Chapter 0112
“Ow!” I pulled back and rubbed my arm. “What was that for?”
“For being the world’s biggest idiot,” she said. “You need to marry that man already.”
“I’m not talking about this anymore,” I said, throwing the bathroom door open.
I heard Maria sigh and we left the bathroom to go back to the banquet hall, I almost considered just leaving and going back home, but we did have some really expensive steaks waiting for us, which was more appealing than going back to my family.
We rejoined Logan and Dylan at our table. We sat in quite an awkward silence for several minutes. Dylan finally cleared his throat.
“So, do
You
ladies have anything exciting coming up?” He asked.
I looked at Maria and she looked at me. “Um…” she said. “Oh! We were talking about going to one of those paint and sip things next Tuesday.”
Dylan raised his eyebrows. “Oh okay! I’ve always been curious about those. I used to draw and paint in middle school but I haven’t in years. I always loved it.”
“You should come with us!” Maria said. I threw her a dirty look.
Dylan smiled. “Yeah, I’d love to.” He glanced at me then looked back down at his plate.
It happened quickly, but I caught a glimpse of anger cross Logan’s face.
“Actually.” Logan said. “I’m going to need you to work overtime next Tuesday, Hazel. We…um…have a lot
to do for this new client of ours.”
“Oh, my heart sank, I had been looking forward to this girl’s night. Well, what was supposed to be a girl’s night anyway. “Okay.”
Dylan shot Logan a “come on” look, but Logan ignored him.
The rest of the evening passed without another incident, and the four of us walked out the front door of the restaurant together.
“Well,” I said. “We parked over that way, so…”
“Can we take you to your car?” Dylan asked as Logan handed the valet his ticket,
“Sur…” Maria started.
1 cut her off. “No, thank you. We’ll be okay.”
I put my arm through hers and led her away.
“Goodnight!” Dylan called after us.
Maria turned and waved at him. “What are you doing?” She asked. “We could’ve used that ride. My feet. are dying in these heels.”
“I know, mine too. But I can’t let them keep doing stuff like that, it’s making it hard to set and keep those
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boundaries.” I stopped and pulled off my heels.
“You cannot walk these streets without shoes,” Maria said with a frown.
“I’ll take my chances,” I said as we headed to the car. “Who let me buy heels? I’m a flats girl.”
“Flats don’t make dirty old men hit on you,” Maria said with a wink.
I laughed. “Yeah, exactly. They are much safer.” I thought for a moment. “I didn’t even get any numbers tonight.” I shook my head. “What a bust.”
“Don’t worry, we’ll get you back over to Chickadee’s next week. That place is swarming with desperate men,” she said.
“Yes, that makes me feel good about myself, thank you,” I said.
She rolled her eyes. “You know what I mean.”
I pulled my ring off and tucked it into my purse. “There’s a bar close to where we parked, do you want to go in and get a drink there? There’s still time to salvage the evening.”
She smiled. “I thought you’d never ask.”
While they waited for the valet to bring the car around, Dylan and Logan watched Hazel and Maria as they walked away.
“You were super obvious, by the way,” Dylan said, annoyed.
“What?” Logan asked.
“With the overtime bullshit. You don’t need her to work, you just don’t want me to be around her,” Dylan snapped.
“She’s married, man, I’m doing you a favor.”
“Oh, yeah? Is that why you took it upon yourself to act like you were with her earlier tonight? I saw that kiss you planted on her.”
“I was saving her from that creepy old man,” Logan protested.
“You could’ve done it without all of that show you put on,” Dylan shook his head. “Your arm around her waist, the kiss, it was unnecessary.”
Logan furned. Deep down he knew Dylan was making a good point but he hated him for it.
Logan turned again to look at Hazel. He saw her slip her ring off her finger and put it in her purse, then moments later she and Maria walked into a bar that was across the street.
“Huh,” Logan said. “Did you see that?”
“See what?” Dylan turned towards where the girls had been.
“Hazel. She just took her wedding ring off,” he turned to Dylan. “Earlier this week it looked like she was on a date with someone. And she showed up tonight without her husband. Something weird is going on.”
Dylan narrowed his brow at Logan, “Hey, man, Hazel isn’t like that. She would never mess around on someone. I’m sure there’s a perfectly logical explanation,” Dylan snapped. He couldn’t believe Logan
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would even think that of her. It was like Logan had never even met Hazel, he thought.
“Don’t you think it’s a little strange that a newlywed woman would not be spending as much time as she could with her husband?”
Maybe he works a lot,” Dylan shrugge
Logan went to the other valet that stood at the station. “When they get back with my car, can you have them park it again? I just need a few minutes to run an errand,” he said.
“Yes sir, no problem,” the valet smiled.
“Great,” Logan smiled and handed him a fifty–dollar bill.
“What is happening?” Dylan asked.
“Come on, I’m going to show you how she’s been acting.” Logan started towards the bar.
“Bro, leave her alone, she’s out with a friend, it’s nothing nefarious going on,” Dylan said.
But Logan ignored him, and without a ride, Dylan had no choice but to follow him. Once they got directly across the street from the bar, Logan stood, trying to look through the window to get a glimpse of Hazel. But the bar was dark and all the bodies he saw were hard to make out.
He looked both ways then jogged across the street.
“Logan, this is crazy,” Dylan said as he followed suit.
Logan peeked inside the open front door. He glanced around and finally spotted Hazel at the end of the bar, sitting on a stool. There was a man sitting next to her, and Maria stood nearby.
“There she is!” Logan said to Dylan and pointed.
“Yep, just talking and having a drink, like one does at a bar,” Dylan said, rolling his eyes. “Can we go now?”
Logan watched as Hazel pulled her phone out of her purse and handed to the man. He typed on it for a moment, then handed it back to her. The man smiled and walked away.
“See? I think she just got that guy’s number!” Logan said.
Dylan’s heart sank. He had to admit, it looked pretty bad.
The guy
that had been talking to Hazel returned a moment later with two drinks in hand, Dylan and Logan both gasped at what happened next.
The man set the drinks on the bar, grabbed Hazel’s chin, and kissed her.
