Author's Note: Another very short chapter, because the next one will be up quickly, and it was a logical place to shift point of view. Sorry!
Duo's POV
The Wedding Planner Part 58
Consolation Prize
My hands were shaking slightly as I opened the envelope--but it wasn't from nerves. It was from the effort it took not to run after Heero and beg him not to walk away from me...not to go back to her. Restraining order notwithstanding, I wanted him near me. It had been all I could do to keep from turning and throwing myself into his arms when he'd been so close to me. So much for being tough about this.
I was supposed to be angry with him--and in some ways I still was. But that didn't stop me from craving his touch--his kiss. It didn't stop me from wanting to go back to the night he'd spent in my bed and stop time right then and there.
But he wasn't mine...and it looked like he never would be.
Don't think I overlooked the fact that he'd said "Relena and I." He'd said "we." I guessed that meant he and 'Lena worked things out. And I wanted to be happy for them--honestly. But I wasn't. I was too busy feeling sorry for myself.
Of course, that pathetic emotion was totally wiped out by shock when I opened the envelope and pulled out the deed to the beach house. I nearly dropped the whole packet into the water, my hands started shaking so badly, and I backed several steps so I could sink down onto dry sand.
Then I finished pulling the paperwork out, running my eyes across it as I did. Everything was made out in my name...the deed, title, and taxes...all paid in full. There was even an escrow account set up to cover taxes and utilities for a full year. I tipped the envelope over, letting everything slide out into my lap and onto the beach.
The last thing to fall in the sand was a set of keys, and I must have stared at them for a full minute before my hand reached out of its own volition and my fingers closed around the cold metal.
Mine.
My dream house was mine, courtesy of Heero Yuy and Relena Peacecraft. And I had no idea how I should feel about that.
I mean--I know it was just guilt on their part. They'd both messed with my emotions...used me to make the other jealous. Part of me did feel like they owed me something.
But then again, letting them pay me off like that made me feel like a whore. The small, petty, paranoid part of my brain wanted to be angry with Heero for thinking he could just buy me. So the sex had been just that--sex--and nothing more. And the beach house was what? Payment in full? With maybe a bonus for extra good service?
I grabbed the papers in my hands, fully intending to rip them in half and throw them into the ocean--but I couldn't. It was the beach house.
Besides, knowing Yuy, everything was filled out in triplicate anyway. There were probably copies in a fucking safety deposit box somewhere.
I let the papers slide from my fingers into my lap again and just buried my face in my hands, letting the tears I'd been holding back for weeks finally flow.
I was crying for a lot of things...the recent anniversary of Alex's death, the way I disappointed Quatre by falling off the wagon again, the fact that I helped someone cheat on their significant other...but mostly for losing what felt like the last of my dreams--the dream that maybe Heero and I could end up together.
I didn't want the damned beach house as a consolation prize for not ending up with Heero, and that's what it felt like. After all my planning and daydreaming, it was just going to be an empty shell of a place that it felt like I'd traded my soul to have.
TBC...
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