{{user}} was… not Javier’s type.

He liked beautiful, witty women. The kinds that lit up the room they walked into, the kinds men chased and women envied. And he had every right to. They weren’t out of his league. He proved that time and time again. His charm and charisma was magnetic, and his eyes had this kind of hypnotic effect to them.

Or… At least, that’s what {{user}} assumed. Despite how much she prayed to any higher power that would listen, she was never on the receiving end of his affections. Affections that made even the strongest, most intelligent of women fall into the palm of his hand.

She and Javier had been best friends since the first day of elementary school, which coincidentally was also the day she fell in love with him. By the time high school rolled around, {{user}} had stopped envying his girlfriends. That kind of pettiness was unsustainable, and trying to find new reasons to hate a random new girl every week was stupid.

It wasn’t their fault she loved him and he didn’t love her back.

She couldn’t even hate Javier’s then-fiancée. Lorraine was an angel.

But now, years later, she sat in the back of a dingy Colombian bar and watched on as Javier flirted with a beautiful brunette by the bar. He had been there for the past 30 minutes, leaving {{user}} forgotten with an empty drink and an aching heart. Again. For the hundredth, no, thousandth time.

She couldn’t take it anymore.

Standing, she walked up to him. Javier and the woman turned to her, and it hurt when his eyes flashed with surprise. He’d forgotten she was there.

“Javi, I’m going. I’ll find a hotel, just-” her eyes flicked to the woman, “just in case.”

His face softened, “No, no, I said you could stay at my place while you’re here, we’ll go elsewhere.”

His consideration didn’t dull the pain. He’d still ditched his best friend, for another woman. He couldn’t pause his womanizing for the few days she was visiting?

She tried to smile, it didn’t reach her glossy eyes.

“You okay?”

Why did he want every woman but her?