Chapter 98: My Girlfriend
Zion Sawyer burst out laughing, while Yolanda Lawson grew furious. "Wow! What is the world coming to these days? A kept woman acting this arrogant? So what? You’re just young and good at servicing President Keating in bed, that’s all. What do you have to be so smug about!"
"Excuse me, but if we’re going with your version of events, then I was so good at ’servicing’ him that I’ve been made official. So you’d best not talk down to me. After all, I’m the one who can go whisper in his ear at night." With that, Leah Sinclair grabbed Zion Sawyer and walked away without a backward glance.
The few people left in the elevator were dumbfounded. "What does she mean, ’made official’?"
"No way. Did she really become President Keating’s girlfriend?"
"I think so! Someone in our group chat just said President Keating is waiting for her at the main entrance right now."
"Leah, I’ve realized you and President Keating are equally skilled with that sharp tongue of yours. It’s awesome! Hmph, but with people like Yolanda Lawson, you have to clap back hard! The quieter you are, the nastier she gets! Still, why didn’t President Keating fire her too? It’s so infuriating!" Zion Sawyer said, her voice a mix of excitement and indignation.
"If he fired her, you’d have a lot less gossip to dig up, wouldn’t you?"
Leah Sinclair smiled. She actually knew that the people who had been fired were all loyal to Aaron Keating; Asher Keating hadn’t touched a single person who wasn’t.
When she saw Asher Keating’s car, Leah Sinclair stopped in her tracks. She hadn’t expected him to be so bold as to park right at the main entrance. She suddenly felt a bit shy, yet her heart warmed at the sight.
Zion Sawyer recognized the car too. After all, it was the one he was driving when those intimate photos of him were leaked. She greeted Asher Keating excitedly, and he nodded back at her.
After getting in the car, Leah Sinclair noticed the peace charm Asher Keating had hanging inside. She reached out to touch it, her eyes curving with a smile. Asher, who was driving, caught her expression from the corner of his eye and couldn’t help but smile himself. He freed one hand, took hers, and held it gently.
"Are you planning to go home for the three-day New Year’s holiday?"
"I don’t think I will. I still haven’t finished adjusting that data from today. Zion’s heading back to her hometown, and it would be inconvenient for me to go back since there’s no internet there. I can use these few days to get it done."
"Mm."
When Leah Sinclair woke up today, Asher Keating realized she only remembered what happened before she got drunk. She had absolutely no memory of what she’d said afterward, and he had no intention of telling her.
He didn’t want to upset her by broaching the subject that had been buried in her heart for so long, so he decided to just let it be.
When the two of them arrived, Ethan Shaw and Riley Sterling were already there. When they’d had dinner with the pair before, Asher would sometimes walk in holding Leah’s hand.
She hadn’t thought much of it back then, but today, she felt an inexplicable trace of nervousness. The moment the door opened, the teasing hoots from Ethan Shaw and Riley Sterling made Leah Sinclair blush.
Asher Keating chuckled and gestured toward them. "Alright, that’s enough. Don’t you know she gets embarrassed easily?"
"We’re just happy for you guys!"
As he spoke, Ethan Shaw popped open a bottle of champagne. "POP!" "Let’s give a huge congratulations to our man Asher! After 28 years of being single, he’s finally off the market!"
"No, no, no, you’ve got it wrong. It should be: our man Asher, single for 28 years, has finally seen the light!" Riley Sterling chimed in, also popping a bottle of champagne. "POP!"
The two of them were genuinely happy for the couple. In a way, they had witnessed Leah Sinclair and Asher Keating’s journey from the very beginning.
The two men chattered away, showering them with a torrent of congratulations, and Leah Sinclair could barely keep up with her repeated "thank yous."
"Alright, that’s about enough," Asher Keating said with a laugh, stepping in as he saw Leah Sinclair’s face growing redder and redder from their increasingly outrageous comments.
"Hey, Asher, aren’t you going to post on social media to make it official?"
"That’s not necessary!"
Leah Sinclair interjected. Asher Keating had too many contacts on his WeChat, including a lot of business acquaintances. She wasn’t insistent on that sort of thing.
Besides, Asher was the kind of person who might post on his social media once a year, if that. She didn’t want him to make a big public deal out of it just for her sake.
A smile played on Asher Keating’s lips as he looked at her. "Are you sure?"
"Really, it’s not necessary. This is already wonderful."
"Well, you might be a little too late. I already posted it before we came in," Asher Keating said, waggling his phone.
"Holy shit! No way, when did you post it?"
Ethan Shaw and Riley Sterling scrambled for their phones. They had been so rowdy just now that they hadn’t noticed the notifications. Their phones had indeed been blowing up a moment ago, but they’d just assumed it was New Year’s greetings and ignored them.
Startled, Leah Sinclair took his phone to look. He had indeed posted it, probably right when he got out of the car. The caption was a simple two words: "My girlfriend."
The accompanying photo was a candid shot of Leah Sinclair leaning over a coffee table, completely absorbed in her work. She was in her loungewear, hair casually pinned up with a claw clip. A sliver of sunlight fell on her, bathing her in a soft glow that made the scene look almost unreal in its beauty.
Leah Sinclair couldn’t even remember when that photo was taken. More than ten minutes had passed since he posted it, and a long chain of likes and comments had already formed underneath.
She glanced through them; they were mostly messages of congratulations, with a fair number teasing Asher Keating for actually getting a girlfriend.
"When did you take this?"
"I don’t remember. I just thought you looked beautiful, so I took the picture."
Asher Keating genuinely had forgotten which day he’d taken it. He had simply looked up, saw her, and felt a surge of warmth that made him snap the photo. Just a little while ago, as he was waiting for Leah downstairs, a notification had popped up on his phone.
Today is the last day of the year. What kind of post will you share to wrap it up?
So he’d thought about making an official announcement on his social media. When he got out of the car, he had opened his photo gallery, scrolled randomly, and stumbled upon that exact picture.
"Ugh, the stench of new love," Ethan Shaw said, putting his phone down with a disgusted look. "My WeChat is blowing up. Everyone’s asking about Asher’s post!"
"Same here," Riley Sterling added, setting his phone down with a look of exasperation. "How come I never get this kind of reaction when I announce a new relationship?"
"You announce a new relationship fifteen days out of the month. What the hell kind of reaction do you expect?" Ethan Shaw shot back, giving him a massive eye-roll.
"You’re one to talk!"
The two began to bicker over who announced new relationships more often, and Leah Sinclair, face flushed, handed the phone back to Asher Keating.
Asher Keating took it and said, "What about me?"
"Huh?" Leah Sinclair was confused.
"Jeez, Leah, what Asher means is, why haven’t you made an announcement about him? Yeah! Why haven’t you posted about Asher? Is he not good enough? Are you just trying to get a freebie?" Ethan Shaw shouted, ending his argument with Riley.
"Hahaha, what do you mean, a ’freebie’? Leah already paid the fee!" Riley Sterling roared with laughter.
"Oh, that’s right! Hahahahaha! Leah, what were you even thinking back then? Didn’t you realize it looked exactly like you were paying Asher his ’fee’?" Thinking of it, Ethan Shaw also started laughing uncontrollably.