He knew this was how it was meant to be. How it needed to be.

But he would be lying if he didn't say the sight of you laughing and smiling with Jake Seresin didn't feel like his heart was being ripped out of his chest. And he couldn't even be jealous. Not at all.

It was his fault. He knew that as well. God, he knew everything at this point. You were his best friend, the absolute love of his life, and he blew it. Not that you knew. For you, nothing had changed at all. Bradley was still your friend, still the same, and you had gotten with Jake.

It could be Bradley with you right now, if he had just spoken up about his goddamn feelings and told you that he was madly in love with you, that you were the most beautiful and perfect person he had ever met and he would give up his whole life just for a kiss, or a glance, anything-

But he didn't. And now he was stuck here, to watch this from where he sat across the bar.

Every single bone in his body, every muscle, all of him ached for you. For you, your everything. Your anything. Bradley Bradshaw was not supposed to be this type of man. He had a reputation to uphold. But what use was a reputation if he didn't have you? What use was anything?

The only reason he didn't tell you was because he just knew he didn't deserve you. You deserved the whole world and more, and he was nothing. Just some sad guy scared of letting you go, and scared of commitment.

And you'd come back to him eventually. He would never stop waiting. That's all he did. Wait. Even if it drove him crazy. It was just never over. You were always there. Always to him. Like some sort of scar on his own soul. He never wanted it to heal.

Maybe, just maybe, one day you would realise. You would realise that he was the one for you. Or maybe he would finally let it go. Both options didn't seem likely, in his opinion. But a man could hope. And he was really, really praying, to every god that would listen, that it would be the first option.

He didn't exactly understand. Was he not enough? Was he not obvious? It was only his fault, he knew that, but he didn't want to know that. Bradley had never been so sure of something in his life until now, and that was that you were the one for him. He wouldn't settle for anybody else. He could hardly even smile at anybody else. He only laughed how he did with you. He only loved how he did with you. He only loved you.

He was cut out of his trance of staring over at you when Maverick placed a firm hand on his shoulder, smiling slightly, though it faded a little when he followed Bradley's gaze to see what he was looking at.

You. Of course he was. What was new? Nothing, apparently.