Lahat ng Kabanata ng The Last Time I Waited for Her: Kabanata 1 - Kabanata 10

Asher's POVLucinda fell silent for a few seconds. Then, she retorted, "There's no point in making comparisons like that.""Right. There isn't," I said. I closed the bedroom door and tucked the expired queue ticket into the recipe book Mom had left behind.The pages were open to the recipe for pudding, still covered with the notes I had made while repeatedly tweaking it for our wedding dessert.A few minutes later, Lucinda's phone rang outside the door. She answered in a hushed voice, "Are you home?"I couldn't hear what was said on the other end, but her tone softened. "He's not mad. Don't worry about it. Go to sleep early. I'll wait for you to hang up."I leaned against the back of the door, listening as she waited patiently for a full three minutes. In the end, Jace hung up first.On the day we went to try on wedding outfits, Lucinda was 40 minutes late. The sales assistant had already helped me change into my third suit when she finally walked through the door with Jace in t

Asher's POVOn the day of the wedding, Lucinda was 20 minutes late.I sat in the dressing room in my wedding suit while Mrs. Walker Sr. had already told us to hurry up three times. When the door opened for the 4th time, it was Jace who walked in.He had changed into his groomsman suit, with a bandage still stuck to his lower back. "Asher, I'm here to apologize."I looked at myself in the mirror and said nothing.He walked up behind me, his gaze sweeping over my collar. He said, "The reason Luce hates waiting is that her birth mother abandoned her at a train station when she was little. She said she was going to buy tickets and told her to wait for five minutes. She never came back."That was the first time I had ever heard about that story. Over the past six years, I had asked Lucinda about it many times. She would only say that waiting was pointless.Jace smirked. "She never told you about any of this, did she?""What are you trying to say?" I asked."Oh, nothing. I just thin

Asher's POVOn the day the dessert shop reopened, more than 20 people were already lined up outside.Uncle Nick frowned as he looked at the line. "Should we hand out queue numbers? We don't want the customers getting tired of waiting.""Go ahead. And give everyone a cupcake while you're at it," I said.A young lady took the queue number and asked with a smile, "Sir, aren't you worried about losing money?""Waiting is hard enough. The last I can do is give you a little something in return," I said, bringing out some sabayon.The bell above the door suddenly rang. A woman in a black trench coat stood there, rainwater clinging to her shoulders. It was none other than Lucinda.I merely glanced at her and asked, "Did you get a queue number?"Lucinda didn't seem to understand what I had said. "What?""You have to get a number. There are 23 people ahead of you."She looked at the winding line outside the shop. In the past, if there were more than three people ahead of her, she would

Third-Person POVThe woman Jace had found only said her childhood name, and Lucinda had already noticed that something was wrong. She took out an old photo and asked coldly, "My mother has a burn scar behind her left ear. Do you have one too?"The woman covered her ears, her eyes darting away.Jace's face turned pale as he said, "Lucinda, she might have had the scar removed later.""Why are you answering for her?" Lucinda questioned. She slid her phone over to Jace. The screen showed the woman's payment records. The person who had paid her was none other than Jace.She asked, "You hired someone to impersonate my mother, just to lure me away from Asher?"Jace fell silent for a moment, then suddenly smirked. "So what if I did? You always come when I call."Lucinda clenched her fist, the veins on the back of her hand standing out. "Did you ruin the recipe book on purpose?""Yeah." Jace dropped the act completely. "I just wanted to see which mattered more to you. His mother's keeps

Asher's POVThe following spring, the street held a dessert festival. I hung my mother's menu outside the shop and made a limited batch of pear and frangipane tarts. By 8:00 am, the queue had already reached the end of the street.Uncle Nick was pacing around anxiously. "We're running out of flour.""There are two bags of flour in the kitchen.""There's no one to knead the dough."The door to the bookstore next door opened, and Winona walked in with her sleeves rolled up. "I'll help."Uncle Nick looked at her curiously. He asked, "You know how to knead dough?""I spent all night learning yesterday." Winona propped her phone against the edge of the cutting board. A tutorial video my mother had recorded years ago was playing on the screen. The first tart she made came out crooked.I couldn't help but laugh. "This will fall apart in the oven.""Then teach me," she demanded."Wet your palms first. Don't press too hard."She followed my instructions, and the second tart came out