Chapter 1

• What have you done to my life?
• He was extremely reserved, had never been in love, and was not willing to do so.
• He was happy as he was, a successful businessman with great aspirations, the kind of man who doesn't give up easily.
• Few people knew much about him; they knew him as the type of man who jumps from room to room in a hotel with a different girl every night.
• The doorman of his building knew he had to deny it to everyone when he went up to his apartment with a woman.
• It was his outward appearance that everyone found attractive. He was about 1.80 meters tall, with medium brown eyes and a pair of masculine eyebrows that framed them. His lips seemed to be handcrafted by God himself. He always had a three-day beard, knew how to dress, and dazzled any woman. He drew sighs as he passed by.
• Many things were said about him, including that he was gay, and that behind all his adventures with women there was that secret of his. Always amidst gossip about his habit of changing girls daily.
• His name was Daniel Osegueda.
• He didn't take anyone seriously, and when he wanted to have fun with someone, that was his introduction.
• This was the type of man that Melissa observed every Wednesday in a café in the Álamos circuit, a quiet and slow-paced place.
• She liked to sit in a secluded corner away from everyone's gaze to read and think. She never asked for anything more than an organic coffee without sugar, and that's how her lonely afternoons passed after school.
• Nothing new happened in that place until one Wednesday he walked in. It was part of his "day off" routine. From then on, every Wednesday he was punctual to create stories with that perfect man who never noticed her in that dark corner of the café. Deep down, she knew that a man like that would never notice her, at least not outside of her imagination.
• Melissa was a shy and insecure girl.
• She had always been "the ugliest in her class" in high school, and that label had stuck so deeply in her head that she couldn't get rid of it despite the great change in her appearance and the fact that she was about to finish high school.
• Her transformation began in the last year of high school. No one knew what was happening to her, as she drastically reduced her weight from one month to the next. She stopped being the obese girl for others, but not for herself.
• She looked in the mirror daily, weighed herself twice a day, counted calories, and fasted for days. No one knew except her. That's why she liked to be alone; she didn't want to deal with advice from people who thought they were fit to "help" her when they would have rejected her before because of her appearance.
• Her life revolved around school, that café, and her home. She never imagined that someone like the stranger in the café would catch her attention so much. She knew she would never have the courage to even speak to him, and that if she did, he would probably reject her because she didn't consider herself physically attractive, even though everyone thought otherwise despite her baggy clothes and constant attempts to sabotage herself.
• One afternoon, as she was about to leave the café, the stranger walked in, and she froze right in the middle of the place.
• He looked at her and continued on his way to his favorite table. Melissa felt the terrible need to disappear, the same feeling she had every time someone looked at her for more than 3 seconds, but this time it was more intense, and she couldn't run away.
• "He didn't even notice me. Is it possible to be more invisible than me?"
• She felt certainly worse than when people looked at her. She slowly left the place, thinking about how terrible it was to be in her own skin...
• And he watched her as she crossed the door and walked alongside the large windows.
• Daniel returned to the café on Wednesday with some colleagues, they were talking about politics, sports, and medicine.
• But the embarrassed girl from the dark corner was not there, she had fainted at school and was sent to the nurse's office where she claimed she hadn't eaten breakfast that morning and the stress of exams had made her feel a bit dizzy.
• They had had some doubts for a while, so they decided to call her parents who sent the driver for her. They were never home, between work and social commitments they were unaware that their daughter was slowly destroying herself.
• A few Wednesdays later when she noticed that the stranger would not be coming that day, she decided to leave.
• It made no sense to wait for something that would not happen.
• She ordered a coffee to go and was so lost in her thoughts that she didn't realize when Daniel came in and spilled the coffee on her. She recoiled and tripped over a chair, knocking over the table, the small vase that adorned it shattered and she was as red as a tomato that she couldn't hide.
• She kept repeating " I'm sorry, I'm sorry, I'm just so clumsy."
• He just kept looking at her, finally he picked up the table she had knocked over and said, "Be more careful, girl, you've ruined my suit and just today I have to go back to work."
• Melissa didn't know what to do and repeated once more in a very low voice "I'm sorry" before running out.
• Daniel was left angry and a little intrigued, she was a beautiful and shy girl.