He Drains Me のすべてのチャプター: チャプター 21 - チャプター 23

Liam kept his word after our final dinner.He never reached out again. At work he remained strictly professional, and to my quiet surprise his time management improved dramatically. I told myself I should be grateful. I had lost him, but in return I gained a version of him that no longer made me look incompetent in front of my boss. During the day I survived by filling every hour with schedules, site visits, and reports. As long as I kept moving, the emptiness stayed at a manageable distance.Home was where it found me.The loneliness that settled in after Liam was different from anything I had known before. I had always been alone and independent. It never used to feel like a wound. After him, it became unbearable. Sleep turned into a chore of restlessness and shallowness. The food lost its taste until the only things I could keep down were peanuts and water. I started waking at five in the morning, lying in the dark with my chest tight and my thoughts circling the same empty space.

Things between Liam and me were still complicated.But at least we had reached a quiet agreement not to fight what we felt for each other anymore. We never defined what we were out loud. Still, it was clear as day; he was mine, and I was his. I chose to enjoy every moment of it while it lasted. He loved pampering me, even though I drew the line when it came to money. I never felt comfortable with him buying me things, especially when I could get them myself. At some point, he noticed the pattern and stopped trying after realizing I would always refuse. Every time I went to his place, he took care of me in smaller, quieter ways, which I loved. He gave me full-body massages. He was genuinely good at it, and I suppose he never complained because most of them ended in sex. He fed me too. He was an excellent cook. That, and his painting skills. Sometimes I really felt like he had missed his calling with both. I often wondered how he had ended up in construction instead.The one thing I lo