Flashbacks of Schuyler's Relationship Part II

Schuyler shakes her head as she remembers their last romantic encounter together and how it had ended. She sighs deeply when she thinks about that and how hurt she had been when he didn't want to take her on a date. She then grows angry when she thinks once again about how open and excited he was to go on a date with his new lady. She then has another flashback of them breaking up. This one was the day after their last romantic encounter:

Second Flashback

"I'm surprised you called so quickly." Schuyler say the next day as she enters his home.

"Yeah…" He says. He gives her a look and puts his hand behind his neck. "But I thought about what you said, and I wanted to talk about that."

Schuyler makes a face. "Okay." They head over to his couch and sit down.

"So… what have you thought about…?" She asks him.

He takes a breath and gives her a serious look. "Well, I thought about how you said you wanted something more in this relationship. How you wanted to go on dates and be more like a real couple…."

Schuyler nods, taking in what he was saying… "Yes…"

He puts his hands together. "And you know what? You're right, you deserve that…."

Schuyler nods again and she smiles. "Of course, I do."

He nods. "Yeah, you do. You deserve to have the type of relationship that you want. I do think you are a nice woman Schuyler, you're interesting, you're very pretty, you seem like you would be the type of person who knows how to have a good time…"

"I'm all of that…" Schuyler states excitedly.

"Yeah, you are, and I want you to have the type of relationship you really want. If you want to go on dates, you should go on dates…" His voice trails off for a moment before he continues.

"Yes, so where are we going on our date…?" She asks him.

He makes a face. "Schuyler like I said you deserve that type of relationship… but…"

Schuyler makes a face. "But what…?" She asks.

"But I'm not the guy, for you to do that with right now…" He reveals giving her an apologetic look.

Schuyler eyes widens and her frown deepens. "What?" She asks annoyed.

"It's not me, Schuyler." He says. "I can't give you that type of relationship right now…" He states in an apologetic manner.

"Why not?" She asks starting to get really upset.

"Because I'm not the type of man you deserve. I'm not that type of man right now…." He admits honestly. "I've been through a lot in the past couple of years, including multiples failed relationships and now I have…"

"You're not the type of man I deserve…." Schuyler says, interrupting him and rolling her eyes. "So, this is a it's not you, it's me speech…"

"It's a you deserve better and I want you to have that, but it has to be with someone else speech." He says in a matter of fact manner. "I'm just not in a place where I can be in a serious relationship right now…" He insists.

"This is unbelievable!" Schuyler exclaims angrily.

"I know you're upset right now, but you will thank me later, when you find someone who will give you the type of relationship you deserve…." He tells her. "And not some guy, who has made several mistakes in relationships and maybe needs to take a break altogether from them." He puts his hand on his face and closes his eyes for a moment.

"And maybe... just needs to be alone for a bit, while I figure out how to be a better man…" He sighs. "No woman deserves to be strung along if she wants more and your speech last night really helped drive that point home for me…"

"So, you have this epiphany, that leads you to break things off with me…" She asks continuing to get upset.

He rests his hand on her knee. "I realized that you deserve better than me, and that I need to fix me, if I ever want a serious relationship again. Which I'm not sure that I should even be in anytime soon."

"Ugh…." Schuyler groans and she removes his hand from her knee and moves further away from him on the couch.

"I know this is not what you wanted to hear but I do believe it is best for you. You deserve to be happy and be with a man who's going to give you what you want… And I need to think about the type of lifestyle I am living and need to evaluate this bringing home random women stuff…"

"So, I'm just a random woman?!" Schuyler exclaims. "I don't mean anything to you…?"

He sighs and shakes his head. "That's not what I mean, exactly. I mean in the past when the going got tough… I've resulted to doing behavior similar to this. I've brought home random women before, and…"

"So, I'm not the only one…." Schuyler jumps up off the couch disgusted with his admission. "This is just unreal..."

He gets up off the couch and looks at her.

"No, you have been the only one, this time around." He tells her looking her straight in her eyes. "But in the past, I have resorted to this type of behavior when things got rough and maybe it's time for me to stop it." He pauses thinking some more and continues.

"Like a couple of years ago... when I..."

Schuyler puts her hands up. "Spare me the details of you and other women…"

He shakes his head. "You know I'm not a monk… You know about some of my past relationships..."

"I knew of some of the more serious ones yes… like the marriages…" Schuyler confirms to him. "But I do not want to hear about you and a bunch of randoms getting it on…"

"Okay fair enough…" He continues understanding. "I will just say that over two years ago things got rough again and I resorted to some of this behavior and tried to the casual thing and one of the women I was with, told me that didn't seem like me…" He shakes his head remembering that conversation. "She said she believed that deep down, I wanted more than that…"

Schuyler gestures to him angrily. "Well apparently she was wrong, because over two years later, you're still doing the same behavior."

He makes a face. "Maybe I should have taken her advice to heart… and did some more soul searching. I mean at one point I tried to do something serious again, but things spiraled out of control, when I lost…"

"Oh, spare me Nick!". Schuyler exclaims angrily. "Spare me…. I'm tired of you blaming all of your problems on losing custody of a son that was never truly yours to begin with." She snaps.

A hurt look comes across Nick's face after she says that. "He was my son in every way that mattered." He states referring to Christian.

Schuyler shakes her head. "Well apparently that judge didn't see it that way. And that is why your brother Christian's actual father, got custody of him." She retorts. "And you lost him and just became a loser in general."

Nick looks like she had just slapped him across the face. "Ouch. Schuyler…"

"Nope it's true, you became a loser." Schuyler insists. "Holed up in your house doing much of nothing, whining about losing your son, who is really your nephew." She sighs and shakes her head a frustrated look on her face. "And I was a loser right along with you, because I laid right up here with you, while you did all of this and didn't really give me anything substantial in return."

She shakes her head. "No dates, no introducing me to your family or friends. You just used me to make yourself feel better…" She accuses him.

"Schuyler, I didn't use you, you're the one that said you were okay with this and even suggested it, because you just had gotten out of a serious relationship that didn't end well..." Nick reminds her. "Or at least that is what you told me…"

"But I end up wanting more Nick!" She yells.

"I know, and that is why I am ending things with you, so you can have that with someone else." He puts his hand on his face thinking. "And maybe my "loser" self can be single for a moment and get it together and figure out what is that I really want." He pauses a somber look coming across his face.

"Because I'm not really happy right now. With this situation and other situations in my life. And I need to do better." He nods his head thinking again. "I need to do better." He repeats.

"And I need to think more about my kids and focus more on them. Faith is getting older now and still needs me, Summer is going to have a baby and I'm going to be a grandfather." He pauses and continues. "They need me,... the best version of me and I need to be there for them."

"Of course, the best verison of you..." Schuyler remarks to him sarcastically. "Too bad you couldn't give that to any woman you've been with including either one of their mothers. That's probably why you had failed marriages with the both of them..." She comments coldly.

"You want to be an example to your daughters..." She continues. "What type of example are you setting by bringing home random women as you claim and have romps with them, including on the couch and the counter...?" She asks angrily. "What would you have done if one of your daughters had showed up when that was going on?" She asks.

"Look Schuyler, I know you're hurting right now..."

"You don't know anything Nick... you're just a clueless doofus, who I have been wasting my time with these past few months." She scowls. "I feel like such a fool wasting my time with you...Ugh!" She yells.

"You're angry now, but you'll realize this is for the best..." He predicts, a bit taken back by her anger. He really had thought they were on the same page regarding their relationship. She had told him she wasn't looking for anything serious and he was surprised she was taking him ending things as badly as she was. He had similar situations with women in the past and they took it much better than Schuyler was taking it.

Schuyler shakes her head. "For the best..." She closes her eyes and whispers that sentence. "Yeah it probably is..." She concludes in a bitter tone.

"I think you will realize that it really is." He states in a matter of fact manner. "You can move on and have the type of relationship you deserve..." He repeats again. "And I hope you get that." He says sincerely. He shrugs. "And in the meantime, I will work on being a better man, and being someone that my daughters and family can actually be proud of again."

"Right..." Schuyler laughs bitterly. "You'll just find another woman who will be dumb enough to waste her time with you like I did..." She predicts sourly.

She then holds up her hand, when Nick starts to speak again. "I just hope she's more your speed and actually okay with your behavior... or she gets out of the relationship sooner than I did. Hopefully she comes to her senses about you before I did..." She pauses and gives him a very angry stare.

"I hope she ends up realizing how lousy you are." She looks him up and down in disgust. "In more ways than one." She then turns to leave. Nick follows her into the hallway of his home as they walk to the front door.

"I wish things could have been different between us Schuyler. I wish I could have given you the type of relationship you wanted and deserved..." He says regretfully.

"Well, you failed at that... Just like you failed at other relationships, Just like you failed at keeping Christian and your company. And everything else you told me you failed at when we spent all those nights together." Nick makes a face as they reach the door. Schuyler turns around to face him once more.

"You know what I'm glad we are ending things. I've wasted enough time with you..."

"I wish we could be friends..." Nick says.

"That's not going to happen, and you stay away from me." She orders angrily. She grabs the knob on the door and then notices a vase on a table near the door. She reaches out and pushes it on the ground causing it to shatter.

"Schuyler, What the heck!" Nick exclaims upset that she did that. "That was expensive!"

"Take that as a warning, you messed with the wrong woman, and you need to stay away from me." Schuyler repeats. She gives him a warning look and then opens the door and leaves his home, slamming the door behind her.

Nick frowns deeply after she leaves and looks down at the shattered glass on the floor. He sighs deeply, reflecting on what had just happened and goes and gets a broom and dust pan to get it up. While he's doing that, he comes to an even stronger conclusion that breaking up with Schuyler really was the best thing to do.

Flashback ends

Schuyler closes her eyes remembering those moments and how upset she had felt. She thought she had gotten over him, but she was finding out that Nick Newman was a hard man to forget about. She sighs. She knew she had to try and get over him. But when she saw him again at Crimson Lights, planning on attending a wedding with his new lady, it stirred up a lot of unhappy feelings that she thought she had rid herself of. It turns out that she had just buried them and not buried them deep enough.

She sighs again. I have to get over him. She thinks to herself. She lays down on the side of her bed and frowns. She closes her eyes and tries to once again put Nick out of her mind. After she closes her eyes, she tries to think of something else more positive. Her mind once again thinks of Fen and she smiles. She goes to sleep hoping she will have dreams of him.