Bryan looked at his reflection in the bathroom mirror and sighed. This was not a handsome face he is known for; the clear blue eyes now dimmed, sunk and hollow. His fair complexion and freshness of skin were no longer; it was oily with red patches scattered across like an island. The natural redness of his lips - the very one that girls were longed to be kissed with - has gone leaving a trail of chapped, dry skin on the surface. This was not Bryan Edison.

This was a guy who just learnt that his true love have gone and married her own true love. She was married in Rome too!  Thousands of miles away -- too far for Bryan to crashed the wedding and steal the bride. No, he was too poor to afford a plane ticket to Rome besides he didn't know until after the honeymoon ended and the wedding pictures had been shared on the social media.

It was all too late; gone has Katherine Bedford, the one possessor of Bryan's heart, leaving him a carcass of his old self.

Bryan went out of the bathroom with resolution of one more petty day and he would moved on. He would resumed his crappy job as a call center staff. He would resumed his lonely life as best as he can and hoping that in the meantime he could find something worth living for and if he didn't; well, maybe he just ended this life, better luck next time.

Bryan did spend one more day soaking in his own sour juice accompanied with alcoholic drink of his own mixing. He would be a tasty pickle if he were a cucumber for he has been mourning for over a month now.

Here's the deal with Bryan and Katherine: they were friends in college, best friend even! Kat was the sort of cool girl you only see in movie - or at least she tried to be - She was pretty, tall, a bit of tomboy but not too much because she likes make up and pretty dresses. She smokes a ton of cigarettes in a day, she could take hard liquor and she is easy to talk to - if you are her friend. Bryan was in love the moment he laid eyes on her in the first day of college. He eventually befriended her and they formed a group of 5 hang out friends; Bryan, Kat, Hannah, Sherly and Adam. All those time Bryan was secretly in love with Kat while Kat was having a romance problem of her own with her highschool sweetheart.

Three years into friendship, Bryan finally saw an opening when Kat declared that she and the highschool sweetheart - Leo were no longer together for good and that she had determined to start a fresh. Then and there Kat saw how through thick and thin; the one who was always there was Bryan. He cheered her up to no end, he was a good listener, he was ready to listen and talk no matter how late or how early; he was better than 911 operator when it comes to Katherine.

Bryan finally got the girl he has been dreaming of. Their relationship lasted for three months. In the end Katherine was all honesty when she told Bryan how she could never forget Leo and that she was positively sure that her true love was that man and not Bryan.

He had let her go. How could he made her stay when she didn't want to?

They stayed friend however much to Bryan's peace of heart. But it was the second best thing, that way he wouldn't lost her completely. He repressed his jealousy and broken hearted. From then on he was openly in love with Katherine. Everybody knew it, everybody talked about it. If you were to asked the class of 2008 what's the first thing that came to mind when they hear the name Bryan Edison, they'd said Katherine Bedford and likewise.

After they graduated college, the five friends went their separate way but still tightly maintain to keep in touch except for Katherine who had gone to England to work in Leo's parents company. Bryan was still adamant to keep tab on Kat, hoping against hope that she would realized her mistake and came back to him. The girl has accepted a job in her sweetheart's company, what chance did Bryan has against that?

Years passed and friendship drifted apart. The last one to go was Sherly and that was with heavy heart and frustration too that Sherly walked away from Bryan. Now, that was another story to tell. However, Bryan still persevered in his love for Kat and they kept in touch still. When Katherine came home, the two of them would met for coffee; sometimes the old gang - minus Sherly - would meet up and they would be having a great time only for Bryan to broke his own heart the day Katherine hopped on a plane back to England - back to Leo.

Bryan had been preserving his love and hope for Katherine for years, praying that once again she would be his. All those hopes and prayer had been shattered the day Bryan saw Katherine and Leo wedding pictures on social media, shared a week after the actual wedding. There was no news from Kat about the cursed wedding. Bryan didn't know whether the gang knew about it beforehand but chose not to tell  him or perhaps they were just as surprised as he was. No matter now. The wedding is done, she was taken and nothing to be done about it but to accept the reality.

Bryan was standing on the roof of his office building; more like standing on the edge of the roof with a half smoked ciggaret between his thumb and forefinger. He looked down and considered his chance of instant death. Would he die instantly after he hit the ground? Or would he feel pain first before death swooped him in? Is there a chance that he would passed out before he hit the ground? Is he brave enough to take a leap? All those thoughts swam in his head as the wind whispered in his ears.

A click and someone opened the roof door. A fellow smoker it must be for who else would bother going to the roof during lunch hour.

"Don't mind me," the fellow smoker turned out to be a woman. She walked a little farther away from where Bryan was standing. She minded her own business.

Bryan took one look of the woman and turned  back his gaze to the concrete ground far below him. One of these days, he thought. One of these days he would find that his lonely, dog crap of a life would worth nothing and then he would find the courage or desperation to push himself off the building.

Perhaps not today.

Bryan sucked the rest of his cigarette and sighed as he sat down on the ledge. View minutes more and the lunch break would be over and he has to go back to his crappy work. Remembering his job brought back all the miseries that he had put aside as his intentions for suicide subsided earlier.

As the smoke cleared out from his eyes, he caught his fellow smoker walked towards the front door. Her smoking time had finished it appeared. There was something familiar about her, Bryan wondered where did he saw this woman before. He didn't wonder for long because as the woman got closer he could see clearly that she was his old college friend.

"Sylvia!"

"Bryan?"

They both instantly recognized each other. A sense of familiarity filled Bryan that made him unexpectedly glad to have met Sylvia. Mind you, they were not close enough in college to be called friend but not at all ignorant of each other to be called a mere acquaintance.

Bryan and Sylvia had been in several classes together but what really made Bryan closer to Sylvia were at the exam. She would always had an answer to every question ready in her quaint little pencil case and she was generous enough to share it with whoever it was that sat close by and Bryan made sure that he was one of the people to received her generosity.

"I didn't know you work here?" asked Bryan after they have embraced each other like a long lost friend.

"I didn't," Sylvia said nonchalantly.

"So, how did you end up here?"

"I married the owner of this building," Sylvia laughed heartily that left Bryan confused whether she meant it or not.

"No kidding? You married to Jem Waldorf?"

"The very one. I have to go," Sylvia moved towards the intended door but stopped in her track. "Say, Bryan, we should have coffee sometime,"

"Yes, we should. Call me," Bryan consented heartily. After much loneliness the invitation from Sylvia was exciting even though Bryan wasn't sure what could they be talking about that would interest him or her.

"I will!" shouted Sylvia as she closed the heavy rooftop door behind her.

"Don't you want my number?" but Sylvia was already out of earshot.

Bryan didn't need to wait long for the said telephone call, only the next day Sylvia called him on his work and that very evening they met for coffee.

The cafe wasn't full that evening. Only couple of people coming in and out to pick up their order. Bryan and Sylvia sat facing each other near the door - a moved from both of them without each other acknowledgement in case they find their meeting somewhat boring, they could leave easily.

"You look like shit," said Sylvia after they have sat down. "Have they been working you too hard?"

Bryan thought it was just like Sylvia to be bluntly honest and said whatever comes to her mind then and there. She was that kind of person. Bryan remembered those times back; how he had laughed when he chanced to hear some of Sylvia insensitive remarked borderline pure insult directed at her friends but it wasn't that funny one day when he heard what she said about Katherine.

Katherine Bedford in Sylvia's opinion was an opportunist and a gold digger. She had condemned long before -- when Bryan's feeling had been known to the whole class and bets were taken for it -- that he would never win Katherine unless by some miracle he became a millionaire overnight. Bryan had heard her opinion, he marched straight to Sylvia and said a cuss words and insults that would kill grandmothers in a second.

The rememberance of the insults directed at his true love, Katherine had risen some of the old resentment Bryan had felt towards Sylvia. It was a dim feeling of hurt that he unconsciously stored deep down. As it flickered that very night over coffee, Bryan tried to offends Sylvia by curt comment about her marriage to Jem Waldorf.

"You on the other hand looking fabulous! Quite different from the way you looked back then, must've been nice to have married to a millionaire," said Bryan sarcastically.

Sylvia smiled happily, "it has its benefits for sure. I do look good, don't I? I just had my nose done last week. Must do everything to keep the husband interested," her smiled dim a little after she said those words.

Bryan had chanced to captured the dimness of Sylvia's smile and the flickered of sadness in her eyes when her words were said. He couldn't helped but to soften up to her.

The conversation then turned to rememberance as they talked about their old friends and the little incidents that have left marks on their old college life eleven years ago. It was a fun and light conversation until Sylvia mentioned Katherine.

"Say, Bryan, you're not still pining over Kat, are you?" asked Sylvia after she lighted her third cigarettes and sucked it deeply that thick smoke coming out of her.

"I remember how we used to bet whether you two will get back together or not. I won a lot back then," she continued nonchalantly, unaware that her words were the salt of Bryan's wounding heart. "I heard she eventually married that guy,"

"She had," answered Bryan shortly unable to concealed the pain he still feeling a month later.

"I'm sorry, it's wrong of me, Bryan. I hope you won't curse me like you did back in college,"

Bryan bursted out laughing despite himself.

"I was mean," he said in between laughter. "I didn't get the chance to apologise,"

"It was my fault. Never insult a man's lover, my mother told me afterwards," Sylvia laid back in her chair and puffed up a cloud of smoke then sighing dreamily.

"It must be nice to be loved like she is. She could go on being crazy or ugly or fat and you would still love her like she's the only girl in the world. I bet if she were to walked out of her marriage right now and go back to you, you would spread your arms wide to receive her!"

"I might," Bryan smiled. The thought of Katherine leaving her newly wed husband excited him a little however unlikely it would seem.

"You might?" exclaimed Sylvia jokingly. "Might my ***! You one hundred percent for sure will!" They both laughed heartily for a while.

"Some girls have more luck," Sylvia continued somberly.

"Such as you,"

The remarks from Bryan sunk her heart lower rather than lifted her up as Bryan intended. She has not been anywhere near luck when it comes to romance. Out of nowhere Sylvia poured out her marital problems to Bryan. It came out of desperation and the fullness of her heart that she blurted out her long concealed miseries being married to a millionaire.

She had felt very lucky in the beginning, even bragged about it quite often to her friends but the bliss didn't last very long. Jem started it out when he hired a fitness guru and nutritionist the moment Sylvia announced that she was pregnant with their first child. It might seemed caring on the surface as Sylvia had thought for a while but after pregnancy the demand for her to look perfect had been reinforced along with some insensitive words from Jem. However now Sylvia would rather he said those mean words than to received his silence.

Jem has been cold and distance for a view years. He had not been warm since their wedding but now she was altogether invisible in his world. She suspected that he was having an affair but couldn't prove any of it. Now, she was all alone, aside and forgotten in her luxurious mansion.

"Sometimes I just think that it better for me to have an affair myself. Screw the prenup!"

"Are you telling me that Sylvia Simone, the girl who has more hook up than all the kids in our college combined hasn't had an affair in all these years?" shouted Bryan shockingly. The people that have been queuing for their coffee turned their heads, looking at Bryan strangely.

"Geez, Bryan! Write in the newspaper, why don't you?" said Sylvia blushing. Despite the blunt disposition in her youth, marriage life and age maturity had humbled that once cheerful girl.

They soon returned to light conversation again and then moments afterwards decided to call it a night. Bryan offered to walked Sylvia back to her house and she accepted it gladly.

"It's me," Sylvia said stopping in front of a five star hotel building.

"But it's a hotel,"

"Why would I go back to an empty house. It's just so depressing,"

"Aren't you going to be alone in your hotel room all the same?"

"Maybe not if you want to come up and have an affair with me?" taunted Sylvia although she really meant what she just offered.

"You don't think this through," Bryan said decidedly. It was an easy decision for him because after all he liked doing what she intended on doing upstairs. However, he thought more about her and the prenup agreement that she had mentioned earlier. He was considerate that evening, uncommonly so.

"I don't, but is there anyone who think through before having an affair?" Sylvia chuckled. "look, Bryan, do you want this ***** or not?"

Sylvia reached out her hand to Bryan. He hesitated for a moment but eventually he took Sylvia's hand and they both went up to her room.

It has been almost two months passed since Bryan and Sylvia decided to have an affair. They had became closer to each other in all those times. The loneliness is the main force that drove them together more. After all, they were just two lonely people; ignored and forgotten making the best of each other's company; making each other felt good.

Bryan, all the more grateful for Sylvia's presence. Unknowingly to her, she had pulled Bryan out of the darkness of his thoughts. He hasn't forgotten about Katherine, he was still hurting and there were no signs of healing just yet but looking at Sylvia; being with Sylvia has made him calm and sometimes he could pushed Katherine out of his mind for a while.

He felt close to Sylvia that sometimes he thought he could fall in love with her.

Sylvia too has felt less lonely being with Bryan. Her anger towards Jem has subsided leaving only indifference and acceptance of her situation. Didn't matter now whether Jem would come home or not, didn't matter now whether he would talk to her or not. Sylvia was grateful too for her uncomplicated relationship with Bryan.

Complications, that was the real reason why Sylvia avoided affair before. She had decided to never again enter any kind of relationship be it an affair or straight up dating. She had enough of man and how they treated her. She had enough of emotional turmoil any relationship at some point would caused. She could never again risked her heart for anyone. Jem had done her for good.

Now with Bryan, Sylvia felt that she was secured from any deep feeling. She knew how much dedicated Bryan to Katherine, he could never loved any other woman, Katherine had done him good.

It was Friday night, Bryan noticed something wrong when he entered Sylvia's hotel room. The minute he stepped foot inside, he saw how red Sylvia's eyes and they were swollen - clearly she had been crying.

"Is there something wrong?" asked Bryan as he rushed to Sylvia.

"Nothing's wrong," said Sylvia shortly and proceeded to take off her clothes.

"Clearly you've been crying. Your eyes are all swollen," Bryan was adamant and seemed undistracted from all the clothes that have been off of Sylvia's body. He wanted answer and for Sylvia to sometimes opened up to him.

"Are these a deal breaker to you?" Sylvia pointed to her swollen eyes. "Should I inject myself with more Botox to make it more appealing to you?"

"Sylvia, I just want you to tell me what's happening with your life that made you cry like this. You know you can talk to me, I'm not just some guy you fucked on a one night stand!"

"That is exactly what you are to me,"

"Is that true?"

"I just said so,"

"Fine, I'll leave," Bryan was pretty angry at the time and walked fast to the door.

"Go! Leave me like he did! You all are just the same shit!" Screamed Sylvia after she threw an ashtray to the door that just been closed.

Bryan heard her screaming and the ashtray being slammed to the door. He rushed back in and without saying anything held Sylvia in his arm tightly.

"I'm sorry," whispered Bryan softly.

Nothing more to be said afterwards. Bryan kissed Sylvia and slipped his hand on her thighs. He pushed her into the bed. The sex was on fire that night.

The night went on as Bryan and Sylvia panting away in their hotel room, out of breath, out of energy. Not long after Sylvia fell asleep while Bryan laid beside her, looking at the ceiling thinking about how he could help her get out of her crappy marriage.

"Why don't you file a divorce?" asked Bryan out of the blue during breakfast the next morning.

"I got prenup. If he found out I'm cheating on him, I get nothing. If I can prove that he's cheating on me I got half the money," Sylvia suddenly laughed. "What a stupid girl I was to agree to such prenup!"

"Don't you want to find the prove?"

"Do you know how many PI I have hired in the past but they all turned at me. He paid more,"

Bryan became quiet. He was thinking of the way that he could help her. Somehow he thought she'll be with him when the divorce is settled although Bryan still wasn't sure about his feeling for Sylvia. But he thought, it's nice to be with someone rather than being alone.

So, Bryan worked on his plan to stake out his boss, Jem Waldorf. He went out when the boss went out. Bryan didn't even care about his attendance anymore. His work were all neglected. At first he thought that the stake out would be easy but it has been weeks of nothing and he has been given 2 warnings from the HR about his unattended work.

Bryan ignored them all and kept pursuing Jem. Well, his determination finally paid off. Jem went out of the office one day before lunch time, got into his car and drove all the way to a suburban area. With so much effort Bryan and the taxi driver caught up with Jem without being noticed. Jem went inside the house, welcomed by a young girl of 20 - he presumed - and do you know who is that girl? She was the daughter of Jem's old secretary Mrs. Johnson.

Bryan got out his phone and took a picture of Jem and the girl having sex in that girl's all pink bedroom. Unsatisfied with his photo, Bryan planned to steal Jem's phone, who knows what he might find in that little device.

In the afternoon Jem went back to the office and Bryan was looking for an opportunity to get into his office and steal the phone. The opportunity came right before a meeting that Jem was supposed to be in. That time Mrs. Johnson has left her desk to go to the meeting room and Jem thinking he would first go to the bathroom before joining in to the meeting decided to leave his phone in his office. Bryan sneaked in and took the phone and left the office immediately.

He had to browse website after website and watch videos after videos on how to open a password locked phone but by some miracle the phone became unlocked and revealed a jewel of countless photos of ***** Jem and his girlfriend.

Bryan smiled as he imagining the look on Sylvia's face. She must be ecstatic about this. She'll divorce this useless men and be with him.