Back to Square One

I woke up before Hazelyn once again and saw that she hasn’t moved from her position. She had her head under my chin and she was sleeping soundly. I smiled at how peaceful she looked, just embracing the feeling that she was in my arms.

She stirred after what felt like a few minutes and looked up at me confused. Then she came to her senses and pulled away from me abruptly. “What were you doing?” she hissed at me.

I shrugged. “Nothing, miss Sing for me,” I smirked at her as she blushed.

“Wipe that smirk off your face,” she snapped at me.

I just laughed and I got out of bed and made breakfast, consisting of her favorite oatmeal with some french vanilla coffee creamer and a teaspoon of brown sugar. I also put aside some chopped bananas, strawberries and blue berries with another bowl of corn flakes on the side.

Hazelyn came out in her attire consisting of a white blouse tucked into a pencil skirt, along with matching white stilettos - typing away on her Blackberry. Work phone, I concluded. The wedding isn’t until later this afternoon, just before sundown at the Eifel tower. “Eat before you leave,” I said and she just nodded at me, probably just agreeing with whatever to keep me from bothering her and breaking her concentration.

I showered and dressed quickly. As I was walking out of the bathroom, somebody knocked at the door, making Hazelyn mumble an ‘annoying assholes,’ and threw the door open. I heard screaming, so I decided to walk closer to the source.

“Who the fuck are you?” Ah shit, Megan.

“I’m Hazelyn,” Haze said, not looking at whoever she was talking to. “And you are?”

“Megan Fox,” she smirked. “As if you didn’t already didn’t know who I was,” she sneered.

“You need something?” Hazelyn asked unfazed, looking up at her. Megan frowned, making me chuckle quietly.

“I need my boyfriend, now move the hell out of the way, slut.”

“Who are you to talk to me that way? Miss, I pose in front of a camera with my hands as bras,” Hazelyn scoffed making Megan gasp - and that’s when I decided to walk in.

“Who’s there?” I asked, draping my arms over Hazelyn. Surprisingly, she didn’t shrug them off. I was still shirtless, and you know how people’s minds work.

“Megan Fox apparently,” Hazelyn scoffed.

“Jerome! Baby! I missed you!” she said throwing her arms around me.

“Meg, what are you doing here?” I asked pushing her away.

“We’ll talk about that. But first, who the fuck is this?” she asked pointing towards Hazelyn.

I looked at her and back at Megan. I bit my lip and came up with an idea. “She’s my girlfriend,” I said - wrapping my arms around Hazelyn’s waist and made Hazelyn stiffen. Megan looked deadly. Hazelyn looked up at me with a glare, putting away her phone and probably paying more attention so I don’t do or say anymore stupid things.

“Girlfriend?” Megan growled. I just nodded. “Are you two timing me?” she asked.

“No. I broke up with you already,” I said.

“But what about me Jay? What about us?” she begged. “Is she the reason?” I just shrugged. “I’m sure I’m way better than her. Better body, better in bed. I’m better!” she whined.

“Sorry Meg,” I sighed. “But I just don’t see myself with you,” I told her. Not a lie, because Hazelyn was the only one I see myself with.

“You’ll regret that. I’ll be back, Jerome Dolciani. It’s not over until I say so,” she glared before stomping through the halls and leaving the premises.

“What the hell?” Hazelyn glared. “You don’t tell people that I’m your girlfriend! What if that gets out in the media?! What are you thinking?!” she screeched at me.

I looked at her and rolled my eyes. “It was just an act. Relax,” I shrugged before walking into the kitchen, Hazelyn hot on my heels.

“May I ask why?”

“Because she’s gross and weird,” I shuddered

“You should’ve thought of that before you went out with her!”

“But she was hot!”

“She also has STD’s!” she sneered. “Don’t touch me. You might get it on me!”

I rolled my eyes. Déjà vu much? “I’m clean. Relax,” I said.

“What are you gonna do when it goes out to the media?” she asked.

“Pretend to be my girlfriend,” I stated bluntly, sipping on my coffee.

“Are you insane?” she asked bewildered.

I shrugged. “People are gonna be asking about it, and it’s the only way to clear controversies.”

“You’re fucking insane,” she concluded.

“Just for you babe,” I winked at her cockily, making her shudder and make a grossed out look. I just smirked. Oh yeah? You’re not the only one that can play in this bitch game.

“I can’t,” she said quietly after awhile.

“Why not? It’s not like you have a boyfriend,” I scoffed.

She visibly stiffened for a split second - looking at me weirdly before regaining her composure. “What’s in it for me?” she asked, tapping her toes.

“What do you want?” I asked, rolling my eyes.

“For you to leave me alone,” she sneered.

I looked at her for a second before sighing. “Deal,” I said. If she’s gonna treat me like shit, then two can play that game.

She bit her lip. “Can I tell somebody about this?”

I looked at her weirdly. “I don’t know if we’d be able to pull it off if we told somebody,” I said honestly.

“Your sister, my brother and somebody else,” she said quietly.

“Who’s this somebody else?” I wondered out loud.

“It’s nothing. They just need to know,” she told me.

“Fine then,” I finally agreed.

“Okay then,” she agreed. “But we have rules,” she said. “And I have to talk to somebody before we get this plan into action.”

“Yeah okay, and what are your rules?” I asked.

She bit her lip. Ah she’s so adorable. Snap out of it! “Don’t get carried away,” she told me.

Jerome Dolciani doesn’t play by the rules though, and Hazelyn knew that.



We both sat there just staring each other down for awhile. “Let’s eat,” I said clapping my hands together as if nothing happened. She sat down, and looked at the table in front of her. She saw what I prepared and she looked up at me. “I didn’t know what you wanted in your breakfast, so I just prepared it,” I explained.

She smiled softly at me as she nodded and dug in.

“Don’t you think my brother would murder you after this?” she smirked at me

I smirked back. “Naaah, I think your brother would cut me some slack. He’s been wanting to get rid of her for months now too,” I chuckled.

“Oh I love my brother,” she rolled her eyes and chuckled quietly. “I have a meeting today and I’ll talk to somebody after then I’ll tell you if I can help you out,” she said.

“Okay, and meeting with?”

“Didn’t you hear? We’re opening another branch of Abercrombie here in France,” she said. “And half is actually your share,” she mumbled.

“What are you talking about?” I asked. I didn’t hear about this at all. But then again, my brother has been running my company for me for the past 10 months.

“Abercrombie and Fitch and Hollister merged two years ago, right?” she asked, and I nodded. “You know how one of your branches moved? Well, that branch only cost half of your original investment. They used that fund plus the interest to open a branch here, and since we practically own the company, I guess it’s yours too,” she explained.

“Wait, are you saying that the other four stock holders withdrew?” I asked. She nodded.

“They didn’t think it would last any longer, so they sold me their shares, and-,” she looked at me and stopped. “As much as I don’t want to invite you, you have a right to know about it and Jason couldn’t make it. So I guess if you wanted to go, get dressed,” she said. I shrugged and got dressed as quick as possible.

We were driving towards the new branch, which had the office above it. The ride was quiet, and I tried to shrug off the elephant in the room. “You think you can pull this off?” I asked her, my feet propped up on her dashboard, and a cocky look on my face.

“Probably,” she said with a shrug. “And plus, we’ve done this before. I don’t think it’ll be that hard,” she said. “Take your feet of my dashboard!”

“What? Pretending?” I asked, not listening to her scolding.

“No, being in a relationship,” she said quietly. There was an awkward silence for a moment before she cleared her throat and asked me, “Why don’t you just straight out dump her?”

I scoffed. “She might as well as be a blonde. She’s so dumb and won’t take the hint, and I bluntly told her already, and obviously she was being a dumb blonde,” I frowned, then realized that she was a blonde at the moment. “I mean, uhm. Fuck,” I groaned.

“It’s okay. it’s not like I’m a natural blonde,” she murmured.

There were a few more moments of silence. “So, why are you blonde?” I asked out of nowhere. She just shrugged, not wanting to answer the question and I just let it go.

We got to the meeting and I was impressed by how professional Hazelyn was with all these business men and women she was dealing with - how maturely she handled things. So much different than when I first took her to a similar meeting six years ago. Most of them were actually surprised that their boss is a twenty three year old woman. She didn’t introduce me and just let me sit down to watch the whole thing. Hazelyn handled everything well as I just sat back and watched, giving input in some things.

There was a man sneaking looks at Hazelyn. He was practically drooling at her while he gave the presentation. He was also giving me dirty glares, since he didn’t know who I was. I rolled my eyes and chuckled to myself.

We got out of there after a few hours, just in time for lunch.

“So, you wanna grab uhh… lunch?” I asked her.

She looked at me. “Uhm, I actually have plans for lunch already,” she murmured.

“Oh,” I frowned. “Okay, I’ll see you back at the hotel then,” I said to her.

She just shrugged and got into the car and drove off. I knew she was pissed at me for some unknown reason, and was just nice enough to invite me to a meeting that actually involved me.

I decided to not go back to the hotel yet and go to the restaurant that I got to cater the night that I asked her out. It was beautiful. The place gave off a romantic atmosphere. It wasn’t loud, but wasn’t too quiet either. I sighed and got a table for one, looking through the menu. There was a live band, and they also had open mic, making it a pretty cool hang out.

The waitress started hitting on me, and as hot as she was - now that I’ve seen Hazelyn again, I couldn’t look away anymore. She was… Indescribably amazing, and nobody could replace that. Not even Megan Fox.

I know what you’re thinking. You idiot, you have the sex goddess wrapped around your finger. But I don’t love her.

My food came, and as I was halfway finished with it when a couple walked in. Yes, you guessed right. Next to her, holding her hand was a man that looked to be around the same age as me, maybe just a little bit older - The guy that was sneaking glances at her during the meeting.

He was holding her hand, and it broke my heart. He pulled out the chair for her and I saw her mouth a thank you before sitting down - admiring the place. She gave him a soft smile, and in her eyes I saw that she was happy. But it wasn’t the same happiness that I saw in her eyes when we were together. I know that sounded conceited, and probably it was just me, but I sat there gaping at them. That must be the somebody else. I gritted my teeth.

“Jay?” I heard a gasp from behind me.

I turned around and my face lit up. “Claudia!” I grinned as she walked over to me and gave me a huge hug.

“Comment avez-vous été? Je ne t'ai pas vu depuis si longtemps!” [How have you been? I haven't seen you in so long!]

“Peut mieux faire,” I replied lamely. [Could be better]

“Oh? Where’s that lovely girlfriend of yours that we catered for five years ago? Vous vous êtes marié maintenant? "she joked. [You married now?]

I frowned. “Nope,” I frowned.

“Oh, désolé,” [Oh, sorry] she frowned at me, putting her hand on my shoulder and gave me a soft smile. “Well, you shall grace us with your wonderful voice then,” she clapped her hands before scurrying off towards the stage before I could stop her.

“Bonsoir à tous, j'espère que vous profitez pleinement de votre nuit ici. Nous avons un d'invité spécial ce soir - un ami proche de la mienne. Il a un de la voix la plus mélodique que j'ai jamais entendu, et il va le partager avec nous!” [Good evening everybody, I hope you're enjoying your night here. We have a special guest tonight – a close friend of mine. He has one of the most melodic voice I've ever heard, and he's going to share it with us.]

Everybody had started clapping and Claudia was urging me to go on stage, and I didn’t want to be rude so I started making my way to the front.

I set myself up on the microphone with the piano. I cleared my throat and caught the attention of most of the guests, but not the couple I was trying to get the attention of. They looked deep in conversation and the guy looked pretty pissed. Hazelyn reached over and I saw her talk. I sighed and started to speak

“Cette chanson est à propos d'une fille qui quitté ma vie d'années, mais je n'ai pas abandonné elle. Pas encore. Je suis toujours en attente pour elle de revenir,” I said to the microphone. [This song is about a girl that walked out of my life years ago, but I haven't given up on her. Not yet. I'm still waiting for her to come back.] Before I looked down at the piano, I caught Hazelyn’s eyes – widened in shock.

I began to press on the keys as the place filled with music.

Hmmmm ... Hmmmm ... Hmmmm ... Hmmm ...

I never felt nothing in the world like this before
Now I’m missing you and I’m wishing
You would come back through my door, ooh
Why did you have to go? You could've let me know
So now I’m all alone

Girl, you could have stayed but you wouldn’t give me a chance
With you not around it’s a little bit more than I can stand, ooh
And all my tears they keep running down my face
Why did you turn away?

So why does your pride make you run and hide
Are you that afraid of me?
But I know it’s a lie what you keep inside
This is not how you want it to be

So baby, I will wait for you
'Cause I don’t know what else I can do
Don’t tell me I ran out of time
If it takes the rest of my life

Baby, I will wait for you
If you think I'm fine it just ain’t true
I really need you in my life
No matter what I have to do, I’ll wait for you

Been a long time since you called me
(How could you forget about me?)
You gotta be feeling crazy
How can you walk away, everything stays the same
I just can’t do it baby

What will it take to make you come back?
Girl, I told you what it is and it just ain’t like that
No, why can’t you look at me? You’re still in love with me
Don’t leave me crying

Baby, why can’t we just, just start over again?
Get it back to the way it was
If you give me a chance I can love you right
But you’re telling me it won’t be enough

So baby, I will wait for you
'Cause I don’t know what else I can do
Don’t tell me I ran out of time
If it takes the rest of my life

Baby, I will wait for you
If you think I'm fine it just ain’t true
I really need you in my life
No matter what I have to do, I’ll wait for you

So why does your pride make you run and hide
Are you that afraid of me?
But I know it’s a lie what you’re keeping inside
That is not how you want it to be

Baby, I will wait for you
Baby, I will wait for you
If it’s the last thing I do

Baby, I will wait for you
'Cause I don’t know what else I can do
Don’t tell me I ran out of time
If it takes the rest of my life

Baby, I will wait for you
If you think I'm fine it just ain’t true
I really need you in my life
No matter what I have to do, I’ll wait for you

I’ll be waiting

I looked back to where she was seated, but she wasn’t there. Neither was the guy. I guess they walked out while I was deep in my song. I sighed and turned back to my audience. “Well, that’s all. I know it was a bit depressing, but the woman that I’ve been in love with for the past five years was in here a few moments ago. I haven’t seen her in three long years and I’ve finally found her. But another man holds her heart now. I know that she wouldn’t listen to a word I’d say, and music is the only way that I can communicate with her. Music is a mutual language that we both won’t ignore, and I hope she thinks twice about this,” I smiled as they all stood up with teary eyes and gave me a standing ovation. I did a small bow and left the restaurant after paying my bill and a thanks to Claudia who was teary eyed.