After telling the maid to leave, she pulled out the veil and throw it to the ground, flung away those painful shoes and she wanted to rip off the dress from her body and never to see it again but, too bad, the corset was on the back and she couldn't reach it. So, she was stuck wearing that dress.
After spending what seems like an hour or so, she heard a knock on the door and again, heard it twice.
She quickly rushed to open the door thinking it must be one of the maid who can finally help her get out of this suffocater called dress.
But outside the door, there stood a big, chubby man who was a head taller than her with apple-red cheeks and bright amethyst coloured cute puppy like eyes and was fidgeting and staring at her.
She thought he must be somebody's child and asked " Are you lost ? Kids shouldn't be running around at night, you know ?"
When the man hears that he instantly starts tearing up which struck her conscience, and she thinks " How can you make such a cutie pie cry like this, you idiot ??"
She looked around and saw a tray full of fruits on the table by the balcony, she ran there, grabbed one, then presented it to him " okay-okay!!! don't cry, alright !! I'll give you this apple, okay!"
It made him cry even louder.
She didn't know how to shut him up so, without much thinking she hugged him tightly just like her mother used to do before.
This startled the man and he stopped crying and she breathed a sigh of relief.
She asked him to come inside the room still thinking him as a child.
The man felt a bit shy but agreed and step inside.
"Oh!!! By the way, what is your name ?" Cassy asked while heading to put back the apple where it was.
" Umm!! Ugh!! It's Aspen De Valgavord." The man replied.
"Oh!!! Your name sounds fami....." The apple rolled down to the ground from her hand.
She slowly turned her head and looked at him and asked him with a blank face if he really is who she thinks he is.
Aspen nodded and looked at her with sparkling eyes while still fidgeting his fingers.
Meanwhile, Cassy looked herself up and down, her hair a complete mess from forcefully pulling the veil, hair strands here and there, her makeup smudged after a long, tiring day, standing barefooted, her dress tattered from her trying to get rid of it from her body. 'A PERFECT COMPLETE MESS'
She covered her face with her hands while screaming internally " NOOO!!! THIS WAS NOT THE FIRST IMPRESSION I HAD IMAGINED !!! "
Aspen was standing far away, near the door and was looking at her with shy and embarrassed look.
After spending few minutes of awkward silence, Cassy took a long, deep breath and called out his name " Aspen !!! "
Aspen flinched as he didn't expected to get called by his name without any honorifics. Nobody ever done that before except his parents. He was in awe for few seconds because of that.