Chapter Five - Worcestershire Sauce and Background Noise

"I actually can't swim." She replied.

An obvious lie. In fact, Samantha was a wonderful swimmer and won the last two county swimming competitions. She lied because she thought of how cute she would look to impress Klaus and at the same time felt very self-conscious about her body, despite having to wear a swimsuit to the swimming competition. Could it be that the outfit she had in mind was more revealing and seductive than the generic high school swimming outfit? She threw her phone on the bed and rushed to her closet and opened it to see if 'it' was there, and indeed it was. In a white gift bag in the corner of her closet was a sky blue bikini with white boundaries and white flip-flops. Her mother bought them for her a few weeks prior to summer break.

"Samantha, this will look good on you and show these boys and girls the African beauty you got from me." She remembered her mother's words as she received them from her. Samantha's mother could always sense her daughter's low self-esteem and would always praise her for any small step she took to connect with people. The thought of her mother's support gave her confidence and went and picked up her phone again.

"Actually, I'm an okay swimmer. Nothing great." She texted.

"Alright great! I'll make reservations for next weekend for all five of us to go to Lake Erie. My family's driver will drive there." He replied.

"The five of us?"

"Yes. It will be you, Jeffery, Nicole, Paul and I. They are some of my friends from school. They're in our AP math group."

Samantha knew of them from their AP classes, but never spoke to them. They filled AP classes with intelligent students that primarily focused on their studies. 'How did he get so close to them?' She thought. Is he that charismatic that he can make anyone just be open with him from the start?

"I see." She replied. The message couldn't describe her mixed feelings of relief and disappointment.

"Great. Should I come over to ask your parents if they're okay with me stealing you for a few days or you'll ask them? And make sure you look really cute for me champ ;-)." He texted.

She flushed. "What is he thinking by 'stealing me'? And wait, did he just call me champ? Does she know that I'm actually a wonderful swimmer? " She questioned herself. Klaus has shown signs of a curious mind, but what lengths is he willing to go to keep surprising Samantha with hints that he knows things about her already?

"Samantha, supper is ready!" Her mother shouted from downstairs.

"Coming!" Samantha replied as she changed into her more comfortable attire; grey jogger shorts, black flip-flops, and a white t-shirt. She walked downstairs to the dining room. The Diaz dining room was on the opposite wing from the veterinary clinic and next to the living room and kitchen. The dining room had a mahogany wood floor with a black glass rectangular table in the center of the room with black leather chairs. A mosaic chandelier lit the room and placed on the table were dishes that Samantha knew very well. There were patatas, bravas covered in mushroom sauce, tortilla española and pa amb tomàquet.

"I see it's dad's home food day, but this is a little too much." Samantha chuckled.

"What do you mean? This is a little." Her mother replied.

"Don't worry about her. It's her African heritage in full gear right now." Her father laughed. The chemistry in the Diaz household was always natural and warm for Samantha. Her parents were always themselves and would not force her to open up and talk to them. However, they loved to talk to her to share how their days went, their pasts, and their desire for the future for themselves and for Samantha.

Samantha took a bite out of the tortilla after pouring Worcestershire sauce on it. "So I got some names for the animals from the movie." She spoke up.

"That's great. I really thought you would forget about that. How many were you in this movie?" Her father replied with a chuckle.

"Just the two of us." She said sheepishly.

"Wait? You were alone together in the cinema?"

"Yeah." She flushed.

"Oh okay. You're grown so you can -uh, go on dates alone." He replied awkwardly.

"Dear, I thought you knew it was going to be the two of them when it was being discussed yesterday." Her mother joined in the conversation.

He shrugged his shoulders. "Well, I figured he was saying it just to look 'macho' in front of me and that he would invite other people to join them. You know that my dashing good looks can make anyone nervous." He looked at and winked at her mother with a big smile.

Doctor Ilunga-Diaz laughed. "You know I love you, but that's silly. Meaning even Lucy-Lu should have been star struck by you yesterday."

Samantha laughed, and her father reached out and gently pinched her nose. "So this you laughing at your old man, huh?"

Samantha didn't stop laughing. "I'm sorry, but that was too hilarious, dad. But his invited friends for the trip to the lake next week." Her eyes widened after realising that she just talked about the trip without thinking thoroughly about it. There was a brief silence that was only broken by the background noise from the commercial on the TV in the living room.

"He invited you out for a trip to the lake?" Doctor Diaz said.

"Yeah, he did. It's for a weekend but I'm not really interested in going. We only started talking yesterday even though we're in the same class, so Nah, I'm good." Samantha replied.

"Sam, you're doing it again." Her father said while noticing that she was failing to keep eye contact and her leg was fidgeting. Her parents always knew that their daughter had a habit of fidgeting and avoiding eye contact when she was not being honest about with her words. They called their ability to read their daughter the 'Sam-tingle'.

Her father continued. "You want to go, don't you?"

"No." She lied and continued to fidget while avoiding eye contact.

"Sam?" her father said with a stern gaze.

"Okay, I do. Now, could you please stop with the Sam-tingle staring?" She said, surrendering to her father's stare.

He smiled. "So you want to go? I can't allow this until I talk to him and the people you're going with. I can't trust just anyone to steal my daughter for a few days."

What a weird coincidence he used similar words to Klaus. Is it a guy thing to just 'steal' girls?

Doctor Ilunga-Diaz laughed. 'Don't blame him. It's his military-self talking right now.'

"I forget that you're a Captain dad," Samantha said, rolling her eyes.