Sacrifice by M.G. Morgan Page B

with another girl, right in front of him, seconds after you tell me you like me? Are you nuts?”
    Sam shrugged. “I’m probably a little nuts, but only in the good way. And I did that to show you how I could be. I could pretend to flirt with you. Simper and grin at you like a fool. But I didn’t… I haven’t because when I look at you, and tell you I like you it’s the truth. I’ve spent years perfecting a persona for fake girls. A persona that makes them think I’m giving them exactly what they want… But with you it’s different.”
    Natasha sat in silence and watched him carefully. Probably looking for the slightest hint that he was lying. Looking for a way to walk away. What had gotten to her so much that she was willing to always walk away. Never take a chance…
    “I don’t want to be that guy when I’m with you. But I need you to know that he exists within me… That I can be incredibly charming. But I want you to see the real me… Just like I see the real you…”
    Sam had no idea if his words were making any sense. They didn’t particularly make much sense to him. She continued to watch him for a few more seconds, her eyes narrowed as she seemed to be sizing him up.
    Finally she dropped her face into her hands and let out a sigh. “Fine. I can buy that… But please no more. I felt like I was going to puke watching you two.”
    The waitress was making her way back, a large smile plastered across her face. She set the first plate down in front of Natasha, practically slopping it onto the table before turning back to Sam. She leaned in over him thrusting her chest into his face as she set his plate down carefully.
    “Can I get you anything else?”
    Sam smiled politely back at her, all traces of the charm gone. Replaced inside with polite disinterest. It was mean and he knew it but what else was he supposed to do. He wanted Natasha to trust him. And he had meant it when he said he wanted her to see the real him. And if that meant the bad as well as the good, then so be it.
    “No thanks, we ’re fine.” Sam emphasised the word ‘we’ in an attempt to have the waitress realise that he was there with Natasha…
    But it didn’t seem to ruffle the waitress she simply leaned in a little closer. Her cheap perfume clouding Sam’s mind reminding him of all the time he had wasted with Amanda.
    “Can I get you, anything else… Anything at all?” She cocked one eyebrow at Sam as though she was trying to encourage him to say yes. To ask for her phone number… Or maybe she had already written it on the napkin she had used to hold the plate. It sat on the table folded neatly and it certainly wouldn’t be the first time it had happened.
    “No. We’re fine, Kimberly.” His voice was a little sterner this time, harsher and definitely colder. He winced inwardly when he did it but it was the only way to properly convey the message that he wasn’t interested. He had brought it on himself. But, he stared at Natasha who sat back against the booth her gaze taking in everything, it was the only way to show her. Full disclosure…
    “Fine then.” Kimberly stood and stalked away, her back straight, shoulders stiff.
    “And that was what then?” Natasha asked as she stared down at the plateful of food sitting in front of her.
    Sam sighed, this was harder than he had imagined. Much harder. 
    “That was me showing that I wasn’t at all interested just like you wanted…”
    “But was it the real you? You know considering you told me that the charming side of you isn’t the real you…”
    Sam smiled. “I think you misunderstood. The charm I can turn on is still very much me but it’s tiring. I’ve done it in the past because it makes like easier, it gives people what they want. I’ve done it even when I haven’t particularly felt very charming or welcoming of strangers… In my world it’s just something you have to do and it’s a pretence. I’d like to be charming only when I want to be, when I