I wasn’t sure how long I had been sitting next to the gently bubbling stream, the sound of water dancing over smooth rocks filling the air. Time seemed to slip away, the sun's rays filtering through the branches above, creating dappled patterns on the ground. My mind was a whirlpool of thoughts, swirling and twisting, as I tried to make sense of it all.
I could almost feel the weight of Noah's words from earlier—he must have told Asher that I’d been labelled a slut by now. The thought gnawed at my insides like a persistent itch I couldn’t scratch. I wasn’t certain how Asher would react to that revelation.
Despite our time together, Asher had always acted like a distant star in my sky, never quite close enough to touch. He seemed to regard me as just another colleague, handling our profe
