Back to Square One

I was just laying in bed the day after and stared at my ceiling, thinking about the previous night. I was smiling to myself and giddy about Hazelyn’s reaction to Megan. I then heard speakers go off, and knew that Hazelyn was awake. I got up from the bed and walked over to her door. I knocked a couple times but I doubt she even heard it, so I threw the door open.

“Haze! I just wanted to-,” I stopped dead on my tracks as I saw Hazelyn throwing a shirt over her head, clearly not hearing me. Her shirt was halfway down when I saw a tattoo on her lower back on the left hip (the same side as the other tattoo from France) - it had said Unreal I was wondering what it meant, but what caught my attention more made me flinch. A bruise. “What the fuck is that?!” I yelled.

She spun around, her eyes wide. “What the fuck?! Don’t you know how to fucking knock?!” she yelled, turning off her music.

“I was knocking at your door for 5 fucking minutes!” I yelled back. I was furious. Where the hell did that come from?! I swear to god, if it was from that bastard-

“What are you doing here?! Get out!” she screeched, pushing me out the door, but I overpowered her.

I spun her around and yanked the shirt up, hoping to prove my eyes wrong- that it was a part of the tattoo. But no, I clearly saw the bruise greenish-purplish color if the bruise that was about 3 inches in diameter. It was bigger than I thought. She stepped back, yanking it back down and a mixture off irritation and worry on her face. I now realized why she wasn’t at all shocked that he was about to slap her.

“Does he hurt you?” I asked with a soft voice. She just looked down, and took a deep breath. “Fuck no,” I hissed and grabbed her arm, making her flinch. I softened up. “You know I’d never hurt you,” I said to her. She looked up at me with tears in her eyes. I immediately hugged her and kissed her forehead. “I’d never hurt you,” I repeated. “But I will hurt him,” I pulled away. “Where is he?” I asked. She shook her head. “Hazelyn, tell me,” I ordered.

“I- Please don’t do anything,” she sighed.

“You don’t wanna cooperate? Then I’ll do this my way,” I growled, whipping my phone out and speed dialed my brother.

“Yo bro, miss me?” he greeted.

“Where are you?” I asked.

“Uhh… Spain?”

“Aren’t you in Florida?”

“No…,” he answered uneasily.

“You know the manager of the branch in France?”

“Derek Dubois?” he asked.

“Him,” I growled. “He had a meeting with you a few days ago,” I told him.

“I’ve been in Spain since you left for Florida.”

Better not be what I’m thinking. “Get me the information of where he’s staying,” I said.

“What’s up bro?”

“Just fucking get it,” I ordered before shutting my phone.

“Ryan, please don’t do anything stupid,” Hazelyn grabbed my arm and made me look at her.

“Nobody touches you and get away with it,” I hissed walking back into my room, throwing on my jeans and a clean shirt then grabbing all the stuff I needed just in time when Jason had forwarded me the information.

I walked out of the condo without telling Hazelyn, and before the doors of the elevator closed, Hazelyn slipped in. “Ryan, please,” she sighed. I ignored her, and waited for the doors to open. When they did, I walked out and made my way to the car, Hazelyn failing to stop me. Short story? She ended up coming along as I sped towards the hotel he was supposed to be staying at.

Before Hazelyn comprehended what was going on, I was banging on his hotel room and the bastard was in front of me, half asleep. I didn’t waste my time and my fist instantly met his face. “Whoa man!” he woke up. “What the fuck are you doing here?” he growled, gripping his jaw.

I didn’t say anything and kept throwing punches at him as he tried to avoid them. But I was too mad. He landed some punches too, but I was too concentrated to even realize he hit me.

“Fucking bastard! I told you you’d fucking get it if you hit Hazelyn. God damn it, I did my best to keep her fucking spotless, and you walk around leaving damn bruises on her?!” I yelled.

“Ryan! Stop it! Come on! That’s enough!” Hazelyn tried to stop us, but knew enough to stay at a safe distance. I didn’t stop.

“Oh my gosh! Stop!” I heard a voice.

“What the fuck?” Hazelyn stated, staring at Megan. Her glare then darted towards Derek whom looked like a deer caught in headlights, making me smirk. “You cheated on me?” she asked disbelievingly. “That’s why you’ve been buying new clothes, you always seem to be busy and you totally lied about the meeting,” she shook her head. “I knew it.”

“Hazelyn, please. It’s just because I saw you with Jay and I assumed you were sleeping with him. I wanted to get back at you. I love you,” he pleaded, trying to get a step closer to her, but I stopped him.

“You’re not getting any closer to her,” I growled.

Hazelyn dryly laughed. “If you loved me, you wouldn’t have cheated on me,” she said.

“I could say the same thing,” Derek spat.

“You know? Out of all the things you could call me,” she paused. “Cheater is and would never be one of them.”

“Come on Hazelyn,” he pleaded again. “Let’s just put this all behind and we can get married. I’ll leave Megan, you leave Jay. We can go back to the way we used to be.”

She just smirked at him and shook her head. “I knew there was something wrong with this,” she said taking out the box from her pocket. “I was thinking… Is it a coincidence that he asked me out after he found out I owned the chain of Hollister and A&F, and proposed to me the day after that the company had it’s breakthrough? And the day after finding out that Canon and Apple are merging because of the Dolciani-DeLuca-Macintosh wedding?” she shook her head. “How could I have been so stupid?”

Derek’s eyes fumed. “Yeah, you’re right. I was using you and you fell for it. I knew you weren’t the type that would sigh a pre-nup. And I figured when I break up with you, I get half your possessions,” he spat. “Plus, I wasn’t getting any from you, which is what Megan is for. I bet you’re not even that good, that’s why you wouldn’t sleep with me,” he smirked. I was about to punch him again, but Hazelyn stepped forward and stopped me.

“Ryan, let’s go. He’s not worth it. Cheaters aren’t worth it,” she said to me. “Oh, and I’m better than that slut. Right Ryan?” she smirked up at me. “You’re the one at loss,” she scoffed. “Well, we’re done here,” she said, throwing the box at Derek’s face, making me hide my laugh with a scoff. We turned around to leave, but Hazelyn stopped.

“Oh one more thing,” she said holding up a finger as if she had a great idea. She spun on her heels, walked in front of Derek and gave him a nice strong punch to the jaw, making me laugh. I just couldn’t hide it anymore. “You’re fired too,” she dusted her hands off. “Oh and Megan, he’s all yours,” she laughed and dragged me out of the hotel room and into the car.

“Hazelyn?” I asked after a few moments of silence as we sat in the car. She turned her head against me. “You’re such a bad ass,” I said to her, shaking my head and starting the car.

“I know.”



There was an awkward silence in the car making me squirm. “So… I wanna be a superhero. What’s my name?” I tried.

“Seriously?” she looked at me smugly.

“What?” I asked innocently.

“Don’t you have a better one than that?” she scoffed.

“Did I use that already?” I frowned.

“Yeah, you did. 5 years ago,” she told me.

I then remembered the memory.

“You look adorable right now, how about a kiss?” I winked.

“In your dreams,” she rolled her eyes.

“Have you been invading my dreams?” I playfully glared at her. I wasn’t kidding though.

“You’ve been invading mine,” she winked at me, and we doubled over laughing. Oh how I wish I was.

“So, I’m a superhero, guess my name,” I said.

She raised an eyebrow at me. “Batman?” I shook my head. “Superman?”

I shook my head again. “Nope, I’m YourMan,” I winked.

I started laughing. “It was in France, after I left to get you flowers,” I nodded.

“Yeah, and you were keeping the plans hidden from me, knowing I hated surprises,” she crossed her arms.

“Yeah…,” we laughed and when we finally quieted down. “Are you okay?” I asked her.

“Yeah, why wouldn’t I be?” she raised an eyebrow at me. I then raised an eyebrow at her.

“Didn’t you just break with your boyfriend, who was cheating on you with my ex girlfriend?” I asked.

“Oh…,” she just shrugged.

“I heard that a girl’s silence is her loudest cry,” I said quite sadly.

She chuckled. “Have you been on facebook?”

“Yeah,” I admitted sheepishly.

She started laughing again. “Well, it’s not true. Maybe for some. But if I were really bummed about it, I wouldn’t talk to you,” she pointed out.

I nodded thoughtfully. “So, you basically don’t care?”

“Nah. We’ve only been together for what? 6 months? And I already knew of his reputation. But I needed to get back into the dating scene to prove your sister wrong that-,” she stopped abruptly and glanced at me nervously. “Anyways, the point is. He wasn’t a guy that was worth it.”

“Wait, so you’ve never slept with him?” I blurted. She raised an eyebrow at me. “Sorry, too personal,” I mumbled.

“No, I haven’t. You know me. I’m still on that thing that I’m not sleeping with anybody until I get married,” she coughed out the last word as if she refrained from ever having I and Married in the same sentence.

“Oh.. So you have a tattoo,” I pointed out.

“No shit Sherlock.”

I rolled my eyes at her. “The one on your back, can I ask about it?”

“No, you can’t. It’s personal,” she said softly. “But I do have one here that you can ask about,” she said, making me glance at her. “Wanna see it?”

I raised an eyebrow. “Where is it?” I asked giving her a suggesting smirk.

“Dirty dirty,” she laughed. “Right here,” she said and showed me the inside of her lip. It had a tattoo saying ‘Snowboarding’

“You got it!”

“I did, I did,” she chuckled proudly.

“What happened to the one behind your ear?”

She visibly froze, and chuckled nervously. “Uhh, you’ll see that some other time,” she grinned, knowing that it can only be seen under blacklight.

The day just went on, and dear lord, I was on cloud nine. She wasn’t tied down to that jerkface anymore.