Chapter 2 CHAPTER 2: Caught

Adam

A knock at my front door woke me from my fitful sleep. I tried to stand up, but Sophia was sprawled on top of me, naked from the waist up. I gently turned her over and tried to make sense of my environment. It was a wild night filled with entertainment and my head was banging from the aftermath of it. I heard the knock again, although this time accompanied by my name.

“Haze”? What was she doing at my place this early in the morning? I stood up and went to the door.

“Hazel?” I peeped through my peephole and there she was, dressed to the nines but with a face full of bruises. I panicked and opened the door.

“Haze? What happened to your face? What is this?” I tried to touch her face, but she winced in pain.

She did not reply but pushed past me and went inside my living room before I could warn her that I had some visitors from last night who were sprawled on my couch with limbs tangled around each other.

“Oh God!!”. The words fell from my mouth as I closed the door and went after her.

She stopped in her tracks when she saw my visitors, gasped and stared at me with her big green-brown eyes that turned me into a puddle each time I looked at them.

“Sorry Haze, I didn’t have time to warn you”. I scratched my head and took a step to get close to her to examine her bruises, but she stopped me with her hand.

“You need to take a shower before you get close, buddy. An upgrade to a ménage a trois?” She squinted.

“Well, in my defense, I had just one person over, and she invited her friend.”

“Hey beautiful, want to join us?” Mary, one of my visitors, quipped from the couch while Derrick stirred and peeped at the scene with one eye open.

“No, thank you” Hazel replied and marched into my bedroom, giving me a moment to appreciate the way her curves filled out on her pencil skirt while I followed on my heels.

She flopped down on the bed and the waterworks began. I sat close to her confused as to what would have caused the tears, but I held her in my arms as she shook with her tears.

She looked up at me. “Adam, I can't do this anymore. I am so tired.”

I held her face in my palm gently while examining the extent of the damage. I noticed a black eye and a bump on her forehead and my heart broke. I crushed her to my chest while she continued to weep in my arms. I felt like my chest was about to explode and my head, too, with so many unanswered questions.

I was certain the culprit was her husband, the husband she was forced to marry two months ago. At this point, I was tired of coming between them as the go-between. I was ready to do something drastic to end their toxic relationship, but my hands were tied.

Hazel was my best friend and the love of my life and I could not sit back and watch her waste her life for the sake of her family. I continued to rock her until her cries subsided, and she disentangled her body from mine.

“What happened?” I asked again.

“He refused to let me go to work again, but I struggled with him, and he lost his temper and punched me”

I was so angry I was visibly shaking as I balled my palm into a fist. Then I said the first word that came into my mind.

“Haze, I want you to leave him… Please babe” I held her hands in mine and looked into her eyes.

“Adam, you know I can't do that to my family” she returned by look and then shyly look away”

“I want my Haze back…heck! I want my ray of sunshine and vibrant Haze back!”

“Adam, I want that too, but I think I lost that version of me two months ago…I don't really know who I am anymore.”

“You really do not have to go through this babe," I retorted, my heart breaking all over again for her.

“Hey, look at me babe…I’m right here, I’ve always been here waiting for when you will really see me” I tilted her head back to meet my gaze and I held it, so she would not back down. I watched as her soft hazel eyes settled on mine while the warm light from my bedroom made them glow from brown to green.

“Adam…you are my best friend, and you are my husband’s friend and” …

“Contract husband Haze” I fired back as my hands danced in circles around her lips and she unconsciously leaned into it and closed her eyes. I knew she was emotionally vulnerable at that moment, but I couldn't help myself.

I have loved Hazel for years only for her to be snatched away from me when I was almost at the end of winning her over. I hated to see her in the situation she was with her husband at the moment and I hated that all I could think about was crushing my lips to hers and making all her pain go away.

She opened her eyes and looked at me and the air between us cackled with electricity and I knew at that moment that I needed to do something, and I was sure she felt it too, as our lips were almost touching.

“Adam…” she said my name so softly that it was almost a whisper.

I could feel my heart beating loudly as I closed the space between us and captured her lips in mine. For a moment there was no reaction from her, but then she lost the battle, sighed softly and opened up to me. I drew her closer and deepened the kiss. It felt like something snapped inside of me because I couldn't seem to get enough of her.

Then I heard a throat clearing that jolted me back to reality. Hazel scurried out of my lap and I looked up to see three pairs of eyes staring back at me and one of them was Williams’, Hazel’s husband, and that was when I knew we were in deep trouble.