Hopelessly Strong

**Chapter 2**

I've always been 'looking for love in all the wrong places'. Corny, over used phrase, I know, but true none the less.

I don't think I have ever actually fallen in love with a person. I tend to fall in love with who I want that person to be. I had been a naive young girl who thought she could mold herself the perfect fairy tale using what raw materials were available. I have fallen in love with the idea of the perfect man, one that I held up on a pedestal.

I blame the 'happy ever afters', the 'once upon a times', and mostly those freaking Disney princesses with unholy perfect features. *sigh

So, don't be surprised when I tell you I have been made a fool of more times than once.

Two articular occasions stands out.

Ryan. Tyler.

Ryan was my first long-term boyfriend. I wasted five years of my life with this man. I knew that we weren't going to make it in the second year of dating him. But, like many hopeless romantics, I was comfortable and felt that I could change him.

I am an idiot.

We had lived together off and on, and we were going to try living together once more. "Last chance!", I told him. "Are you sure you are okay with this?", I asked him. Oh how I repeated those two phrases over and over the whole month before we signed for the apartment. So to say I was surprised when he called me the night before we were to sign the lease, just to tell me he couldn't do it, is an understatement. I was broken woman, but I still had my self-respect. I calmly told him,"Well, I guess this is the end then."

The good news is I got over him in a week, and I had learned so much from being with him. I knew exactly what I DIDN'T want from love. An alcoholic 29 year old who referred to me as his 'old lady'. Oh how I hated that title!

So life went on.

I do not beg, and I do not cower away from intense situations. I am a strong woman.

But apparently, I was still an idiot.

Tyler. Now he was a man you could melt into. Strong, protective, sweet, and mine! We met a fell in love by our 8th date. We were engaged by the 12th. He had blond hair and confidence, both characteristics were instilled in him from birth.

I had gone to my very last fitting of my dress. It fit perfect. I was on top of the world. Instead of heading back to the hospital, where I had worked as a nurse for the past 2 years, I went straight home. I only made one stop to pick up Tyler's favorite meal, cheeseburgers and fries. I hated the greasy stuff, but I knew it would put him in the same mood I was already enjoying myself.

I walked into the apartment and heard the shower. I took that opportunity to get out paper plates and fill two cups with ice and Diet Coke.

I decided to check on Tyler when it had been 15 minutes and the shower was still running.

Wanting to surprise him, I crept into the steamy bathroom slowly.

Indeed, it was a surprise.

I saw her first. Trisha. He bad her pinned against the shower wall as they moved rhythmically together. Moans and gasps broke free from the steamy shower. He held onto her perfectly curvy hips as she faced the wall, enjoying each entrance he made from behind. He was ravenous for her. His movements were hungry and his eyes were far away.

It took 10 minutes for her to notice me. And when she did, the most devious smile spread across her face.

Skank.

I watched I horror as the thrusts quickened and they finally stiffened, together, and convulsed to their climax. They were finished. He had left his deeds inside of her. It was then that I fully processed the nightmare I had just witnessed.

"Was it the best you'd ever had, baby?", she asked him, knowing I was a mere foot behind him.

"Of course it was, sexy.", he replied.

Then, he noticed my presence.

Victory was plastered on Trisha's face, horror engulfed his.

He was caught.

I was still wide eyed and numb, but anger and hurt soon filled me.

"Please."

"I love you!"

"It wasn't what you think."

He was begging. But it was too late. The numbness in me had reached my heart and I wasn't able to listen.

It seemed to take me years to pack my few small bags and high tail it out of that apartment like a bat out of hell. But when I was finally on the road, I drove directly to my brother's house.

My brothers, Luke and Jack, were my own personal angels. My comfort in a time of sorrow. My rocks.

To say they wanted him dead would be sugar coating it. But I don't dare repeat their words.

I prayed he would stay away.

And he did.

*****Trishia----------------------------------------------->