Hazel in the Demon's Den

"You're awake?" Will asked with a smile. "I bought breakfast."

Hazel yawned and rubbed her eyes. Her sleep wasn't very restful at all since she kept waking up but at least it ended with a good dream. Her night terrors had stopped for the most part as the years went by but she didn't have good dreams terribly often.

Once her eyes were fully focused she noticed the white paper bag in his hands. She opened it up and discovered a sealed plastic cup filled with fresh fruit slices and a poppy seed muffin.

Hazel looked up at him. "Did you already eat?"

"Yeah, I had my breakfast about twenty minutes ago. You looked so peaceful I didn't want to wake you up," Will replied nonchalantly.

She briefly glanced in the vanity mirror. Peaceful?! Her hair looked like a tornado had blown through it!

Hazel had to talk herself out of her embarrassment. This man had already seen her wear doughnut-patterned pajama pants with a shirt that says "donut disturb" and stand up on top of a table to ask a room full of strangers to marry her. Her hair was the last thing she should be worrying about.

She cleared her throat to reset her equilibrium. "What are we doing today?"

"I couldn't find a flight back to Salt Lake City until 6 PM so why don't you show me around your city?" Will suggested.

"I can do that," Hazel said after swallowing a mouthful of muffin. "We can get going as soon as I'm done eating and get ready."

Since there were so many sights to hit, Hazel finished her breakfast as quickly as she could and disappeared into the bathroom. Since Billy couldn't dictate her fashion choices anymore, she wore a pair of pastel floral shorts and a light pink tee shirt and did her hair up in a crown braid.

As a finishing touch, she blended together pink and brown eyeshadow and put on a little mascara and a light pink lip tint. She always made sure to wear makeup in public because if she didn't, her diminutive stature and freckles made her look like she was about twelve years old.

Hazel smiled at herself in the mirror. She looked pretty darn good. Once she felt presentable she walked out to meet her husband.

His eyes widened slightly when he saw her. "Hazel, you—"

"Is it too much?" she asked self-consciously.

Will shook his head. "No. You look great."

Her stomach flipped slightly. This guy had known her less than twenty-four hours and he wasn't shy with the compliments at all.

She grabbed her suitcase and pulled it behind her as he made sure he had the room key to check out. It was a simple process and they were in the rental car minutes later. Will asked where they should go first and she decided on Lombard Street, dubbed "the crookedest street in the world."

At one point the incline was so steep that instead of having cars try to go straight down it, the road had eight hairpin turns to ease the transition. For this reason it had become an oddly popular tourist destination. There weren't any other streets like it.

It was always crowded and inching down all of those turns took a solid ten minutes but it was still kind of fun. Hazel had never actually driven down it before, though she had walked it once with some of Billy's friends in college.

"And here I thought driving in the snow was hard," Will joked.

Hazel frowned. "Is there a lot of snow in Park City?"

"Oh yeah, in the winter you have to have snow chains on your tires and I usually end up parking further down the mountain and taking a snowmobile to my car. I live in a cabin that usually gets a few feet of snow over the course of the winter."

She had only ever seen pictures of snow so she didn't know the first thing about driving a snowmobile. It sounded dangerous.

"I've never been in the snow before," she admitted nervously.

"Don't worry, it's not so bad. You can ride on the back of the snowmobile with me at first but I'll teach you how to do it yourself once you're comfortable," Will reassured her.

Hazel only felt slightly better. What exactly had she gotten herself into? She tried to distract herself by changing the subject.

"So, is there anywhere you would like to see specifically? A few things I was thinking of are Ghirardelli Square, the Golden Gate Bridge, and Alcatraz."

"I'm cool with chocolate and bridges but I don't particularly want to see the inside of a prison," Will said lightly.

Hazel shrugged. She didn't care what they did. It was simply a way to kill time until they needed to be at the airport.

There were several people in the arts department in college who weren't San Francisco natives and Hazel had heard of the best places to get a good shot of the bridge from them. She directed Will to one of them in a little spot on Baker Beach.

It really was a great view of the bridge and there weren't even that many other people around to get in the background. She had taken a photography class as part of her program and offered to take Will's picture.

He let her do it but then insisted she be in a picture as well. His photography efforts were a bit sloppier than hers but it still worked. Then he wanted one together, which surprised her for some reason.

Why was he acting like they were all chummy? They were husband and wife in name only. Hazel didn't protest though. She simply handed off her phone to a stranger on the beach after asking for a favor. She said she would take a picture of him if he took one for her.

Will draped an arm around her tiny shoulders as the stranger told them both to smile. Her smile was probably a bit forced since she still wasn't used to being touched by anyone but Billy Lawson.

He hadn't even been that touchy feely a person. He liked kissing and they held hands but unlike the original Billy, he wasn't one for casual touches. She had thought he simply changed as he grew up. What an idiot she'd been.

Hazel needed to get used to Will's friendly touches. He had been a perfect gentleman so far; she believed he didn't mean any harm.