Back to Square One

“What do you wanna do?” I asked glancing at Hazelyn whom was beside me watching TV as I flipped through random channels.

She shrugged. “I don’t know. What do you wanna do?” she asked, glancing at me.

“You wanna go to the beach?” I asked her.

She raised an eyebrow at me. “The nearest beach is at least an hour and a half away,” she frowned.

“St. Pete’s,” I said, and her eyes widened. I furrowed my eyebrows at her sudden reaction. “You up for it?”

“Yeah, sure,” she said standing up. “Are we driving?” she called out from her room.

“What do you think?”

“Let’s drive,” I heard her mumble as I walked to my own room.



“Are we there yet?” Hazelyn groaned flipping through the radio stations, but finally gave up so she plugged in her phone.

“20 minutes,” I mumbled as I looked at my surroundings.

“Agh! You drive so fucking slow!”

“You try driving!” I snapped.

“Pull over! I’m driving!” she demanded. I rolled my eyes and pulled over to the side of the road, and got out.

What? She thought I wouldn’t?

I opened her door and she stepped out, running to the other side and got into the driver’s seat with a giddy smile on her face. I know that face. Holy Shit.

“Ready?” she smirked at me as I gripped onto my seat for dear life. Bad choice. “Here we go!” she said revving the engine and putting the car into the first gear jerking us forward- flying through the freeway.

Oh fuck. The camaro’s a rear-wheel drive. Oh shit. Is she fucking drifting?! I forgot how insane this woman drove.

“Slow the fuck down!” I yelled at her.

“Relax,” she said as she changed lanes without using her signal lights.

“Use the fucking lights!”

She scoffed. “There’s no one here,” she replied calmly as she hit 110 mph. “We’ll be there in 10 minutes,” she shrugged.

And true to word, we were there in 10 minutes, and I practically opened the door before the car even stopped. “What the hell is wrong with you?!” I snapped when she got out of the car and stood in front of me, a small smile dancing on her lips. “If you wanna fucking die, go right ahead. But please don’t take me with you,” I hissed.

“Please, don’t you trust me?” she asked me, looking at me dead in the eye- with seriousness in her voice. It sounded as if it had another meaning behind it, but I was too damn pissed to even think through it. I didn’t want to answer so I grabbed the keys from her, and got into the driver’s seat and we then continued our drive.

“Come on Ry, you can’t be that pissed at me,” she pouted with a sigh.

“Well, damn right I’m that pissed at you,” I growled gripping the steering wheel.

“Come on, you know how much I hate driving,” she frowned.

“No you don’t. You love road trips,” I pointed out.

“Things change,” she whispered. I was about to spit back a retort but we were already at the beach house.

“We’ll be staying here for the time being,” I said as I took out our bags from the trunk. Hazelyn’s still Hazelyn. She brought her whole wardrobe with her.

“Nice. Who’s is this? Your mom’s? Your dad’s?” she asked as she inspected the house. “Or was it some kind of business gift?” she smirked at me.

“For your information, I bought it with the money I earned,” I snapped at her. She kept her mouth shut and went ahead to open the door. “But the condo was from mom,” I mumbled to myself when I knew she was out of earshot.

“What’s the code?!” she called out.

Holy Fuck.

I walked up to her and punched in the date of our anniversary. 04-23-10.

“What? Scared that I’d steal your house?” she taunted. “Don’t worry Dolciani, I have no reason to. I can afford my own.” I sighed as I followed behind her and dropped our bags in the foyer. “I’m taking this room!” she shouted out from God knows where.

“Yeah,” I muttered as I grabbed the bags again and climbed the stairs. As I arrived at the top, I saw that she had taken my favorite room in the house.

Truth was. This house was supposed to be our beach house. I bought it three years ago as one of the wedding gifts that I was supposed to give her. This was where we were supposed to spend out honeymoon. But that’s not possible now, is it? It’s just a place that ‘should have been’ special to both of us.

I knocked on the door, which was followed by it flying open and the love of my life with a smug look on her face. “What?” she snapped. I set the bags on her feet, and gave her a half smile.

“I’ll see you at dinner,” I said and retreated to my own bedroom.



I knocked on the black door for the second time since our arrival. But this time I was greeted with soft sleepy eyes. “Morning sleepy head,” I whispered lovingly. She smiled softly at me and yawned, which was followed by a stretch. “We’ll be leaving in an hour,” I told her. She gave me one of her adorable confused looks, silently asking for what I meant. “Dinner,” I informed her. She made a silent ‘O’ with her lips and nodded.

Casual?” she asked, and I just nodded, walking to my room to get ready.



We pulled up to the restaurant that I’ve heard so many praises about and got out, followed by Hazelyn as we made our way to the restaurant.

“Welcome to BellaBrava. Do you have a reservation?” the woman asked at the front.

“Dolciani,” I said. She nodded as she checked her list and motioned for us to follow her. She showed us to our seats, and a few minutes later, a petite girl approached us with a smile on her face.

“Hi, my name’s Savannah and I’ll be your server for tonight,” she grinned at me first, then her eyes landed on Hazelyn who had an awkward smile on her face. “Can I- uh- take your order?” Savannah asked awkwardly. I furrowed my eyebrows at her sudden change of mood.

“Can we get the Bella Bruschetta for a starter? And some crabcakes please,” I said looking at my menu. “And a Margherita pizza please,” I said as I haded her my menu. I looked at Hazelyn whom was just staring at hers. “Hazelyn?” I tried calling for her attention.

Her eyes snapped towards me. “What?”

“Your order?”

“Oh,” she said, her eyebrows furrowed together. “I’ll have a Toscana pizza please,” she smiled at Savannah whom had a wide grin on her face.

“I’ll get those for you,” she said. “Oh and drinks?” she asked me.

“Dr. Pepper?” I asked. She nodded and walked away, not even asking for Hazelyn’s drinks.

“Have you been here before?” I asked once Savannah has walked away.

“Huh?” she asked.

“Have you been here before?” I repeated.

“Uhm…,” she mumbled. “I need to go to the bathroom,” she said and got up, rushing away from me.

She has definitely been here before.

She came back a few minutes later, and it was my turn to get up because my bladder was about to burst. I was walking out of the bathroom with a sigh of relief when I heard Hazelyn’s name.

“Dude, I swear. She’s outside. She’s with this one hot guy! Look!” I heard a whisper.

“You’re lying. Lyn wouldn’t be able to afford this food! I mean, she could. But come on, not just for fun like this. She’d probably have to save up for it,” another whisper replied. “She’s back with her parents in France right?”

“Yeah, but I swear. I think the guy’s her boyfriend. Maybe he’s rich and she scored him while she was in France?” the first whisper said.

“I’ll go take the drinks out and see for myself,” the second one said.

“Hey, keep your mouth shut. Lyn gave me the look earlier,” the first one warned. I don’t know if anymore words were exchanged between them, since I began my walk back to the table.

“I thought you ditched me,” Hazelyn teased.

“A date with you is a rare opportunity, why would I wanna do that?” I smirked at her.

Our drinks came, Hazelyn giving the server a weird look. Our food then came, and she still had that odd look. It was quiet. We were just talking about small things. Nothing too major. Well, until we were done with our food.

“Do you hate me?” I asked her. What the fuck? Why would you ask that? I wanted to cover my mouth because I didn’t believe I just asked that out loud.

“What?”

“Do you hate me?” I repeated.

“I heard you the first time,” she mumbled.

“Answer the question,” I said irritation evident in my voice.

“Why would you think that?”

“I don’t know. I think it’s because you can barely look at me straight in the eye and you seem like you hate spending time with me,” I sighed.

“Don’t take it the wrong way Ry. I just have a lot on my mind and this whole thing is just a havoc. We haven’t seen each other in three years. Please don’t expect me to be comfortable with your presence,” she said with apologetic eyes. “To answer your question, I don’t hate you. I’m just not comfortable with you.”

Ouch. I think that telling me that she hates me would’ve been much less hurtful than telling me that she doesn’t like being around me because it makes her uncomfortable.

“Okay,” was what I said as I paid for the check and we left the restaurant.

We ran into a guy, a few inches shorter than me, and he looked up mumbling a sorry. “Holy shit, Lyn?!” his eyes widened.

“Oh fuck,” she mumbled. “Cal,” she grinned. He immediately hugged her, and she hugged back as tight.

I would kill to be in his position right now.

“What are you doing here?! Aren’t you supposed to be in France?!” he asked.

“Yeah, I’m here for a vacation. Kind of,” she mumbled.

“Do Savannah and Chelsea know you’re here?” he asked me.

“Yeah, we kind of ate in there. We just finished,” she said looking at her feet.

“We?” he asked raising an eyebrow.

I cleared my throat, and his eyes landed on me. He looked confused for a second, then his eyes darted back to Hazelyn. “Caleb dude,” he introduced himself and held out his hand for a handshake. “Caleb Andrews,” he said.

“Jay,” I introduced myself with a firm handshake. “Jay Dolciani,” I said with a nod.

His eyes widened and darted over to Hazelyn’s, which she slumped her shoulders weakly and nodded. I was confused!

“Well,” Caleb said. “You have to go see Chels and Sav,” he said as he entered the restaurant, the woman up front straightening up. “I’ll be back, you stay here,” he said as he hurried to the back and disappeared.

“Okay? Explain,” I demanded.

“Oh uhm. I used to work here,” she smirked slightly. “Caleb’s parents own the place, and well, we kind of went to school together back in Stanford so he decided to hire me. He knows of uhh.. My past,” she said clearing her throat. “But we kept it from the others,” she hung her head. “But yeah, I was here for a few months with Gabriel. Oh, and he’s Gab’s and Kyle’s cousin,” she added.

“Let me take this in,” I said, rubbing circles on my temples as I leaned against the wall.

Small world much?