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“I made a mistake, Ryker. I know that now.”
“Mistake or not, I’m glad your answer was no. Now leave your key and get the hell out of my penthouse. And if you harass my wife again or come within a hundred yards of her, I’ll have a restraining order issued.”
Ryker walks back to the front door and opens it for her to exit.
Her eyes go wide.
I don’t think this woman has had anyone say no to her, let alone threaten legal action.
She stomps off to the kitchen, tugs on her knee-length jacket, and grabs her key off the kitchen island.
She slaps her spare key into Ryker’s awaiting hand.
“You’re going to regret turning me down in two years when she divorces you,” she says.
“The only regret I have is proposing to you at all.”
She makes a huffing noise and walks out the door. Ryker closes it behind her.
“Juliet are you ok?” he asks.
I don’t say anything as I walk down the hallway.
I hear Ryker make his way into the kitchen quickly and start blowing out all the candles. She probably lit twenty in there and it’s a major fire hazard he needs to handle first.
I don't even know what to say. I know this isn't his fault and yet on some level, she must have thought she had hooks in Ryker deep enough to show up as she did.
Ex-girlfriends… new girlfriends, my father had them all.
I follow the rose petals down the hall and to his room. I take the steps inside to find candles lit and rose petals all over the bed that we consummated our marriage in a few days before.
The way I view this room has changed, as stupid as that is. I'm going to blame it on the hormones since I’m at the tail end of my menstrual cycle, though that’s a cop-out.
Nothing's changed. It's the same. But now I have a memory of the woman who was here before me and I've seen what she looks like.
Ryker isn’t the same man as my father, I know that. But Ryker is also still a stranger. A professional player with women vying for his attention every day.
Ryker walks up behind me.
“Hey,” he says. “I'm sorry that happened.”
“Why did she think she could come up here?” I ask.
I just need to know if he gave her any reason to believe that there was still something between them.
“I have no idea. But she's gone now, and she won't be coming back.”
The fact that he threatened her with a restraining order doesn’t sound like a man holding a door open for an old flame.
“She’s pretty.”
“Not as pretty as you,” he says, taking a step closer.
I turn to face him. I’m tired of looking at this room covered in rose petals and candlelight. A room that feels like a stranger broke in and drew graffiti all over something sacred.
“You didn’t tell me you proposed to someone else before me.”
“She and I dated for six months. When I found out that I needed a fiancé visa, I proposed. When I told her that if I got deported that I would lose my Hawkeyes spot on the team, retire and move to Canada, she refused that life, claiming that she didn’t want to be married to an old has-been hockey player who lives in Canada.” He scanned the bedroom for a second and then his eyes meet mine again. “She doesn’t want me, Juliet. She wants Haynes #19, Captain of the Hawkeyes and US resident.”
