CHAPTER - 18

LOVE IS... NOTHING

'Love is nothing but an overrated emotion that brings nothing but pain to those unfortunate enough to suffer from it.' - Carole Mortimer

Ashton went towards one of the tables on the other side of the hall as nonchalantly as he could as if nothing at all had happened just now. While all I could do was stare at him with too many questions swirling in my head.

I could still feel him on my lips and to see if the kiss was actually real, I touched my lips with the tips of my fingers. It was as real as real could ever get. The trail that he had left with his warm hands on my body, suddenly felt cold. The lingering taste of alcohol and mint was still there on my lips and I bit my lips to feel it again, probably for the first and the last time.

"Pretty intense, huh!" A voice made my confused, flying thoughts land on earth and my head snapped towards Michael, who was giving me a teasing look. Apparently, we had just given a show to the guests in this wedding reception.

"Umm... well.." I thought of something to say but I couldn't as I was still in quite a shock.

"I really believed you when you said that he wasn't your date." He laughed and I shot him a confused look. I was already in a messy state and I really didn't want any kind of commentaries about what just happened.

"I've to go. I'll catch up with you later, Mike. Okay?" I managed to smile and he smiled back. He hugged me lightly and pecked my cheek before saying goodbye.

As soon as he went away, I marched towards Ashton who was now busy with his phone. But I was stopped once by my group of second cousins and twice by my far off relatives. Unsurprisingly, all of them had witnessed the kiss and were asking about my 'hot date'. This annoyed me further and I replied with 'I'll be back' to all of them.

Something that added more anger to my already pissed off and confused mood was the fact that Ashton didn't look bothered at all. He looked like his usual self - calm and without a damn care about anything or anyone, irritatingly so. Didn't the kiss have any effect on him? Looking at him, I concluded that yes, it didn't affect him at all. On the other hand, I was still in a daze. I was still under a trance, and there was no doubt that I wanted a repeat of the kiss. Instantly, I blamed my desire of second kiss on my hormones and Ashton, who proved that he was a pro at the art of kissing as well.

Soon I realized that probably same was the reason of his carelessness. Probably it had to do something with my kissing skills. I was out of practice. I sighed at the awful realization.

Before I could go in depression about my lack of kissing skills, I reminded myself of the more important question in the situation.

Why did he kiss me?

In order to get an answer, I marched towards him. With furious mood, I reached Ashton who still hadn't noticed me arriving. I banged the table with my hand in order to have his attention. I succeeded as he looked up abruptly and I hissed, "You kissed me, you a*shole."

He smirked his handsomely annoying smirk and replied, "You cursed me, Miss. Uptight." His reply left me speechless for a second and I opened and closed my mouth, thinking of a reply. This guy was insane, for sure. "Sit down," he suggested or more like ordered. I sat down beside him. "Drink some water." He passed a glass of water to me and I drank it in one go, only to spit it out as soon as it touched my taste buds.

"What the hell was that?" I grimaced, rubbing my mouth with the back of my hand.

"Cocktail." He grinned while I shot a disgusted look in his direction. He rolled his eyes at me and mumbled a comment, "Way too uptight."

This spiked my anger and I got back to the topic in my mind. "What is wrong with you?"

"Nothing." He shrugged, frowning in confusion at my question. "What is wrong with you? You look quite worked up." He tilted in head to the side in curiosity and his nonchalance actually made me wonder if the kiss was nothing but my imagination.

"You kissed me!" I accused him. He couldn't just kiss me and act like nothing had happened.

He scratched his beard thoughtfully. "Oh did I?" he asked with mock interest and I gaped at him. Rolling his eyes at my reaction, he stated, "You kissed me back. No big deal!"

I pressed my lips together at his reply and couldn't help but feel slightly disappointed and hurt. But then again, what was I even expecting from him? This was Ashton Parker. He just didn't care about anything, and caring about a stupid kiss with me was probably the last thing on his mind.

And that hurt.

It was the first kiss for me in four months and he was the second guy after Nolan whom I had ever kissed. Of course, it shouldn't have mattered to me, but it did. And that was wrong.

I knew that I couldn't let this happen again; neither the kiss nor any kind of feelings for Ashton Parker; be it hurt, disappointment or anything. I couldn't allow myself to feel anything for him. He was just a part of a stupid project and nothing else. Both of us would probably not even meet each other after the end of this project. This thought made my heart clench and my stomach drop. What was happening to me?

"Ready to go?" My head snapped towards Ashton, who was now standing beside me and looking down at me with raised eyebrows. I nodded in reply as no words came out of my mouth. Without saying goodbyes to anyone, I rushed out of the venue following Ashton towards his car.

He was about to open the driver seat door, but I stopped him and snatched the keys from him. "There's no way that I'm letting you drive in this state," I told him a bit coldly, without looking at him.

I heard him grumble a bit but he nonetheless complied. The car ride was painfully silent which just added to the awkwardness. Why did he have to kiss me? Everything was going just fine since last few days. Okay, not fine... but not as bad as it had been eventually. I had even warmed up to him and told him my true feelings about my break up with Nolan; the feelings that I had shared with just one person before him...

'It was just a kiss, Liana. Just a stupid, hot kiss. No, not hot! Just stupid, plain stupid and unnecessary. Don't fret over it. Don't actors kiss their co-stars in all their movies? Obviously they don't fret after each kiss like this. If they would, they would stop living their lives. Think of yourself as an actor and Ashton's kiss as a stupid scene in a movie and nothing else.' I tried to make myself understand the irrelevance of the kiss in my life and my nuisance talks succeeded to some level. 'It was a great scene, nonetheless.' My mind snorted at me and I ignored it.

"You still believe in love. Don't you?" Ashton's question interrupted my thoughts and I shook my head to clear up all everything from my head other than the fact that the kiss was actually irrelevant.

His voice was quiet but loud enough in the deadly silence for me to hear. His question threw me off guard, and I glanced at him to make sure that the question was directed towards me. Ashton's fixed gaze on me confirmed my suspicions, and I answered, "No. I don't. What made you think so?"

He chuckled a bit and turned towards me, so he was facing me completely. He rested his hand on the head rest of his seat and used it to support his head. I felt his eyes trained on my face and he chuckled again. "My observations made me think so," he answered in his low, husky voice.

A chuckle escaped my lips at his answer and I asked, "What observations?"

"You looked really happy when the couple said their vows." He pointed out and I recalled the moment of happiness on Seth and Laura's face.

"Yes, of course I was happy. He's my cousin and they have been in love with each other since years. I was happy for him. That doesn't mean that I believe in love all of a sudden. Love is nothing but an overrated emotion that brings nothing but pain to those unfortunate enough to suffer from it," I clarified myself by giving him the definition of the day. The moment I stopped explaining myself, I realized how everything had actually changed in a day. Just two days ago, I was trying my best to make Ashton believe in love and convince him of my undying faith in 'love', and here I was now, convincing him about the fact that 'Love was nothing'.

"That was the biggest definition you've given to me till date." He laughed, making me laugh too.

"But it's true," I mumbled back while laughing.

Once our laughter died, he mumbled to himself, "There were few more observations."

I raised my eyebrows at him and asked, "Really, Sherlock?" A smile formed on my lips when I recalled how Ashton had started calling me as 'Sherlock' and later 'Sherry' in the beginning of this assignment. It didn't feel like it had been merely few days - this was the sixth day to be exact. It felt like months.

"Yes," he mumbled but didn't add anything further and we again fell in silence, but this time it was a comfortable silence. Suddenly, the awkwardness of the unexpected kiss had evaporated.

"Sometimes..." I started saying as his gaze was still fixed on me. "...it doesn't feel like I've known you merely for a few days."

"Six days," he pointed out, stressing on 'six' as if it was the most important information that I was missing out on.

With a chuckle, I asked him, "You're counting?" So am I.

He snorted. "Of course, I am. You are a pain in the a*s, Liana. Six days with you is a huge deal. Hats off to Nylon for spending six f*cking years with you."

Despite of the insult, light laughter left my lips and I corrected him, "Nolan. His name is Nolan." I halted the car in front of his apartment and turned to look at him.

"So you agree about the 'pain in the a*s' part?" He tilted his head to the side in mock curiosity with a slight smirk on his face.

Again, he reminded me of one of the first conversations we had had while I was trying to get inside his apartment. With a little smile on my face, I rolled my eyes and told him, "It feels like I have known you for months."

He raised his eyebrows at me and shrugged. Scratching his beard thoughtfully, he joked, "Maybe you have."

I rolled my eyes at his humor and said, "Now get out. I'm taking your car with me. I'll bring it back tomorrow."

"Yeah, whatever." He waved his hand dismissing the matter. "We are not meeting tomorrow though," he informed me.

"Why?" I asked, way too abruptly.

As expected, he smirked at my reaction and my cheeks turned red. "So excited to meet me, Liana." He punched my shoulder playfully. I swatted his hand away and narrowed my eyes at him. After laughing slightly, he answered in a dead serious tone, "I don't work on Sundays."

I shot him a dead pan look and said, "When do you ever work, Ashton?"

He laughed slightly and shrugged. "That's true but no work at all on Sundays."

I nodded my head a bit and said, "I'll drop off your car tomorrow morning. Okay?" Honestly, the thought of not seeing him the next day didn't settle well with me.

In reply, he shook his head stubbornly and said, "No. Uh... what's that f*cker's name today? Yes, Jack! I'll ask him to collect the car from your place tonight after his date with Stephanie. She lives near your apartment, right?" I nodded my head numbly as I was taken aback by his eagerness to not see me. "So I really don't want to see you tomorrow."

"Ouch!" I muttered and turned my face away from him. Of course, it was all about work between us which was sprinkled by tablespoons of his pervert remarks, a little bit of friendliness, pounds of rudeness, kilos of laziness, milligram of empathy along with sympathy, and one single really hot and mind-blowing kiss.

He got out of the car and shut the door behind him. Just as I was about to start the car, he bent down and told me through the window, "At least, I told you about it beforehand, unlike you. Bye."

Before I could give any kind of reply to his remark or his greeting, he walked inside his building. He didn't look even slightly drunk and that was something, considering the amount of alcohol he had consumed during the day, courtesy - open bar. My mind went to the only day when I had not come over to his place and not informed him about it. It was the day when Steph had finally broken up with Shane and Ashton along with his friend had came over to my place. I could remember Ashton's foul mood and coldness towards me. Was it because I didn't inform him about my absence? Did I really matter even slightly to him? Or was he just upset about my lack of professionalism? Ideally, I should have informed him. Yes, that would be it. He was angry because of my lack of manners.

That absolute hypocrite!

I removed my heels the moment I stepped into my empty apartment and rushed inside my bedroom to change into something comfortable. But I stopped when I caught a glimpse of myself in the full length mirror placed in my room. I threw my phone on my bed and walked towards the mirror slowly, looking at my reflection carefully. I stared at my brown, waist long hair and found nothing endearing about them. I stared at my green eyes, which after a really long time seemed to shine slightly. I looked at my facial skin and thanked Stephanie, mentally, for the light make up which made the light pimple marks on my cheeks and forehead disappear temporarily. My mind drifted towards the three girls I had met with Ashton and I realized how beautiful all of them were and I, probably, didn't stand anywhere near them. Ashton was used to being around really gorgeous girls.

My eyes widened at what my mind was thinking and I shook my head to clear it from nuisance. Light chuckle escaped my lips at how weird I was being. Something was definitely wrong with me.

Finally, my eyes settled on my lips and I pouted a bit. The pout had never suited my face. No wonder Ashton didn't enjoy the kiss. I was, most probably, a terrible kisser.

Once again, I found myself getting lost in the kiss that I had shared with Ashton. The way his lips moved in sync with mine, the way his warm, rough hands travelled from my bare shoulders to my arms and rested on my waist, gripping me tightly in his embrace, the feel of being in his warm and secure embrace - each and every thing played in my head.

In the deadly silence of my apartment, my inner voice echoed telling me that no matter how much I denied, the truth would always remain the truth. And the bitter truth was that, somehow, Ashton had managed to make a little place for himself in my heart.

True to his words, he had definitely managed to ruin my lipstick... and my mind.

*******************************

A/N

I know it's shorter but this is where I wanted to end this chapter at... showing Liana's confused state of mind. Hope you all enjoyed! :D

VOTE COMMENT FAN <3