CHAPTER 2

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.

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