Previously…
– Jason took Sabrina to dinner for their official first date. When Helen and Don also showed up at the restaurant, Helen shocked everyone by being supportive of Sabrina as a match for Jason.
– Alex and Trevor gave Samantha and Tempest some time alone, hoping it would allow the exes to resolve their issues.
– Tempest accidentally broke Henry Bishop’s locket, which matched the locket that Diane got from Therese DeLuca’s sister.

In the middle of the dining room of Bill’s on the Pier, Samantha Fisher holds up a small paper heart. Tempest Banks stares at it from across the table.

“What’s that mean?” Tempest asks as she reads the series of small letters and numbers written in blue ink.

“It looks like a combination,” Samantha says. “Like for a safe, or a locker.”

“You really haven’t seen that before?”

Samantha shakes her head. Alex Marshall approaches the table, with Trevor Brooks behind him, holding their son’s hand.

“Everything okay?” Alex asks as he notes the strange vibe between the two young women. Then he sees the separate pieces of the silver locket lying on the table. “What happened?”

“I’m a dumbass–” Tempest cuts herself off when she remembers Chase’s presence, but the toddler is oblivious. “I dropped it and it broke.”

“But it opened up, and there’s something written on the back of what I thought was a blank slip of paper inside.” Samantha holds out the paper heart for Alex and Trevor to see. 

“That looks like a combination,” Trevor observes as he peers over Alex’s shoulder.

“That’s what I think,” Samantha says. She puzzles over the blue digits. “Which begs another question: what could it be a combination for?”

In another restaurant elsewhere in King’s Bay, beneath a sparkling chandelier, Jason Fisher eyes his dinner date curiously. 

“How did you get on a ‘Call me Helen’ basis with my former mother-in-law?” he asks.

Sabrina Gage tenses. So much has happened since she reluctantly conspired with Helen Chase to get a DNA sample from Spencer Ragan in order to perform a paternity test on Peter. The entire nasty custody case has run its course, and Jason finally seems ready to move on with his life after the heartbreak of losing the boy whom he thought was his son. But the memory of stealing that can from Spencer and delivering it to Helen so she could have the test done remains fresh inside Sabrina — especially in light of how that test caused Jason’s life to come crashing down — and she feels a hot sting of guilt tear through her.

“I’m not exactly sure,” she says, hating herself for the lie even though she knows it is necessary. “After she stopped accusing me of pushing Spencer down the stairs… I guess she hates Natalie so much that I look pretty okay in comparison. Not that that’s hard.”

Jason grins as he glances over at Helen and Don’s table, where the older couple have both taken out reading glasses to review the menu.

“Well, that was a pleasant surprise,” Jason says. “When I saw Helen walk in here, I figured our night out was about to be ruined.”

“She means well,” Sabrina says.

“The woman is a human wrecking ball.”

Sabrina forces a smile and shrugs. “She didn’t ruin our night. Did she?”

“No way.” Jason shakes his head emphatically. “In fact, our night hasn’t even begun, really. Now how about that wine we were talking about?”

Sabrina tries to relax as she watches him pick up the wine list again.

—–

“How would you feel about the shrimp cocktail to start?” Don asks his wife at their own table.

When he receives no response, he looks up and finds Helen staring blankly at her own menu.

“Helen,” he says sharply, and that is enough to get her attention. 

With a start, she lifts her head. “What?”

“I asked if you’d like the shrimp cocktail to start,” he says, “but you were a million miles away.”

She removes her reading glasses. “Was I? I must have been thinking about what to order.”

“Or about Jason and Sabrina over there.”

“What do you mean?”

“That show of support you put on a few minutes ago,” Don says. “I didn’t know you were so fond of Sabrina.”

Helen takes a moment to smooth her royal blue, silk jacket. “Fond of her? I don’t even know the girl. But I have no reason to hold anything against her.”

“You wanted her run out of town on a rail when she first showed up.”

“I’m sure you can understand my initial reaction,” Helen says with a huff. “All the name Sabrina Gage made me think of was our poor Courtney.”

Don lowers his eyes somberly. “I know.”

“But she’s a different person,” Helen continues, “and she was as much a victim of Shannon Parish as anyone else was. There’s no use holding a baseless grudge.”

“That’s never stopped you before.”

“Yes, well, it turns out you can teach an old dog new tricks. As far as I’m concerned, Sabrina is just the kind of woman Jason should be with.” She places her reading glasses back on. “Now, what would you like besides the shrimp cocktail?”

—–

“How was dinner?” Diane Bishop asks as she sets down her Kindle on the sofa cushion next to her. 

Samantha finishes locking the door of the condo and pulls the separate pieces of the locket from the pocket of her military-green utility jacket.

“Dinner was great,” she says. “Chase is so funny. He’s talking so much now.”

“I’m overdue for a visit with Alex and Trevor,” Diane says.

“But look what I found.” Samantha hurries toward the couch and opens her hand to show her mother.

“Your grandfather’s locket? It broke?”

“And this was inside it.” Samantha reveals the heart-shaped slip of paper and the blue characters written on it. “Do you recognize that handwriting? It doesn’t look like Grandpa’s.”

“I don’t think it is.” Diane studies the letters and numerals, as well. “This was inside the locket?”

Samantha nods. “I hadn’t even thought to look on the back of the paper. I thought it was one of those fillers.”

“So it’s a combination to some kind of lock,” Diane comments, but before Samantha can agree, Diane is bounding out of the room.

“Where are you going?” Samantha calls after her.

Diane does not respond. Moments later, however, she returns — carrying the identical locket, given to her by Therese DeLuca’s sister. When she flips it open, they both see that there is also a slip of paper inside this locket. Diane quickly works her fingernails into the minuscule gap between the locket’s two halves, and it pops open.

“What does it say?” Samantha asks as Diane removes the paper from the locket.

“It’s the same handwriting,” Diane says. Samantha can see the same sequence of letters and numbers, again written in blue ink.

“Grandpa and this lady both had the same combination… to something,” Samantha says. “But how are we supposed to find it?” 

“I don’t know. I wonder if we could do some research and find out what kinds of locks have this type of combination.”

“I’ll get my laptop so we can Google it.” Samantha places the broken locket down on the glass coffee table. “And we never would’ve known any of this if Tempest hadn’t dropped this thing.”

“Tempest?”

“She happened to be at the restaurant.”

“For dinner with you guys?” Diane asks with concern.

“No, she was picking up takeout. But she came over to see Chase, and she– well, she dropped the locket, which is how I realized there was something on the back of that paper.”

“I see.” Diane purses her full lips. “Did you explain what this was all about?”

Samantha freezes for a moment. “It’s okay, Mom. We can trust her.”

“Can we? I don’t feel especially confident about that, considering what she did the last time she found out some very sensitive, private family information.”

“You don’t have to worry about Tempest. Not this time. She’s learned,” Samantha says. “Now let’s try and find out what this is a combination for.”

She disappears from the room to fetch her laptop. Diane scowls down at the blue ink on the small slip of paper, doing her best to stifle her rage at the mere thought of Tempest Banks getting involved in the Bishops’ family business.

—–

“Thanks for picking up dinner,” Claire Fisher says as she pulls two sets from cutlery from the kitchen drawer. 

“Thanks for getting the ice cream. That’s way more important,” Tempest Banks replies as she unpacks the takeout from Bill’s on the Pier at the dining table.

Claire uses her hip to close the drawer and brings the cutlery to the table. “It felt like we could both use a treat.”

“Yeah, and it all worked out, because guess who I ran into at Bill’s?”

She gets a raised eyebrow in response from Claire. “Who?”

“Alex and Trevor were there eating, so I got to see Chase,” Tempest says.

“That must’ve been nice.”

“It was. And they were having dinner with Sam.”

“Oh? How was that?” Claire asks gently. “I know things didn’t end well the last time the two of you got together.”

“It was good. We got a chance to talk. It was… kinda normal, actually.”

“That’s really nice to hear.”

“Yeah.” Tempest drifts off in thought as she folds up the paper takeout bag. 

Claire observes her for a few seconds before asking, “What are you thinking?” 

“Nothing.” Tempest lifts her shoulders in a shrug. “Doesn’t matter.”

“It does matter if it’s important to you,” Claire says.

A palpable tension hangs in the air as Tempest considers what she’ll say next.

“Just weird seeing Sam and having things feel normal,” she finally says. “It was kinda like…”

“Like what you were hoping it was going to be like the last time you met up with her?”

“Yeah.” Tempest nods. “When it’s like that, I can almost forget everything else that’s happened.”

“I know you miss her,” Claire says. “And I can imagine how hard it is seeing her with Jaq.”

“Really hard.”

“Just remember that you can’t control the outcome of any of this. What you can control is how you behave and how you let Samantha know that you’re there for her as a friend.” 

“I know you’re right,” Tempest says, unable to mask her disappointment, “but it still sucks.”

“It does,” Claire agrees. “That’s why we have ice cream, right?”

—–

Alex is uncorking a bottle of red wine at the kitchen counter when he hears Trevor’s voice from the short hallway of their bungalow.

“Bath done, book read, child asleep,” Trevor says as he turns the corner into the kitchen.

“Wine being poured,” Alex adds as he adds the burgundy liquid to two large glasses and hands one to his husband. “Cheers.”

The two men clink their glasses together.

“It was good to see Samantha tonight,” Alex says after a sip of his wine. “And Tempest.”

“I wasn’t sure leaving them alone together was a good idea, but it seems like it worked out for the best.”

“Thanks for going along with that. I thought they could use an opportunity to resolve things.”

“You can be kinda smart sometimes,” Trevor says.

Alex winks back at him. “I have my moments.”

Trevor takes a drink of his own wine and then asks, “What do you want to do? We’re in the middle of so many things on Netflix…”

“Hmm…” Alex eyes his husband, struck all over again by how incredibly handsome Trevor’s face is. “I have an idea.”

“Oh?”

“I vote that we skip the Netflix tonight and cut straight to the ‘chill’ part.”

“I knew I was right about you being smart.” Trevor grins as Alex’s hand reaches out to touch his chest through his cashmere sweater. 

“I told you: I have my moments,” Alex says before pressing his mouth against Trevor’s, and the heat rises between them as they shuffle toward the living room, wine glasses forgotten as they get lost in one another’s bodies.

—–

Feeling full from the perfectly seared bone-in rib-eye steak, garlic green beans, and mashed potatoes he enjoyed for dinner, Jason holds open the door for Sabrina as they exit the restaurant.

“Thank you so much for dinner,” Sabrina says as the cool nighttime air hits them. “That’s the best meal I’ve had in a long time.”

Jason rubs his stomach. “I definitely overdid it. I’m so full. But it was worth it.”

Sabrina’s lips, covered in a not-too-bold shade of pink, curl in a smile. “It was totally worth it.”

They stand outside the restaurant, glittering lights from downtown King’s Bay stretching out on either side of them. Jason watches a pair of red taillights pulling out of the parking lot to their left.

“Your stories about Sophie are so funny,” Sabrina comments. “I know I shouldn’t laugh too much, but that one about her decorating the Santa Claus as a zombie…”

“Sophie is a character, that’s for sure.” 

“I bet that’s only the tip of the iceberg as far as stories go.”

He goes quiet for a beat and then says, “You know what stories I really want to hear?”

She cocks her head. “Which ones?”

“Ones about you. You know so much about my life, Sabrina — the good and the bad.”

“Your life is interesting.”

“I bet yours is, too. And I know so little about it.” He takes out his phone. “I hope this isn’t too forward, but would you like to split a car? Maybe we could have another drink, and you could tell me some of your stories.”

Sabrina goes stone-faced. Jason feels the shift in the air: it is as if the evening breeze suddenly turned into an Arctic blast.

“You know what? I have to open Thaw in the morning,” she says, practically scrambling to take out her own phone. “So we should probably call it a night.”

“Are you sure? If that was too forward of me–”

“It wasn’t.” But she is already moving for the parking lot. “Thank you again for dinner, Jason. It was great.”

He watches, perplexed, as she hurries away, her heels clicking and clacking against the pavement. His instinct to call after her is combatted by his utter confusion, and so he stands there, watching from a distance as she gets into an Uber and leaves.

END OF EPISODE 1016

Why did Sabrina turn cool so suddenly at the end of the date?
What will Diane do about Tempest’s involvement with the lockets? 
Will Samantha be the one to solve the mystery of Therese?
Discuss it all in the comments section below!

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