"Great," Max says and leans back to his seat.

I finish my coffee and look at him expectantly. He sighs and rolls his eyes, but a small smile tugs the corners of his mouth.

"Fine, I'll go first." He rubs his chin, glancing out the window in the somewhat empty and dark street. "Her name's Amber... I met her on my first day of college, in my first class." He folds his arms in front of his chest, his gaze skittering to me for a brief moment. "We were both majoring in business, and were in bachelor's program, so we had a lot of classes together. Two weeks into the first semester I asked her out and it started from there."

His gaze drops to his lap, strands of long wavy dark brown hair that have strayed free from his bun hang loosely around his face. "I really thought she was different. Or at least she was at first." He shrugs, offering a small tight-lipped smile.

I frown a little and when he doesn't speak, I probe, "Well, aren't you going to dig a little deeper?"

He chuckles. "Look at you, getting all nosy about a stranger's life."

I smile but roll my eyes. "Oh please." I wave my hand to be more dramatic. "Don't act like you aren't dying to get your every little secret off your chest and not worry about seeing me again."

"Damn, was I that easy to read?"

I feign disappointment as I nod.

So-called Max clicks his tongue. "Better not waste our precious night now."

With a wide grin, I lean forward and watch him with wide eyes.

"So," he pauses and rubs the back of his neck. For the first time, he looks uncomfortable. "I come from a... well off family," he mumbles, shifting on his seat.

Why am I not surprised.

"And... I don't mean to say all girls are gold diggers but... the ones I've come across mostly seem to be." He sighs and leans into his chair. "None of them seem to see or care beyond money."

Even though sad Max awakens this insane urge in me to comfort him, it doesn't override the sting it carries. The sting from remembering Drew. The back of my throat clenches and aches painfully and I glance out of the window. "That sucks."

My therapist believes one of the main reasons Drew and I had problems was because I was way richer than him... it made him insecure and consequently lash out. Although I never rubbed my money to his face, he never failed to bring it up during any of our arguments, no matter how irrelevant it was.

"Yeah." His voice snaps me out of my thoughts and I turn to him.

"She turned out to be a gold digger too?" I ask, just to stop my mind from returning to Drew.

"She wasn't at first... but once things got serious and I took her to my parents' place... something in her changed completely."

"How long did you date?" I tilt my head and watch him closely.

A sad smile curls his lips. "Five years."

My eyes widen and he draws his brows together.

"What?" he asks with confusion.

"I dated my ex for five years too."

He laughs. "Looks like five is our number."

I smile. "It seems like it... when did you break up?"

His exhale rush of air blowing through his parted lips. "Two weeks ago... I had just bought a ring to propose to her but when I got back to our place..." his voice trails down and he fixes his gaze on the building visible through the window. "She was with another guy... a colleague of hers."

Oh damn. "I'm sorry."

He lifts a shoulder. "Apparently, money wasn't enough for her."

We fall into silence. Flashes of the last time I saw Drew in our flat replay in my head.

"It's your turn, stranger."

My head snaps to him and absently I nod. Right, my turn. My gaze wanders around the almost empty diner as I scramble for words.

"I was sixteen when I met him." I drop my head, sadly smiling. "He was new in our school... his dad was one of the teachers, though I never had a class with him... he seemed fun, you know, the typical brooding bad guy vibe with a leather jacket and head to toe in black." I glance up at him and he laughs.

"What is it with girls and drooling over bad guys?"

My smile turns more genuine as I shrug. "Girl secret, can't let you in on it." I wink at him and he grins at me. The corners of his eyes crinkling.

"Aw too bad." He shakes his head with fake disappointment. "Going for the cliche good girl meets bad boy love story, huh."

I huff. "I wish it was cliché... I mean at first, it was... everything was going great until we graduated and came here for our colleges." I sigh and shift in my seat. "Then everything went downhill," I mumble, avoiding his curious gaze.

I rub my forehead. The abusive behavior, the fights, and everything started the moment we moved in together.

I shrug, trying to play it cool, but fail. "It didn't work out," my voice wavers slightly as the images of Drew and the girl he kept on cheating on me flash before my eyes.

"That bad?" he asks with surprise, sadness underlying his tone.

I nod. "I really don't think I can go more into it." Heat rushes to my cheeks from embarrassment.

"Hey, that's okay. You're not forced to talk. We can keep things light if that's what you want."

I meet his dark green eyes and offer a small smile. "Thank you."

He grins and grabs his coat. "What do you say we head out? I know this other place you might like."

I eye him suspiciously and he chuckles. "Hey don't worry, I'm not going to murder you."

I roll my eyes, still smiling as I get to my feet. He leans down to me and whispers, "At least not yet." Max winks at me and I shoot him a glare.

"You know, it's not funny," I grumble as we leave the diner.

Once more into the cold night, I shiver lightly as the midnight winter breeze brushes past me.

Max leads the way while animatedly explaining how he came across this place one day when he was venturing the streets, feeling the bustling life of the city.

Instead of going straight to this iconic spot, he takes me to a small dingy shop with only three isles in the middle and the white tube lights making an uncomfortably wheezing noise. He hurries to the back of the place and grabs six beers.

I scrunch up my face. "I don't drink those."

He narrows his eyes at me. "I'm showing you the life you're missing out on." He walks past me to the counter.

With a frown, I follow him as the man behind the counter sums up the total.

Max turns to me and gives me a pointed look. Right, my turn to pay. I roll my eyes but fish out my credit card from my bag and hand it to the guy.

Soon we're back on the street, going down a dark alley.

"What did you mean you're showing me what I'm missing out on?"

He doesn't reply instantly, annoying me further. At last, he smirks. "You'll find out."

We stop in front of a ruin of a building. It looks like it has been abandoned for over a decade. The dim illumination of the alley is not working in its favor either. There is no entrance door, the first stair of it is broken on one side, and so is the third one.

But none of these seem to bother Max as he goes inside and throws an impatient glance my way.

"Are you sure you're not a serial killer or something?" I ask, stalling in front of the building.

He huffs and motions with his hand for me to follow him. "You won't regret it, trust me."

Trust. That's a stupid word. I've just met the guy. Although my tonight's decisions haven't been the brightest either.

The only consolation in this situation for me is the guy is rich and there's a high chance he won't be doing anything stupid.

Not much to rely on, but still better than nothing.

Grudgingly, I climb up the three steps and enter the building. He sets out in front of me, occasionally pointing out the places I might trip if I'm not careful.

If my calculations are correct, he goes up three flights, and with the way he's moving, it's safe to say we are not stopping anytime soon.

"You know, if you were a serial killer, I gotta say you're doing an awfully poor job at it, unless you kill your victims from exhaustion."

He throws his head back and laughs but never halts his steps. "What a shame," he says, shaking his head and clicking his tongue.

Two more flights up and at last he stops in front of an iron door, probably leading to the rooftop.

With a few hard shoves, he gets the door open. The loud screeching in the process raises the hair on the back of my neck as I cringe.

But finally, we're out on top. He inhales deeply, closing his eyes for a moment, holding his head up as if he has climbed Mount Everest.

Although I must admit he looks cute with his eyes closed, and the small satisfied smile dancing on the corners of his lips.

I look around. Surprisingly the building is taller than most of the other ones around the place. There are empty boxes scattered around, and in the far corner, I spy a pile of old blankets.

He walks to the ledge and I follow him. The neon lights of different shops from afar light up the place just enough.

Max carefully sits on the edge and holds out his hand for me.

"Um... are you sure it's safe?"

With a grin, he answers, "I've done this more than I can count, come on, just be careful. I've got you, okay?"

Hesitantly, I nod but grab his hand anyway as I sit on the ledge and swing my legs to the other side.

There's a narrow line of bricks protruding out of the side of the wall, a perfect place to keep my feet on for feeling safer.

"See, it's not that bad now, is it?" he glances at me from the corner of his eye as he adjusts himself on the ledge.

I can't help the small smile forming on my lips. "It's okay I guess."

He opens two beer bottles and hands one to me. I make a face but he ignores it.

"To shitty people we've managed to get rid of." He clinks the top of his bottle to mine and motions with it for me to drink too.

I sigh and slowly sip, slightly gagging as the awful-tasting liquid travels down my throat.

He chuckles at me before drawing a long swig.

We sit quietly for a moment before he straightens himself and points at a board with blinking neon lights. "See that?"

It's written Love but reversed and the E is hanging down like it's going to fall apart any moment. Its red neon lights flicker like it's struggling to stay on.

"It's the only place it actually visualizes love is broken... and ruined and probably will ruin you too. That you enter it when you're whole and it reverses you into something broken."

"Wow, that's deep," I mumble and subconsciously draw the bottle in my hand to my lips and a second too late realize it's beer. "Ugh." I wince.

After a long moment, I quietly ask, "You really loved your ex, didn't you?"

He nods. "And you?"

I nod too and we sigh together, making us laugh.

"See? It fucked us over, stupid thing."

"I have a calendar where I count down the days I've broken up with him and each time I draw an X on a day, I repeat to myself, 'fuck love' and it has literally become my motto."

With a chuckle, he shifts on his spot to turn to me slightly. "That's a good motto." He holds up his drink and clinks it with mine, a mischievous glint in his eyes as he does so.

I playfully glare at him but take a sip anyway.

❤︎ ❤︎ ❤︎

Thank you so much for reading.

I hope you enjoyed this chapter, if so, don't forget to vote.

From today onwards, I'll be updating this story daily [I hope =) ], so chapter 5 will be up tomorrow.

Stay safe, lots of love, happy reading <33