washing his dishes even encouraging Samantha  to scrub the plates a little harder to get the scum off. Samantha quickly senses that Grey was mocking her, which suddenly incites her anger as she throws a soap soaked sponge at Grey, hitting him squarely on his face. She did not know whether to laugh or be angry as she stares at Grey's face that was covered with a white mass of frothy soap lather which reminded her of the facial image of "Frosty the Snowman". Grey did not wipe of the frothy lather on his face hoping that this would make Samantha laugh which would help lessen her anger.

             Samantha always hated the fact that Grey always felt a sense of empowerment whenever he see's her do his house chores. After Grey realizes that Samantha wasn't amused, he slowly wipes off the lather off his face. Samantha noticing that her bodyguards were very amused at the beginnings of their lover's quarrel, she asks her bodyguards to wait outside to give them the privacy that they need. After the secret service agents had left. Samantha begins by telling Grey to instruct Ritchie to stop telling her distasteful jokes. But before Grey could say something, Ritchie interrupts telling both of them to lighten up. He then holds his arms sideways as he says, "You guys gotta hear this joke....So there was these two guys who goes in a bar naked from the waist down....", Ritchie says laughing, "So the bar tender asks them....You got no pants on...why?...", but before Ritchie could continue his joke, Samantha suddenly grumbles and yells at Ritchie to stop his tasteless jokes,  while Grey gestures to Ritchie to zip his mouth.

           Samantha wipes her hands with a towel as she shows Grey an angry look. Looking at Samantha's flustered appearance, Grey asks her, "So, what brings you here?....". Sam angrily says, "We need to talk Grey...alone!...", she stares at Ritchie waiting for him to leave, but Ritchie just stares back as he holds up his arms in a gesture of surrender as he asks, "Ok..ok..no more dirty jokes, I promise...but can you please set up an appointment for me to see your dad Sam.....You see, there's this greenish discharge that's coming out of my penis and....". Finally, Samantha looking appalled had heard enough as she started heading for the front door. Grey gives Ritchie a stern look then chases Samantha as he asks, "What's wrong with you?....I thought we were gonna talk?....". Samantha spins around and points a finger at Grey's face in anger saying, "What's wrong with me?!, I'll tell you what's wrong with me!....I just can't see how you can associate yourself with a friend that's as foul mouthed as him..but what's worse, he told me that you gave him $3,000.00 to go to the Philippines to have a male enhancement procedure, then he uses the rest of the money to have sex with prostitutes over there.....and now he's probably got gonorrhea!....". Grey looks surprised and stares at Ritchie in disbelief saying, "He told me he needed $3,000.00 for his grandmother's surgery....", Grey's face looking more upset by the second as Ritchie responds saying, "I did use it for her surgery, it only cost me  $1,000.00...and I used the other $2,000.00 for the male enhancement procedure...and by the way Sam, I only had sex with one prostitute, I just had to try it out you know....It's just like when a kid gets a new toy, he wants to play with it right away....you know what I mean , right?". Samantha grunts and scoffs at Ritchie's despicable analogy.

         Grey was now utterly distraught at Ritchie for not being totally honest with him. Ritchie counters saying, "Don't talk to me about moral values Grey.....When you were in the Navy, you went all over Asia having sex with prostitutes from every Asian country, your sexual conquests in Asia was far greater than what Gengis Khan had accomplished during his lifetime....".  Grey ignores Ritchie and turns towards Samantha and explains to her that the $3,000.00 he lent Ritchie was for his grandmother's operation and that he was not aware that Ritchie was going to have a male enhancement procedure. With her hands on her hips, Samantha looks away in disgust, not convinced whether to believe Grey anymore, she still had to confront Grey about secret information she received from the intelligence community.

      Unable to convince Samantha that he was  innocent of Ritchie's actions , Grey turns his anger at Ritchie and yells at him saying, "You are the lowest of the lowest!, you know that?!....How could you lie to me like that?!...". Ritchie gasps and says, "But my grandma did have surgery...she did!...". Grey crosses his arms over his chest with a cynical look on his face asking Ritchie, "Ok,...tell me then, what kind of surgical procedure did your grandmother have...huh?!...". Ritchie froze for a moment then stammered saying, "She..oh!..ahmm...she had a Cholecysproctomy....ahh!...yeah!...that's it!...". Grey thought for a moment then grudgingly says, "I have been a nurse for nearly 20 years and I have never heard of such procedure!...". Ritchie not wanting to admit his lies replies, "Maybe not here in America, but in the Philippines they do have this surgical procedure....They say it's cutting edge technology....I even read about it in a medical magazine called "Association of American Medical Journey".....". Grey rolls his eyes in exasperation as he asks, "Do you mean "Journal of American Medical Association"?...". Ritchie acts fidgety then says,"Oh! yeah!...that's what I mean't to say...".

          Grey glances at Samantha who looks dismayed while she was looking away and was leaning by the living room wall with her arms folded to her chest. Grey sighs then say's, "I had nothing to do with that.....I would never do or support anything as immoral as what Ritchie did Samantha!....". Samantha, finally confronts Grey about his secret past as she asks one of her bodyguards to bring in a DVD disc and a two inch binder filled with printouts pertaining to secret information about grey's past. As soon as the items were presented to Samantha, she hands them to Grey saying, "Immoral?!....you speak of your friend's immorality?....What about this?...". Grey holds the binder and the DVD disc as he asks, "What's this?....". Samantha explains that the binder he was holding was filled with printouts of all the pornographic websites Grey had viewed over the past year and a half. Samantha then points to the DVD disc and tells Grey that she was told by the CIA that the DVD disc was a copy of a secret video recording that was uploaded into an internet porn website. It was a video of Grey having sex with a prostitute in a Nevada brothel.

          Ritchie smiles then say's, "Must be the "Virgin Sluts", strip club...". Grey stares at him shrewdly then asks Samantha, "What are you talking about?....". Samantha steps closer to Grey with her hands on her hips as she angrily say's, "Besides your porn addiction, the CIA found a video of you having sex with a prostitute that someone recorded secretly then was uploaded into an internet porn site...". Sam stares at Grey feeling disgusted and emotionally hurt. Ritchie suddenly laughs out loud as he say's, "Let's watch it!....". Grey glances at Ritchie with an irritated look but was speechless at the moment. Grey then stares at a blank wall then asks, "How did this happen?!....".

          Samantha then explains that because of the power she wields in curing cancer that the intelligence community has been investigating all of Samantha's close relatives, friends and even her ex-boyfriends. Samantha was now feeling dismayed from this new revelation that Grey was a porn addict, was having sex with prostitutes again and what's worse was that he now has a sex video of himself in the world wide web for everyone to see. Grey then tries to justify his actions by reminding Samantha that he had sex with a prostitute six months ago when they were still separated and was not even on speaking terms. Samantha rebutted saying that if Grey had self integrity, that it shouldn't have mattered whether they were together or not,  and that he would still stay away from prostitutes. And now Samantha was devastated that Grey now has a sex tape floating out in the internet. She even compared Grey's attraction to prostitutes like a magnet's attraction to metal.

          Grey started pondering the consequences of having a sex tape, Samantha thought that Grey would feel a deep sense of embarrassment and regret but was appalled to see a smirk on Grey's face as if he felt like some kind of a  "Stud" and seemed proud to be labeled as an "Accidental Male Porn star". Grey starts showing a more excited reaction as he say's, "Wow!...I guess this means that a video of my sexual prowess is floating out there in the internet huh!...". Samantha quickly scoffs at him saying, "Sexual Prowess?!....Grey!...you're whole sexual encounter only lasted for one minute and forty seconds long.....You were snoring at the three minute mark....". Ritchie laughs loudly then say's, "This I got to see!...".

          Samantha walks over to Grey's study table and turns on his laptop. She then quickly downloads the porn site where Grey's secret sex video was uploaded to. After a minute, Grey's sex video comes to life. As the three of them watched, the hidden video camera pans over to Grey and a female stripper inside a bedroom. The video shows Grey handing the female stripper some cash from his wallet. After the stripper had hidden the money, they both get naked and started fondling each other while slowly crawling into bed. They start in the missionary position, Grey then slides on top of her, pumps her three times, climaxes then rolls over on his back sweating like a pig. Then in less than a minute, he was asleep snoring loudly.

        Samantha pauses the video as she asks Grey saying, "So what do you call that?...". Ritchie blurts out saying, "That's what you call premature ejac....", Grey quickly yells, "Shut up Ritchie!....".Ritchie laughs again in amusement as he looks at Samantha saying, "Actually, that's not a sex tape....". Samantha squints her eyes looking puzzled as she asks, "What?!....". Ritchie laughs even louder as he points to the video screen saying, "If the whole sexual thing lasted for less than two minutes, then you don't consider that a sex tape....You call that a film clip....You know, like those "Coming Soon" to a theater near you short teasers of upcoming movies they show before the start of the main feature....". Grey rebukes Ritchie saying, "It's a sex tape, Ok,...I can usually last longer than that....I was just tired that night......Driving all day!....", Ritchie turns away and rolls his eyes while whispering to himself saying, "Sure.....A four hour drive from San Francisco to Nevada....That sure can be exhausting....", as he tried to keep his sarcastic comments to himself.

         Grey quickly protests saying, "C'mon Samantha,...I know I made a mistake, but at least I admit it....What about you?....You told me that night at your dad's party that you'll be completely honest with me....And now, I'm one of the last one's to know, through the news, about your secret identity as you play this super hero, alter ego person. What are you trying to do?...Save the world?....Please Samantha!, look at the mirror before you point your finger at me.....I'm not as dumb as I look you know.....I know that the real reason you're getting involved in being the savior of the world is for fame and money....Isn't it?!". Samantha was caught off guard with her mouth wide open in disbelief, she stares at Grey for the longest time with her eyes piercing then  say's, "Is that what you think I am all about?.....Greed?!.....You think that I'm sacrificing this much of my own valuable personal time just so I can make more money?!....". Samantha paces the floor with her hands on her hips saying, "You know Grey, I never for one minute thought that you were dumb....But now, after what you just said,....You just made me change my mind!.....". Samantha grunts in anger as Grey and Ritchie looks at each other as Grey asks, "Do you know what she mean't by that?...". Ritchie shrugs his shoulders replying, "I dunno.....".

         Samantha's anger was now slowly escalating as she say's, "Grey it's sad that it's your own prejudice and sexual immorality that's blinding you from the truth!...". Samantha holding a disgruntled look says, "Well, what about you, you write songs, novels and yet you don't tell your co-workers about it....And now your upset with me for keeping a secret from you?!....Who do you think is the real hypocrite...huh?...". Feeling the effects of Samantha's derisiveness, Grey responds saying, "For your information, Miss Billionaire..who wants to save the world...The only reason I don't tell my co-workers about my music and writings is because I take care of very sick patients.....My music and writings has no room in my professional life as a nurse.....". After Grey and Samantha takes a few seconds break from their verbal sparring, Grey starts up again, "Who do you think you are, Superwoman?....Preventing nuclear wars and performing miraculous cancer cures?!....Ooooh!...impressive...Look into your soul, what you're really doing is playing god with peoples lives....With your famous cancer cure, who are you to choose who lives or dies?!....Who are you to judge?!...". Grey starts pacing back and forth as he continues his verbal attack saying, "I read the news articles on Newsweek and Time magazine about how your billion dollar empire is trying to change the patents of your famous cancer cure drug to a trade secret, so that you can monopolize cancer's most effective cure for centuries to come....I don't think you'll even live that long!....".

             Ritchie suddenly interrupts asking, "What's the difference between her cancer treatment drugs anyway?....". Both Samantha and Grey eerily glances at each other both looking flustered as Grey explains saying, "The current cancer treatment is chemotherapy which has a longer treatment period with a lot of side effects.....There's neutropenia, where a patient's immune system weakens....which leads to life threatening infections....Chemotherapy can also ruin a patient's bone marrow causing anemia, decreased platelets which can lead to systemic bleeding....There's also the major side effects of nausea and vomiting....They can get sores in their mouth which is very painful....Some chemotherapy agents also cause diarrhea, hair loss, heart, lung, kidney and liver complications....". Grey stares at Samantha who was looking away pretending not to care as Grey continued explaining, "But with Samantha's wonder cancer drug which  her father discovered around three or four years ago, their drug has no side effects....It's just like getting a flu shot, the formula is based on a patient's DNA, so each cancer cure is very individualized and impossible to replicate....So if you have a stage four cancer, and if they approve you for a cure, you just go to the nearest CURE facility once a week for eight weeks and get an injection on the arm.....If it's a stage three, It's a six week course of once a week injections, and the only possible side effect you might feel is soreness on the injection site which lasts for only an hour....After the end of a patient's therapy, the cancer is totally gone....Isn't that true Samantha?...". Samantha feeling Grey's cynicism quickly rebukes Grey saying, "If I ever held back my cancer cure...I used it as leverage from dictators, warlords,corrupt government officials and leaders of rogue governments so that peace may be maintained, human oppression ceased, slaughter of thousands of innocent civilians may be prevented, nuclear arms may not proliferate and to make this world a better and safer place....And for now until the time God himself comes down here on earth and establishes world peace and harmony.....I'll have to keep doing what I'm doing, cause no one else can....Please Grey,...Don't justify your immoral acts by criticizing what I do....".

                Samantha was now close to tears from being upset, exhausted and frustrated, having to defend herself from the man she thought would be in a better position to understand her situation in life. Grey, seeing Samantha this upset knew this was a bad sign. He quickly points the blame towards Ritchie saying, "This is all your fault!...", Grey then reasons out to Samantha that he had no intentions of sleeping with a prostitute six months ago and it only happened accidentally because of a bet he had with Ritchie. Grey explained that he and Ritchie had a big argument on whether Ritchie's girlfriend, "Zesty Spice", was working as a prostitute or a bartender. They then decided to settle the argument by driving to the "Virgin Sluts", strip club to give Ritchie's girlfriend a surprise visit.

              Two days later, they finally drove to Nevada. After reaching the strip club and going in, they were ushered to a table and were seated. After scanning around for a few minutes, Ritchie left Grey alone to look for his girlfriend and was gone for more than forty minutes, and Grey explained that that was the time that a female stripper sat beside him to keep him company. But after a ten minute conversation with the female stripper, Grey explained that the stripper started licking his ears, and doing that to him aroused his libido then he said that the rest was history. Samantha grudgingly tells Grey that she does not have a problem with men having a  libido, it's just that when it's Grey's libido that gets aroused, that it was like a run away train that cannot be stopped.

          Ritchie starts laughing again while Grey tries to pin the blame on Ritchie. Ritchie then argues saying, "How can it be my fault?....I left you a bandana....Why didn't you use it?....". Grey looking perplexed, does remember Ritchie leaving him a bandana before he left to look for his girlfriend. But because of the loud music playing, he did not hear Ritchie's reason for leaving him his bandana. Grey instead rolled it and wrapped it around his head to look cool. Coming back to his senses, Grey stares at Ritchie then asks, "What the heck was I supposed to do with that bandana?...". Ritchie rolls his eyes in exasperation as he says, "You were supposed to wear it as a blindfold dummy!....It was to prevent you from being sexually tempted by all those beautiful erotic strippers dancing......you dumb ass!....". Grey looking shocked, with his mouth wide open glances at Samantha then back at Ritchie  with a puzzled look asks, "Really?!...Are you freakin' serious?!....Let me get this straight, you're telling me that the reason you left me that bandana was for me to use it as a blindfold?!....So that I won't get tempted by all those sexy female strippers dancing?!...". Samantha's eyes were now red as she suddenly sits on a chair, not even noticing the humor in Ritchie's explanation. Grey intensely reiterates Ritchie's ridiculous idea as he say's, "You mean you expect me to wait for you inside that strip club, seated by a table, with a bunch of sexy women dancing, customers all around me socializing, waiters and waitresses walking by, rave music playing loud, dancing lights flashing.....while I'm wearing a blindfold?!.....Do you know how ridiculous that sounds?!....". Ritchie quickly blurts out saying, "Drastic times calls for drastic measures!....". Samantha looks away, wiping her tears with her forearm. Finally, since Grey did not want to admit any fault or mistake from his porn addiction, his sexual encounter with a prostitute and his lack of embarrassment and remorse from having a sex video floating around in the world wide web, Samantha decides that it was best if they end their relationship for now.

             Grey was aghast and felt as if he was standing on quick sand which was slowly swallowing him up. As Samantha heads out of his front door, her bodyguards made sure that Grey could not come close to her. After a minute, Samantha's convoy leaves, leaving Grey standing at his front yard, still broiling over in emotional shock. "Maybe she's right....maybe I'm not right for her....", say's Grey, "She deserves better....Someone like her best friend Chase who's strong, tall and handsome....". Ritchie disagrees saying that there were a lot of successful marriages were the man was much shorter than his wife, Ritchie then gives examples saying, "Look at Tom Cruise and Nicole Kidman....How about Billy Joel and Christie Brinkley, huh?...huh?..". Grey looking annoyed glances at Ritchie saying, "But I know she loves me....I know she loves me still.....I need to get her back.....I can't live without her!....". Grey grabs his jacket and heads for his car, and as he was driving away, he can still hear Ritchie yell saying, " Okay, okay, what about Tom Cruise and Katie Holmes...That's a match made in heaven!....". Grey quickly raises his car's side windows in order to drown out Ritchie's voice as he shifts into gear and drives away in his Porsche. (End of Chapter)

(Author's Note: I will be taking a vacation for now and will continue with the next chapter around April 2014. Thank you so much for your time and generosity. )