Tristan Matthew Lorenzo is certainly not the familiar face I was hoping to see.
Not when it's my first day on the job.
Not when I just gave up my career abroad to work here.
Not when it's too late to back out.
It was bad enough that I don't feel like I belong at all. To make matters worse, there he is with that irritating smug smile, reminding me of the past I'd rather forget.
I have all the reasons to be mad at him.
He was, after all, my Ex.
Ex-Bestfriend.
I've spent most of my life being friends with him. And the rest of it? Hating him.
The boy who used to bring out the best in me apparently became my greatest rival. My pal who was my biggest fan suddenly grew up to be my harshest critic. My ally who used to defend me became my worst enemy. That one guy who made me believe in fairy tales turned out to be my worst nightmare.
Because of him, I re-invented my own dictionary.
Love? Bitter na kung bitter, that term is a feeling associated with extreme stupidity.
Forever? Anong forever? That word doesn't even exist in my vocabulary.
Trust? Bigla yata akong nagka-amnesia, I have long forgotten the meaning of that.
Why would I believe in love when I see no evidence that it exists? Why would I accept the notion of forever when the only one who made me think twice about it just let me down? And why would I trust anyone when the guy I thought I could rely on chose to betray me?
Kasalanan lahat ito ng tadhana. Destiny is clearly messing up my plans.
Meeting him in pre-school was fate. Going to the same high school was planned. Landing on the same college had to be coincidence. But ending up in the same company? This is pure bad luck.
But nothing is going to get in the way of my dream. Not even Tristan's annoying grin.
He may know almost everything about me and will probably even use them against me.
But there remains to be one thing that he knows nothing about.
He doesn't know that back when we were best friends, I was actually in love.