Chapter 2-

Syd and Fran had arrived at the bar. They spotted Noah sitting in a circle of his friends. Noah got up to approach the girls. Fran gave Syd a little push forward. Syd sighed, and said, "Here goes for nothing".

"You are gonna be okay. Just be careful. I will be by the table in the front." Fran said as she walked towards her table and ordered a cup of coffee.

"Hey Syd, looks like you got my message," Noah got a little closer to Syd to stand next to him.

"Yeah, so whats up? And for the record, please don't leave message on the home phone. It's not secure, leave voicemail on the cell." Syd stated plainly.

"Okay. But I would be leaving messages on your cell if you don't check it like three days afterwards! Is it that hard to pick up the phone each day and check if anyone called?" He raised his voice and that caused people to turn and see whats going on. Noah felt anger coming right up and he couldn't control it.

"What the hell is wrong with you? You know how demanding my job is, and it is one of the most important things to me. Each night when I came back from work, do you know how EXHAUSTED I am?" Syd paused for a second. Then, she continued, "Okay let's forget about that. What did you want to talk about?" His friends were still looking at them.

"Umm," Noah bit his lip nervously.

"Make it quick about whatever you wanted to say because you can tell I am very tired from the trip in Pañama." Sydney said impatiently.

"Syd…I m sorry that I have to do this. You have been great to me and meant a lot to me but you probably don't think I m good enough for you. So I guess what I m trying to say is that I m here to break up with you," Now Noah officially hate himself for breaking up with Sydney. His friends looked away as if it was common for Noah to break up.

Syd was both relief and sad that they were no longer an item, "Now that was lovely, alright there is no more 'us'. I guess have a nice life bye." She had to get out there to get away from him and his stupid friends. She hated the way that they looked and assumed she was just another one of Noah's little girlfriends.

"Sydney wait…" Noah tried to grab her arm but Syd had already gone to get Fran.

Fran was reading the Janet Evanovich's newest book, "Eleven on Top" when she spotted Syd walking towards her. She got up and paid for her coffee, and said to Syd, "what happened? You don't look so good."

"We broke up." Sydney didn't feel like elaborating.

"Okay that's good. How are you feeling? Come on lets go back home and we will talk about it. Okay hon?" Fran opened the door for Syd, and they walked out.

When they got to their apartment hall, Fran asked, "mine place or yours?"

"I don't care," Syd was too tired to think or decide anything.

"Come on in to mine. We will eat lots of ice cream. You can get your coffee ice cream that you left from last time." Fran said as she opened the door to her apartment.

They sat for almost an hour eating ice cream and watching TV before anyone said anything. Suddenly, Syd turned away from the TV and raised her voice to say, "He is such a jerk! I should have seen that before. Who does he thinks he is making a fool of me infront of his stupid FRIENDS!"

"Honey, calm down. He is a scum and he never deserved you. So get over him." Fran reached and gave her best friend a hug.

"Thank you Francie! HE IS A SCUM AND a SONOFABITCH. I never really loved him. I was just hoping that I could hold him for another month because Nadia's wedding is next month. And I promised her that I would have date at her wedding. At least you have Charlie." Syd looked back and thought her social life is such a wreck. That's all result of her being a workaholic.

"Oh yeah. I forgot to tell about Charlie. Charlie and I are over. He cheated and lied to me. There's nothing left to do about that." Francie said sadly.

"Oh Fran, you loved him. I can see it in your eyes whenever you are with him." Syd said to Francie, "Men are just jerks."

"Yeah I know".

"I m gonna go back to my place and get some sleep. I am gonna get a new partner because Dixon got promoted to be the director of our division. That's gonna go hell too because I got so used to Dixon being my partner for years now a new partner? I don't know how I m going to deal with it."

"Okay sweetie. Sweet dreams" Francie said as Syd opened the door to leave.

While the Fran and Syd were chatting in their apartment, Noah and his friends were still hanging out at the bar.

"Why did you dump her? She is a pretty little brunette. I bet she is good in bed." One of his friends said.

"Well, she is never home. She IS a workaholic." Noah stated.

"Huh…couldn't tell from the outside." Another guy said.

"Well she is." Noah replied.

"Vaughn, over here!" Weiss, Noah's friend, trying to get the attention the guy just walked in.

"Hi Weiss," Vaughn said, "Whats up buddy?"

"We were just talking about Noah's ex-girlfriend. She was just here. And she is real pretty but Noah dumped her because she IS a workaholic." Weiss said while Vaughn thought, huh…this Noah person must been really dumb because this girl they are talking about sounds really sophisticated and interesting even though I haven't met her or heard much about her but I just have a hunch that there is something different about her. Then Vaughn heard himself saying silently, "You are CRAZY! You don't even have any idea who she is."

So, Vaughn said, "okay that's cool."

"It is soo hard to go out with her because she is either away on a business trip or too tired to just go out and have fun." Noah complained.

"Well maybe her work is very demanding and it is important to her." Vaughn suggested.

"Whoa, that exactly what she said. I bet a $100 bucks that you can't get her to go out with you in a month? She comes here a lot with her best friend Francie." Noah offered that to Vaughn.

"No, no. I don't feel like dating right now." Vaughn was tired of having the possibility dating another girl like Lauren. But then he thought, I m such an idiot of course she wont be like Lauren.

"Whether you like it or not. The deal is on I want to see if it is really my problem or hers that our relationship didn't work out. I will give you $300 if you get her to go out with you again after the first date. I gotta go but the bet is on, Vaughn. You get a month to get her to go out with you and another month to go out with you again. Bye guys." Noah got up and walked out.

"WTH? Who does he think he is?" Vaughn said furiously because he had no clue even what her name is.

"Calm down buddy. You can get that money easily. Sydney is a really awesome girl. I talked to her once. She was really nice. You just have to come here often to get a chance to ask her out." Weiss told Vaughn.

"Her name is Sydney? That's unique." Vaughn replied.

"Sydney Bristow." Weiss said to Vaughn, "I gotta go too buddy, cya later."

"Sydney Bristow," Vaughn said to himself as if he recognized the name from same where.