"At the point where most people can't think straight let alone remember their own names out of their drunken stupor..."
"How come she can still clearly call out her name?"
Why can't it be me?
Why not me?
"Every single time and without even meaning t...
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"I don't know whether I should thank her or strangle the life out of her every time you call me and I get free booze." Tisha surveyed the empty glasses before us and then signaled the bartender for two more of the same. "It's like when she hurts you just don't bleed tears anymore—the liquor overflows too."
I took one of the two Vespers and drank. "You thank me. I'm the one paying." I chuckled. We may have finished a few but I could still hold.
"What did you ever see in her?" She reached for her glass but did not drink and waited for me to answer.
"I saw her and wanted her." I shrugged. "I don't know why I did... I pursued her... I courted her... Even when I learned she loves someone else... I just ran after her... Persevered, even more, when I knew that her love was one-sided."
"That's stupid. And here I thought you were the sharpest tool in the shed." She downed her drink. "You knew she is emotionally attached to another. That's a recipe for a broken heart, Sam! Why not fall for someone else?"
Some people fall for someone they have no business falling in love with, in the first place.
I was no exception.
"You tell me. Knowing was one thing but this heart won't listen." I took another sip.
"Let me at it and I'll beat it to submission." She curled her fist and sent a playful jab on my chest. I laughed at her antics.
I wanted to choke this foolish heart too.
"If only it were that easy... I tried staying away too. I buried myself in work and not think of her—tired myself out so that when night falls I crash in bed and not dream of her." I examined the drink before me as if it was more captivating at the moment.
"Then why are you neck-deep in ruins right now?" She had her elbow on the counter and laid her head on her palm.
Because the chains of love around my heart compelled me to stay...
"After weeks of ignoring her, she showed up at my workplace... told me she wanted us to try... and we did..."
I remembered Austen's face as she was shown inside my office that afternoon. Then, she was a college student. A month of not seeing her, I drank in her features. Try as hard as I could, I could not send her away. She has grown even more beautiful in the weeks I have not laid my eyes on her.
"Especially when she said, 'I am falling for you, Samantha... I think I already did..." It was only a week or so later when I found out that the object of Austen's unrequited affection was in a serious relationship at that time."
Like a sick puppy, Austen looked for someone to help her lick her wound.
"Oh, Sam..." I heard her sigh in frustration because I fell for the oldest trick in the book.
