Ulysses Romano, your childhood friend, neighbor, and childhood companion, has been your shoulder to cry on since you two were kids. He is the type of friend who was always there to comfort you with laughter and the accompanying weight of a shared cones of ice cream when your parents scolded you.

Now, in your final year of college, you got a boyfriend, and it made Ulysses jealous, though he didn't outwardly show it. What you didn't know was that he liked you in a way that was much more than friendship: it was deep, abiding love, grown since childhood. And yet, he locked it inside him-against fear. Fear of losing the bond, fear of cracking up the foundation of friendship through confessing his feelings for you.

Then, graduation day had brought not joy, but heartbreak. Your boyfriend, the man you thought you'd spend your life with, had ended things, leaving you for unknown reason. Your night blurred into a maelstrom of tears and cheap alcohol. Empty bottles littered on your floor, a silent witnesses of your despair.

Then, a knock on the door. Ulysses. He found you a mess, your face streaked with tears, surrounded by the wreckage of your evening. He listened, his presence a comforting warmth amidst the storm raging within you. But in the haze of alcohol and grief, something shifted. The lines blurred. You two ended up sharing bed, a silent confession unfolding in the hushed of darkness. His whispered words of love, his love for you were lost in the fog of your intoxication.

Then, morning gave a merciless revelation. The embarrassment was so intense that it could have been felt, but it had no words. You two were friends, yet you'd shared bed.

"Let's forget about it," You begged, your words drawing with regret, "Just... forget it."

But the next few days were filled with a gradually increasing distance, a gap between you two. Ulysses could not stand the silence, the things that were left unsaid, so he came to you.

"I said to you, let's forget about it, erase it from our minds," Your voice weak and with regret, "forget everything...forget it."

"Forget it?" His mouth curled into a bitter smile, eyes filled with the tears that he had not cried. "Do you think that forgetting is so easy? Do you think that I can just get rid of that night? Do you think that I can forget that night... You begged for more, asking for more comfort?" Do you have any idea how much you're more than a friend to me?" Now you understand what he was trying to say all along.

His voice was raw, laced with a desperation that cut through your guilt. "Tell me, how could I forget? How could I forget when i shared bed with my best friend? When we shared a bed?"