You Had Me at Hello

“Let go! You’re hurting me. Stefan, stop it.” She begged as he gripped her arm hard enough to bruise.
“Shut up bitch. You are a fat, ugly, worthless piece of shit. You deserve to be hurt. I can’t believe you would do that to me!” He’s right, he is so right, but she can’t let him know that his words are tearing her up inside.
“What did I do to you, asshole?” she asks definitely.
“You know what you did!” he screamed. She did know what she had done, she wore the outfit that he told her not to and expressed her opinion on the topic to his coworkers without him saying she could, both things that to most people wouldn’t be a big deal but to Stefan, it was the equivalent of slapping him in the face and shitting on his bed.
“Obviously I don’t! Ouch! You bastard!” she screamed as he slapped her across the face.
“What did you just call me?”
“I called you a bastard!” she screamed as she wrenched her left arm free before punching him square in the face causing him to crumple to the floor. “What, you can dish it but you can’t take it. Stefan, you are pathetic.” She sneered, thinking of how glad she was that she had started taking Tae Kwon Do, before shakily reaching into her bag and calling the police. She had had enough. All of the verbal abuse, the mental/ emotional abuse, and the occasional physical abuse had finally built up enough that she decided to finally take action and press charges. She was ashamed it had taken her this long, but was glad she finally put her foot down.

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Morgan's P.O.V.
“I know that I had sworn I’d never trust anyone again, but I didn’t have to, you had me at hello,” Jeremy McKinnon from A Day to Remember sang in my ear through my Bose headphones as I stood reading the Gettysburg Address on the wall of the Lincoln Memorial in Washington, D.C.

“Miss? Miss? Excuse me.”

“Oh, sorry,” I said taking out my headphones and trying to shake off the last of the depressing memories. “What did you need?”

“I was wondering if you could take a picture of some of my buddies and me, please,” a tall attractive man with dark brown hair and ice blue eyes asked me, pulling me further from the troubling thoughts of my ex.

“Of course,” I replied with a slight smile. “Do you have a camera you would like me to use?”

“Crap, I forgot my camera at home and my phone is dead,” the man answered, his face flushing with embarrassment.

“I could take a picture on my phone then send it to you if you would like,” I said wanting to help the four guys out.

“That would be great,” said the great looking guy that has spoken to me first with a smile. I smiled when I noticed he was missing a tooth thinking that he looked like a hockey player.

“Ok guys get in close and smile.” They all stood close and smiled at the camera as I snapped a few just so that I could be sure to get a good one. After I took the pictures the guy walked over to me and I showed him the pictures and let him decide which one he liked best. When he had chosen, I handed him my phone so that he could put in his number. When he handed my phone back to me I glanced at the name and received one of the biggest shocks of my life.
On the screen was the name Alex Ovechkin, I had to do a double take to make sure that I had read it right, then I glanced up at the man himself and was shocked to see that I had somehow overlooked the fact that this man was in fact the great Alexander Ovechkin, star forward and Captain for the Washington Capitals. After a pause I realized that I was standing there in awe and quickly looked back at my phone to send the picture. I guess I had been more in my head than I thought. After the picture was sent I looked up at Alex and decided that I should probably introduce myself.

“By the way, I’m Morgan,” I said and held out my hand, Alex grabbed my hand and I swear I felt a shock go through both of us.

“Hi Morgan, as you saw I’m Alex, nice to meet you. Thanks for your help.”

“Nice to meet you as well, and it was no problem.”

“Hey Ovi, let’s go, I’m hungry!” One of his buddies yelled. Alex glanced over at his friend with a look of annoyance on his face.
“Hey what are you doing now?” He asked me.

“I’m just planning on walking around for a little while then going to get some lunch. Why?”

“Do you want to come get lunch with my friends and me?”

“Ummm….sure. I’d love to,” I replied with a smile deciding in that moment to be spontaneous for the first time in an extremely long time, figuring that I couldn’t get into too much trouble with a professional athlete.

“Great,” Alex beamed. “You can ride with me, and then I’ll bring you back to get your car.”

“I actually let my friend use my car today and was just going to have her pick me up later.”

“Well I can bring you back here or take you home after lunch.”

“That would be perfect, thank you Alex,” I said smiling shyly up at him.
When we got to his car, a Mercedes SL65 AMG Black Series in matte blue, he opened the front door for me and after he got in the driver’s side I asked him where his friends were.
“Oh they are all riding with Nicky to the restaurant.”

“Wait Nicky as in Nick Backstrom?”

“Yeah, why? Do you know him?”

“No, I just wasn’t paying enough attention to realize that your friends were also your teammates. I’m not going to lie; I’m having a bit of a fan girl moment here,” I admitted with a slight blush.

“Fan girl moment?” he questioned with a smirk on his beautiful lips.

“Yeah, I have wanted to meet you guys since my college roommate, Jen, got me into watching hockey, and to not only get to meet you guys but also have lunch with you is a dream come true,” I admitted, blushing a deeper red.

He chuckled and said that the honor was all his.

I laughed and told him that his line was really cheesy but I appreciated it all the same. Just then we pulled up to the restaurant. I got out and waited for Alex to walk around the car, when he got to me, he smiled and took my arm like a gentleman and walked me into the restaurant and to a table in the back where Nick was sitting with two other men who upon further inspection turned out to be Mike Green and Alexander Semin. As we approached the table, Nick, Mike and Alex stood and after I was seated, Ovi and Nick took the seats to either side of me. After we had all settled in the guys all introduced themselves. Alexander Semin insisted that I call him Sasha which I was glad because it would have gotten confusing with two Alexs at the table.

The waitress came to the table and took our drink orders. After she left we all looked at the menu and decided on what we wanted. I was starving and decided to order a bacon cheeseburger and fries and after a lot of thought the guys all decided to get burgers and fries as well. The waitress came over to give us our drinks and take our orders. When the food came I said a quick and silent prayer and started to eat. During lunch the conversation flowed like we had known each other for years rather than the half hour that it had been. The guys asked if I was from Washington and I confessed that I was only here for a week while spending spring break with my roommate Jen.

“So are you two going to come to any games while you are here?” Mike asked when he noticed my red Capitals hoodie.

“We hope to but it all depends on whether or not we can get tickets, Jen is supposed to be looking into that this evening.”

“What would you say if I told you I would get you both tickets for the game tomorrow night?” Ovi asked.

“I would say that you are amazing and wonderful,” I answered smiling.

“Well in that case, I think I have to get you tickets,” he laughed.

“That would be absolutely amazing.” He then asked for my full name and told me that there would be two tickets waiting for Jen and I at will call for tomorrow’s game. Without even thinking of my actions I reached over and gave him a hug and said thank you. At first he stiffened at the contact then he melted into the hug and chuckled, saying that it was no big deal.

By this time we had all finished our meals and Nick and Mike said that they were going to head out and go play some PS3 and Sasha said that he had to go buy some food so that he would have something to eat before the game tomorrow. Right before the guys were getting ready to leave I let a little bit of my inner fan girl show and asked the guys for a picture with them. They all obliged and I snapped a quick selfie with all four guys surrounding me. Alex and I walked to his car arm in arm, when we got there he once again opened my door for me. After we were both settled he asked if I wanted to walk go back and explore the monuments with him since I had mentioned wanting to do that earlier, I agreed and we drove back to the National Mall. In the car, Alex turned on the radio and soon we were both singing along with the radio and enjoying ourselves.