Chapter 3 No.3

Heather's POV:

A part of me hoped that Asher would barge back into the room to tell me that he was playing a prank or that he had given us a rethink and changed his mind. I hoped and waited for a miracle, any miracle, or that matter, to happen, and it stung even harder that nothing happened as time dragged on.

I cried until my tear ducts dried up, and my throat became sore.

I couldn't help but blame myself for everything that happened. I shouldn't have made the bold move of kissing him after Asher saved me from those horrible men who tried molesting me. I shouldn't have overshared my mother's predicaments when he came looking for me a few hours after I disappeared from his room the morning after that night.

I shouldn't have accepted the juicy contract he brought to help raise my mother's medical bills and my cousin's school fees. I should have said no to him, no matter how juicy it'd been. I shouldn't have felt anything for him beyond gratitude. I shouldn't have let myself feel sentimental about the memories we made within the confines of this fantastic house that Asher was so quick to discard.

As I pulled myself up to my feet and went around the house gathering all of my stuff together, the nostalgia of everything we'd done together began to hit me one after the other.

I'd once decided to bake him a cake on one of his birthdays, and I'd brought over baking supplies and equipment from my place. What began as an attempt to surprise him was swiftly redirected to a passionate session with him when he'd come in earlier than usual. I still remembered his eyes twinkling in mischief as he smeared my face with a little whipped cream while I was making up the icing for the cake while it baked.

I smiled in sadness as I emptied the equipment into the bin, remembering how he'd placed me on the counter, pulled off my clothes, and eaten me out to the point of toe-curling orgasm-one of the best I ever had.

The several times we'd made love in the shower visited me as I picked up my toiletries from the room, and the few times Asher had taught me how to play with the PS console, he got me as a gift also hit me when I went to retrieve the console in his game room. The late-night talks in his study, the cozy cuddling in his living room, the games of hide and seek, poker, chess, scrabble...

All of that, and he still threw me out of his life like a piece of used tissue.

Fresh tears threatened to fall once again, but I sniffed them off and focused on clearing out every single evidence of my existence in the building.

In a few hours, I was done and ready to go. Liam, Asher's assistant, was waiting for me by the car with a manila envelope in hand.

"You look terrible," he greeted as I approached.

"Thanks," I replied breezily. "You're not looking so bad yourself."

"Asher asked me to give you this," Liam extended the file to me when he got within reach.

"No," I simply said because I already knew what it contained.

"It's the purchase document for this house with your name on it," Liam explained to confirm my hunch.

"I know," I replied again. "And my answer doesn't change."

There was a tense silence as Liam eyed me knowingly and sighed. I knew he wasn't in the unknown about what was happening between Asher and me. It was uncomfortable for me that Asher had probably discussed my humiliation with him prior, and Liam was still his jovial, relatable self when he picked me up earlier.

I felt like a fool.

"I know you think of Asher as the bad guy now that things didn't go your way, but understand that it's not personal to him. Even though you were just a means to his satisfaction, he never treated you poorly. You equally benefited from this transaction as much as he did, so you shouldn't be pained by the fact that he found a better means and is no longer interested in doing business with you."

I silently collected the file and walked to sit in the car that transported me back to my flat. In the following days, I steered clear of everything and everyone, gorging myself into a stupor with liquor and ice cream. The words of Liam stayed with me, haunting me and reminding me of my reality.

A slut, an interim slut to pass the time while Asher waited for his true love. I wasn't worth Asher. I had never been worthy of his love, because I'd placed a price on it from the onset.

I didn't snap out of it until I absentmindedly picked up my phone and found several missed calls from Eudora and then an accompanying text that reminded me of her arrival back in town in a matter of hours and how I was responsible for picking her up at the airport.

The time read 8:50.

I hastily snapped out of my self-pity and put myself together. It was an equally hasty drive to the airport, but I was able to stop at my favorite restaurant to make a reservation for us to celebrate my cousin's arrival back into the country.

She'd been gone for so long that I was actually excited as much as I was anxious to meet her. Eudora and I grew up together after she lost her parents and I lost my dad in a single-car crash.

My mom had taken responsibility for catering for her since she was ten, and before I went to college and she left the country to study music, we were close. However, I could not tell how we would be now that she was a famous pianist with world recognition, and I was just a dejected nobody who worked online jobs as a ghost designer.

I wasn't jealous of Eudora. In fact, I was proud because I'd invested my resources significantly in her education, and it wasn't a waste. However, now that she was done with her studies, Mom was fully recovered, and Asher was out of my life, I could start on a new page and focus on making my 24-year-old life meaningful.

It was finally time for some self-love.