Back to Square One

“Hey, morning,” I smiled at Hazelyn who walked into the kitchen that morning. I had my eye glasses on trying to hide my swollen eyes. I know I act like such a girl, but I’m 100% man. It’s just that sometimes, I feel like Hazelyn’s the guy in this relationship - this love/hate relationship of ours. Okay, maybe hate and tolerate relationship. My hair was also disheveled, so much different from my spiked up look, so that it partially covered my eyes too.

“Morning,” she muttered, walking to the fridge and grabbing an apple and a granola bar from the island.

“You going anywhere?” I asked, noticing that she was fully dressed.

“Yeah. Derek’s picking me up,” she said, not bothering to glance at me.

“Oh, so no dinner tonight?” I asked, trying to hide the disappointment in my voice.

“Nope,” was her answer, popping the ‘p’ like she used to. I was waiting for a continuation, but she didn’t say anything more. She just sat there on the counter, watching me make my chocolate chip pancakes as her lips kissed the apple, and completely frozen - mesmerized by my pancake-making skills. I internally smiled and acted like I didn’t see anything. I knew she wanted some. It was her favorite. Unless it’s changed over the years. I doubted she noticed she was staring, because she almost fell off when the buzzer rang.

“I’ll get it,” she muttered before she hopped off the counter and went to the door. I then suddenly heard frantic footsteps and saw her running into the kitchen with wide eyes. “Hide!” she whispered at me.

“Why?”

“Just go!” she whispered shutting off the stove and pushing me towards my room.

“What? Why do I have to hide?” I protested.

“Just go,” she pleaded with her eyes. I sighed and nodded, closing the door to my room and leaned my ear against the door hoping to hear their conversation of whoever the hell it was at the door that she wanted to hide me. I could hear the faint voices. “Hey, good morning hot stuff,” a guy said. I gritted my teeth. Derek.

“Derek!” she squeaked. My thoughts were confirmed. “What are you doing here?”

“Why? Is there anything wrong with picking up my girlfriend?”

“I told you I’d go down there,” she sighed. “How’d you know I was in this room, by the way?”

“I asked the guard in the lobby,” I heard him say with a confused tone.

“Oh my gosh! Don’t you listen?” she groaned.

“Why? What’s wrong?”

“I told you they report to my brother!” Liar. They don’t even know your brother.

“I’m sorry Haze,” he sighed. I was about to go off on about how only I can call her Haze, but Hazelyn herself beat me to it.

“Hazelyn,” she corrected.

I heard him sigh. “I’m sorry Lyn. We’ll just make something up, okay?”

“Fine,” she huffed.

“Nice place. Is this your sister-in-law’s place?” he asked.

“Uhh.. Yeah, how’d you guess?” she chuckled her nervous chuckle. Obviously lying. I don’t know how she manages to lie to this guy.

“It was under DeLuca and Dolciani,” he said. Oh fuck, busted.

“Ohhhh, that’s why. Hmmm,” I could just imagine her nodding thoughtfully.

“Yeah, but it looks more of a bachelor’s pad, doesn’t it?”

“Yeah, her brother comes here often so he’s the one that fixes this place up.” Nice save. Does he not know who her brother is?

“Are those pancakes I smell?” I heard his footsteps come closer, since my room was closest to the kitchen.

“Oh yeah.”

“Chocolate chip pancakes? I thought you hated these?”

“Oh, I just felt like them today.” She always says ‘oh’ when she lies. I chuckled softly.

“Hmmm…” She hates chocolate chip pancakes? Hell, those are her favorites!

“Is that a new jacket?” I heard her ask.

“Yeah, I just got it a few days ago,” I heard him chuckle.

“You got it?” Hazelyn gasped.

“Yeah, why?”

“Doesn’t your secretary do that for you? I mean, shopping?”

“Can I not go shop for myself? I am a manager of a clothing store,” he defended.

“I was just saying, you don’t like shopping. You don’t usually care what you wear,” she huffed.

“Are you gonna eat these?” he asked, avoiding the subject. I scowled at the wall. Keep your filthy fingers off my pancakes!.

“No,” I heard her mutter.

“Well, then I’ll take a-,” I heard a pause. “This is amazing!” OH no he did not just eat it.

“Should we go now?” I heard her ask desperately.

There were a couple moments of silence. He was probably swallowing my babies! “I was just dropping by to tell you that I can’t today. I have a meeting with the CEO of Hollister,” he said.

CEO? My brother’s here? Hmm, I’ll have to give him a call. I kind of miss that goofball.

“Oh okay then, I’ll see you later,” she said. Did I hear a sound of relief? Or was I just imagining it? Probably just imagining it.

I heard them mutter a few more sentences to each other before the door finally opened and closed, and I heard light footsteps come closer. I jumped on my bed and grabbed a random book from my shelf to look relaxed as I leaned against my headboard- just as a knock came to the door.

“Come in,” I called out.

“Sorry about that,” she muttered, then looked up at me. “What are you doing?”

“Reading a book,” I said in a matter-of-factly kind of tone, as if it wasn’t obvious.

“Upside down?” she almost laughed, but a smile crept up on her features.

“Oh, yeah, I was uhm.. Practicing on how to read upside down for the kids that I’ll be reading to at the library,” I joked.

She shook her head at me and sat on the bed, tilting her head to read the title and scoffed. “The breakup bible?” she laughed. “What the hell got into your head to read that?”

“It’s my sister’s! She told me to read it. She said it was good. I won’t lie, it was good,” I defended.

“Uhuh, right. Blame it on Stephanie,” she laughed. “Let’s go, I want those pancakes!” she squealed before running out.

Fucking hell. Why is she so bipolar?!

I walked out to the kitchen to see her on the table, with a huge smile on her face. “What’s up?” I asked.

“What do you mean?” she asked, tilting her head to the side, making me smile.

“You were all pissy this morning, and now you’re all…” I drifted off.

“Bipolar?” she asked with a frown.

“Yeah,” I muttered, then my eyes widened. “Are you pregnant?!” I gasped.

Her eyes widened. “H-how?” she stuttered.

My heart stopped. “You are!” I concluded, pointing at her.

She busted out laughing. “You should’ve seen your face,” she chuckled. I glared at her, but my heart was still pounding against my chest. “Just feed me? I was staring down your pancakes earlier,” she frowned.

I shook my head at her, and looked down on my plate that had a half-eaten pancake. “You’re paying me back for that,” I pointed at it.

“It’s only half!” she whined.

I huffed and turned the stove back on and continued making pancakes. When I finished, Hazelyn had so much light in her eyes that it was blinding. She was grinning from ear to ear and had a fork on her right hand, ready to attack. It was as if I was about to stick my hand into a cage of a hungry lion. I was slowly inching the plate towards her, expecting a bite, but she just chuckled.

“I won’t bite,” she smirked. “At least not hard,” she winked, making me shake my head and set the plate in front of her, sitting down on my seat facing her. I just stared at her as she looked down on the plate, probably making a game plan on how she’s gonna shove all of it in her mouth at once. “Don’t stare at me!” she blushed. “I can’t eat!”

Déjà vu. I suddenly remembered a memory from a long time ago. I can’t believe I even remember it!

“Well, eat first. Have you had lunch?”. I asked after I walked into Hazelyn’s kitchen with bags off food from Olive Garden. She just stared at me, and but her lip. “It’s 4pm, Hazelyn. Here, I got you Bruschetta, Breadsticks, Chicken Alfredo and vegetarian pizza,” I said as I took them out from the bag one by one “You really shouldn’t be skipping meals,” I mumbled.

I sometimes worry about her. It’s just that she gets so busy that she forgets to take care of herself.

That’s what you’re for. You take care of her.

We have a girlfriend, remember conscience? Aren’t you supposed to be the one that’s correcting me?

I am. Because Trisha isn’t the one you’re crazy over.

And you know that how?

I’m your conscience, duh!

“Are you gonna be bringing me meals for the rest of my life?” she asked, clearly joking.

“If I have to,” I shrugged. I want to

“I guess you’re gonna be needing your own key,” she mumbled. I beamed at her, happy that I’ve earned her trust. “Just because I’m too lazy to get the door,” she told me, obviously an excuse. She was about to exit the kitchen, not even touching anything.

“Uh-uh. You’re eating missy,” I stopped her. She rolled her eyes at me in her special adorable way, and sat down on one of the bar stools on the counter. I then put a plate in front of her and put all the choices of food beside her. “Eat,” I ordered, standing on the other side of the counter, staring at her beautiful face.

Her hazel orbs stared back at me, shifting into green. The sun’s rays just hit them perfectly to see the sparkle in them, getting me so lost within.

“Not while you’re staring,” she interrupted my thoughts with a glare. I rolled my eyes and sat next to her, grabbing a breadstick, showing her that I shoved it into my mouth. “Better,” she smiled and grabbed one for herself.

“Earth to dork, are you gonna eat that?” Hazelyn snapped me out of my thoughts.

“What?” I shook my head, and looked from my plate to hers which was empty. Did I daze off that long? “Oh, you want it?” I smirked. She bit her thumbnail and nodded like a little girl. I just rolled my eyes and slid the plate over. She let out a giddy giggle, and dug in one more time.

She seems like she hasn’t eaten a decent meal in forever.

Maybe she just misses your pancakes.

My pancakes do work some magic.



After breakfast, we ended up watching Fast Five which Haze spent half the time squealing about her ‘ex-husband’ Paul Walker.

“You do know you’ll never get a chance with him, right?” I asked as we walked back into the condo.

“You don’t know that,” she pouted.

“He’s thirty-eight.”

“And I’m twenty three. I like older men,” she laughed.

“You’re so weird,” I stated shaking my head. “What do you wanna do now?” I asked plopping myself down on the couch.

“What about a Fast And Furious movie marathon?” she asked, batting her eyelashes.

I stared at her. “Why did I let you go?” I thought.

“What?” she asked.

“Nothing, I was wondering if you were really a girl,” I chuckled as I made my way to the shelf that had a bunch of my favorite movies. And a portion happened to be dedicated to my racing obsession.

“You want proof?” she winked at me, making me hunch over laughing. “What? It’s not that funny,” she frowned.

“Whatever. Let’s just watch the movie?”

We spent the next 8 hours watching the first four movies of the series with some popcorn, Chinese take out and soda. I finished the last one alone though, I realized. How? Well, I felt Hazelyn’s head bump onto my shoulder half way through the movie and she immediately made herself comfortable when I wrapped my arms around her.

When the credits were rolling, I decided to take her to her room. I carefully laid her head back on the couch and picked her up, carrying her to her room as careful as I could to avoid her waking up. She immediately snuggled up to my chest, making me sigh in contentment.

I entered the door sideways to avoid bumping any part of her on the door panel, and gently laid her on the bed. I tucked her into her sheets and was about to turn off the lamp when I saw a small velvet box on her bedside table. I glanced at her and decided to be nosy and grabbed the box, slowly opening it and I was pretty shocked at what I found inside.

It was the charm bracelet. It still had the rodeo drive charm, along with the daisy charm I got for her when we weren’t in speaking terms, the Eiffel tower charm that we bought in Paris for our first anniversary, then the one of a small yellow car from Spain, and after that the one of a butterfly I got for her for our second anniversary. There was one that I wasn’t sure I got. It was a charm that said “H♥R”. I looked at the back, and it had a small engraving. It was a date. April 29, 2010. The exact date three years ago when she left me.

Why would she wanna remember that date?

I shook my head at the thought, as chills crept up my spine. I was about to close it when I saw one charm that caught my attention. I don’t know how I could’ve missed it because it was the biggest charm out of all. It also shined the brightest.

The engagement ring. I was so shocked I almost dropped it.

It had a smaller ring that hooked it onto the clip, so it didn’t really have anything attached to the ring itself to deform it. It had a few scratches on it, meaning it was worn a few times. As a charm or as a ring, there’s no way of knowing. But it was worn.

I felt Hazelyn shift a little, and I quickly- but quietly- shut the box - putting it back where I found it and reached over to turn of the lights, only having the moon as a source of light.

I looked down on Hazelyn, her hair shining and her lips just begging for me to kiss them. Her face was so angelic, that I felt like I didn’t deserve to even look at her. I sighed and leaned down to kiss her forehead. “I love you,” I whispered, knowing she couldn’t hear. Well, I hoped she didn’t, because she would slap me.

She didn’t though, so I sighed in relief and got up to go to my own bed, when I felt her soft hands grab my gruff ones. Her eyes were still shut tight though.

“Don’t go,” was what she said. Did she hear what I said? I froze on the spot though, but she seemed to be asleep. But with that one request, I stayed. I knew she’d flip about it in the morning, but it was her request. And I don’t turn down requests from her.