CHAPTER 2

And just like that, the minutes passed. Just the kind of dinner no one had given her, just the kind of dinner only a man could give to the woman he was loving. That was the reality for Brandon even if he didn't know it, that was the reality in his heart, he was falling in love with Crystal in the way he never believed.

And the more he shared with her, he realized that she could be the person he once came to see as his everything when the pain was suffocating him.

In this way they managed to spend the entire night, losing track of time, laughing at each other's occurrences, feeling how the tide of the purest feelings made them its prey, now everything there was a disaster between one and the other. From one moment to the next they seemed to be so intimate, from one moment to the next, they seemed to know each other in the best way. And it was the same liquor that was already running through the veins of both of their bodies, it was the same liquor that was making them see reality and clarifying each other's minds.

All Crystal could think about was the Brandon she had once comforted, the same one who seemed to be so vulnerable to the world, the same one who didn't seem to be the same person who had forced her to be a mother in the worst way. And that was the case, and if only Brandon had said how truly sorry he was for what he had done to her, she would have understood it without hesitation and would have let go of that feeling of hurt and resentment at that very moment. For Crystal the truth was absolute. Brandon, the same vulnerable Brandon she was there for, continued to live inside the Brandon in front of her, just smiling.

In Brandon's mind, what were the thoughts that ran back and forth making him unable to focus on the image in front of him. The reality was that not even Brandon himself knew what he was feeling, what he was sure of was that the woman who was named Crystal and who was the same one who was married to him and who would continue to be the same one with whom he would fight all his life, she seemed to be that girl who was close to him when the pain of the emptiness of his brother's absence was killing him. 

Suddenly, as if he were being out of reality, with the background music being the slowest, Brandon approached Crystal at the same time that the liquor continued to make him its prey. And it was the same liquor that was making them see a completely different world, a world in which everything was possible, a world that revealed reality.

“I've been through so much,” Brandon said after a long moment of laughter.

Crystal even stopped smiling. She knew it was time for revelations. Brandon was wanting to be heard, and she, like she had done ten years ago, was willing to stay in the same place where he could tell her everything his heart was wanting.

"I've been through so much too," Crystal said, wanting to let him know that she was with him.

"My brother, my brother died and left me in charge of everything," Brandon said, laughing. More than the laughter was the pain he was feeling when saying those words.

Crystal was the one who knew best what the situation he was now talking about was about.

"Don't talk to me about what you don't want to talk about, I understand, Brandon, life will never be easy for people like us. Not for people who were born in a world as frivolous as this.”

At that moment Brandon's laugh was heard, the same one that could only come from a man who had already exceeded the limit of liquor running through his veins.

"I only know how to tell you that from the moment he left, my hell began. I never wanted this life, I would have preferred to dedicate myself to the lowest jobs rather than this one, on the other hand my brother always liked the idea of ​​belonging to big business, that he was the one who people turned to with respect while I just wanted peace of mind in my life. That's why he was my grandfather's favorite, that's why he was always my grandfather's chosen one, the one who did things well, who didn't lack intelligence like me to carry out a new plan.”

"He was too little to know what he wanted.”

At that moment all Brandon could do was look at Crystal. That was strange since she had not managed to meet that young man who had died in an accident.

A smile spread across Brandon's face. "But you didn't know him.”

Crystal looked down nervously. It didn't matter what she had said, it didn't matter how Brandon had taken those words because in the end, he wasn't going to listen to her. All he could think was that Crystal had drunk too much to make him think that she had met Brandon's brother.

"Oh, maybe... maybe, you're right," Crystal said, laughing.

"So many things have happened in my life that I know that if I start talking to you about each one of them, it would give us the morning and it would never end and above all, you would be bored," Brandon said again and then laughed.

While on the couches in the living room, maintaining a reasonable distance between them, it was not until minutes later, hours after midnight, that they seemed to put their laughter and comments aside. And Brandon, the more he looked at the woman next to him, the more he thought of her as the girl who had comforted him when Brandon's brother died.   

It was in that way that, wanting to feel protected in the arms of a woman, wanting to feel the warmth of a woman, the same one he felt from a girl who knew how to comfort him, Brandon approached Crystal slowly. Of course he didn't want to make Crystal feel uncomfortable, even in his delirium he had it in his head that she wasn't his wife because they both wanted it, not even the signature on the contract, not even the false promises they made at the altar gave Brandon the right to try something with the person who had told him in one and a thousand ways that they were not meant to be together and that as soon as Crystal had the opportunity to leave there, she would do it because everything she wanted in life was to bring her life full of opportunities and dreams back.

Crystal stopped smiling. Twice she had felt desire for the man at her side, twice she had realized that man could be fire at the same time that he could be like an ice floe, the last thing Crystal wanted at that moment was to see him as fire.

"The best thing would be for me to go to sleep," Crystal said, getting up from the couch quickly, causing dizziness to immediately take over her.

Brandon, seeing how unstable her body was due to the alcohol ingested, quickly got up with the intention of helping her, and from one second to the next, he grabbed her wrist.

"Are you okay, Crystal?” Brandon asked.

Crystal looked into Brandon's eyes, Of course she wasn't okay, of course seeing Brandon with two or three buttons down didn't make her okay.

"I'd better go to sleep," Crystal said again.

Everything happened in a moment, because in the moment when Crystal would least have expected it, Brandon took her arm only to make her fall on his chest and in that way, he hugged her.

“Crystal,” Brandon said.

"Brandon," she said in a sigh as she was so close to him and saw him as the person she thought she had buried in her thoughts and in her heart.

“Who are you?” Brandon asked without further ado. "Who are you to cause this to me?”

A rebellious tear slipped from Crystal's eyes. That question he was asking her was giving her hope at the same time it was killing everything that lived in her.

"Brandon, please let me go," she asked subtly.

"Tell me who you are and I promise I'll let you go, I promise."

"Just let me go before you hurt me more."

Those simple words made Brandon separate Crystal's body from him. What she had told him had managed to penetrate his soul.