22. Unplanned

Background color
Font
Font size
Line height

CHAPTER - 22

LOVE IS... UNPLANNED

"Unplanned moments are always better than the planned ones."

I was, very rudely, interrupted from embracing my laptop and living in the moment by my own phone ringing loudly. I looked at the caller id and saw 'Mike' flashing on it. Ashton still didn't seem bothered by my over-excitement and my high state of mind. But yet my manners compelled me to say, "Sorry, I've to take this one."

"Over my dead body," he replied in a dead panned tone as sarcastically as he could get.

I shot him a look that said 'You're impossible' but I was pretty sure that he didn't get it as he didn't even look my way. Rolling my eyes at him, I swiped the screen to answer my phone. "Hey Mike!" My greeting sounded way too excited even to my own ears and I blamed it on the 'Grand Comeback of my Laptop'. Ashton's head snapped in my direction and he raised his eyebrows in an annoying way. 'Sorry,' I mouthed in a sheepish manner and diverted my attention towards Mike who was laughing at my enthusiasm.

"I would have jumped from our school's rooftop upon hearing you calling my name with so much enthusiasm, Liana. But sadly, babes, you are late," he responded in a very cocky tone.

Light chuckle escaped my lips and I told him, "I always knew that you could kill yourself for me, Mike, but suicide is a punishable crime."

"Even love is a crime, Lia," he replied back in a dramatic voice, making me roll my eyes at his cheesiness.

"Cheesy, aren't we?"

"Yup." He laughed. "I want you to meet Ivy. She came back last night. Would you like to join us for dinner at my apartment tonight? Come over at six?"

A grin stretched on my face upon thinking about meeting the girl who stole lover boy, Mike's heart. "Of course, I would be there at six. Just message me your address."

"Great!" Mike exclaimed on the other side and continued, "In a minute. See you tonight."

With a grin fixed on my face, I replied back, "Yup, tonight." I cancelled the call and looked towards Ashton, who was looking ahead on the road with a tight jaw and narrowed eyes. My eyes travelled to his hands which held the steering wheel in a tight grip. "What's wrong?" I asked with slight concern.

He glanced at me with his narrowed eyes and asked, "How many more f*cking meetings do we have to attend?"

My eyebrows shot up at his sudden change of mood and I mumbled my reply, "One more for today."

"Good," he muttered under his breath.

"And one girl per day till you like one of all the options you have or the twentieth day, whichever is earlier," I continued my answer, looking out of the window towards the passing buildings.

"That's never going to happen," he replied in his cold voice, making me snap my head towards him and look at him with endless questions again swimming in my head. But he chose to concentrate on the road ahead and ignore me for the rest of the drive.

It was weird how he managed to make me feel jealous, happy, and now confused and sad in a span of merely an hour.

***********

Savannah, our next candidate, lived on the outskirts of the city and it took us one painful hour to reach her place. Her place was, for lack of a better word, a mansion. The neighborhood was quiet due to lack of houses around it. The nearest house was about half a mile away. And truth be told, the location crept me out.

Ashton blew a low whistle as he parked the car in front of the mansion, probably amused by the surroundings as well. "Interesting," he mumbled, looking at me.

My widened eyes narrowed at him and I mumbled back, "Now we are talking?"

He replied with a sigh and turned the engine off. He got out of the car, taking the keys with him, indicating that it was time for me to get out as well. Being polite had always been Ashton's forte. Note the overload of sarcasm.

"Ashton - the king of politeness," I mumbled in annoyance sprinkled with overdose of sarcasm and got out of the car.

"Did you say something?" he asked, narrowing his eyes at me as he walked towards me.

"Nothing. Nothing at all," I answered, widening my eyes in pure innocence.

His narrowed eyes told me that he didn't believe even a word I had just said but after a moment he let it slide and said, "Tell me about this one." He pointed towards the mansion gates with his chin as he started walking towards them.

I followed him by staying a step back and started telling him, "Savannah Peters is twenty five years old, two years younger than you."

"Okay. That's all I wanted to know," he interrupted me, waving his hand in dismissal.

"What?" I asked in surprise as we stepped inside the huge gates which made creaking noises as Ashton opened them. "Why the hell does she not have any security guards? This place is creepy," I mumbled in a state of confusion mixed with slight horror.

"Because none of the girls have been like what was written in their Bios. People write whatever bull they want people to know about them. But the truth is no one is actually like that," he answered my first question.

My face scrunched up at his answer as I realized that whatever he just said was true. And maybe that's why he hadn't liked any girl till now, but then there was Patricia. "What about Patricia?" The question slipped from my mouth even before I could think about it. The sane, professional side of me who wanted this project to wrap up as soon as possible wanted him to say that he liked her and would definitely like to meet her again. But, the stupid part of me who was dealing with a crush on Ashton and wanted to kiss him again, wanted him to say that he didn't like Patricia at all.

Ashton put a full stop to my never ending inner battles by saying, "You should be glad that it's not you who has compiled this f*cking list of candidates or else I would have gladly killed you for making me meet her. These meetings a pain in the a*s."

A ghost of smile spread on my face at his answer. Here I was being threatened to kill and I was smiling? I was, seriously, the queen of morons.

"You didn't like her?" I asked with that smile still intact on my face. Suddenly, he turned around, making me bump into him and rub my freshly injured nose because of the impact. "Ow!"

I shot a glare towards him while he just shrugged and asked, "Did you?"

My eyes widened at his question and my heart did a little flutter at the thought of the importance of my opinions for him. This was the golden opportunity for me to say that neither did I like any of the girls we had met till now nor am I going to like rest of the candidates. I liked myself better for him. But as I thought about Patricia as a person, setting apart the factor that Ashton might get interested in her, I concluded that she was not so bad. In fact, she was smart, stunning, and intelligent. Probably my opinions mattered to him so much that he would decide to meet her again, would start liking her, and eventually fall in love with her; thereby, putting an end to this assignment. Wasn't that exactly the thing I had wanted since the first day of this stupid assignment? And maybe, this would prove to be fruitful in making my crush fade away.

So, I decided to answer him truthfully, much to the dismay of the little girl in me. "She seemed nice-"

Ashton interrupted me by slapping my forehead lightly. "Exactly my point." I blinked at his reaction and he smirked. "Liana, you were in love with Nylon, for God's sake! And now you are dating an idiot." He rolled his eyes at me while my face scrunched up in confusion, and he continued, "I don't trust your choices." With that he turned around and rang the bell, leaving me to stare at his back with my mouth and eyes wide open.

"Nolan - his name is Nolan; and which idiot are you talking about?" I managed to ask amidst the confusion and the latest insult thrown my way.

He snorted in reply and just as he was about to answer, the door of the mansion opened. My confused eyes settled on the rainbow color haired girl who had just opened her door and widened slightly in surprise. A huge smile covered her freckled face and she greeted us, "You must be Ashton and Liana. You're welcome in my humble adobe." She took a step back, allowing us to enter inside.

I mumbled a 'hello' unlike Ashton who didn't have any courtesy. Nothing new in that!

"Nice place, Savannah." I smiled warmly at her, which she reflected back.

"Thank you, Liana. Please take a seat." She locked the door behind her and motioned for us to sit down on the antique couches. Ashton and I sat down beside each other on the couch. The mansion was incredibly beautiful from the inside with everything looking like it belonged to the eighteenth century. "I already made some tea for you guys. Kind of figured out that you were about to come. You didn't have any difficulty in finding my home, did you?" she asked with slight concern.

"Oh no! Not at all." I smiled at her even though I wanted to have a coffee so badly.

"Oh you don't like tea, do you? How about coffee?" she enquired with a sweet smile.

My eyes widened slightly at her accurate guess work and I mumbled a "yes."

I looked at Ashton, who as always made the start of the meeting completely awkward. As all our previous meetings, other than the one with Patricia, he didn't leave a stone unturned in making it clear that he was least interested in the things happening around him.

"Great!" she exclaimed. "I'll get a cup of coffee for you and something for you to eat. It must have been a long drive. I'll be back in a minute."

The moment she disappeared into the corridor, I slapped Ashton's knee to gather his attention. "What's wrong with you? Talk to her! Have a little courtesy. Don't make it so clear that you are not interested in her at all. She'll feel bad," I hissed at him, while he just rolled his eyes at me.

"I'm not a hypocrite," he answered in his clarification.

"Stop irritating me, Ashton. I'm not the one who is here to meet future lover prospects; you are." I looked at him pointedly, trying to make my point clear.

His lips twitched up in his ever annoyingly sexy smirk and he whispered, "Actually, you two would look great together."

A defeated sigh escaped my lips and I mumbled, "Pervert."

"Ms. Uptight," he mumbled back.

"I'm back!" Savannah announced in a cheery voice with a tray filled with some snacks in her hands.

I shot a tight lipped smile in her direction while Ashton muttered a very sarcastic, "Oh joy!"

Before I could narrow my eyes at him in slight warning, Savannah clicked her tongue as she placed the tray on the table between us. "Oh, the tension between the two of you."

A grimace made its way on my face and I tried to defend us both. "Oh we get along just fine."

"Sexual tension." She smirked as she finished off her sentence, making me choke on my own spit, reddening my face and avoiding Ashton's gaze.

Instead of finding the situation embarrassing like me, Ashton found it amusing as he chuckled while I choked. I picked up a glass of water from the table and sipped it while glaring at Ashton, who took that very moment to open his stupid mouth. "I know, right? I kissed her to end this tension but she wants so much more."

That resulted in me choking again, but this time on the water that was supposed to calm my throat. My eyes widened to the size of saucers as I stared at Ashton in shock. Of all the times he chose to mention the kiss was now - in front of a candidate?

Savannah, much to my surprise, let out an 'aww' which made me look at her in shock. "How was it?" she asked, wiggling her eyebrows in sheer joy and curiosity.

"He is lying," I lied through my teeth straight out denying the kiss.

Ashton ignored me and answered her with a slight shrug and shake of his head, "No tongue is equal to a bad kiss for me."

I gasped, clearly offended by his reply. It was probably the best kiss of my life; the kiss that managed to make me a confused mess and here he was saying that it was a bad one? No wonder he didn't mention it before this. Before I could think about anything to say to him, Savannah interrupted me, "Oh Ashton, the many secrets you keep."

My eyes, once again, widened at what she said and Ashton's reaction to her. His relaxed demure changed to a tensed one for a moment, before he willed himself to compose again. I watched the two of them like a freaking tennis match - Ashton's scrutinizing gaze fixed on her, and Savannah's little relaxed smirk as she stared back at him.

"What secrets?" I asked, before I could tame my tongue.

"Too many secrets to count on fingers," Ashton replied with a smirk, shooting a pointed look towards Savannah, who chuckled heartily.

"Do you both know each other?" I asked, looking at them in complete confusion and trying to gauge any reaction from either of them that could give away the true answer of my question. How could Savannah within ten minutes of meeting Ashton tell that he was a bundle of mysteries?

Savannah laughed at my question and shook her head in denial. "I'm a face reader. I get to know things just by a look." A light chuckle escaped my lips as I didn't believe even a word she had just said. "Sadly, you like him too much for your own good." She cut off my chuckles with her words and I, immediately, believed her 'face-reader' crap.

"Uh... I... wh-" I tried to say something... anything while my cheeks decided to turn a bright shade of red.

"Who?" This time it was Ashton who asked this question with a slight smirk on his face, showing slightest interest in the unwanted conversation.

'You, idiot, you,' I wanted to shout but I was sane enough not to do any such thing, thankfully.

"Too many guys to count on fingers." I threw his words back at him, shooting a pointed look towards Savannah, asking her to keep quiet, while she laughed lightly.

Ashton stared at me with his grey scrutinizing gaze and this time, I stared back with the numerous questions inside my head and at the tip of my tongue.

Savannah coughed loudly in order to stop our little staring match and she succeeded. "The tension between you two is making me uncomfortable." She chuckled again, making me glare at her in annoyance. The sexual tension was so one sided that it wasn't even funny.

She smiled back at me and I couldn't help but smile back. The good news was that she was the only girl I had actually liked in this assignment. But the bad news was that with the conversation we just had with her, she was never going to give a 'Go ahead' to this meeting. And this bad news made my smile falter and my shoulders slumped down in defeat. "This is not how this meeting was supposed to go," I mumbled in misery, hiding my face behind my palms.

Savannah giggled and Ashton snorted. "As if all other meetings went as they were supposed to?" I glared at him through the gaps between my fingers and slowly uncovered my face. He smirked and ordered, "Let's get out of here. It's getting late. It was nice meeting you, Savannah." My eyes widened at the slight trace of manners displayed by Ashton. Ashton got up from the couch, rushed towards the mansion door to unlock them, and swing them open.

I stared after him with wide, shocked eyes. "That was shocking," I mumbled to myself, but Savannah's chuckle proved that she had heard me clearly.

"I'm sorry about how this turned out to be," I apologized grimacing at her.

"You like him!" she declared. In reflex, my eyes widened and I looked towards the door where Ashton had just exited, to make sure that he hadn't heard her.

"Oh... no... it's all just misunder-" She nodded her head in a mocking manner and I caved. "Please don't tell him." I was ridiculous.

She laughed at me and patted my shoulder. "Don't worry. Your secret in safe with me." She winked.

The word secret reminded me of the thing she had said about Ashton, and I asked her in curiosity, "What secrets were you talking about earlier?"

She smiled knowingly at me. "I don't know that. They are his secrets, not mine."

Smiling at her, I mumbled, "That's true. I should go now."

"Take care, Liana. I would love to meet you again."

Grinning, I told her, "I would love to meet you too, Savannah."

With that I went outside, bidding my adieu to her and walked towards Ashton who was waiting for me in his car. I started saying the moment I settled on the passenger seat, "Well, that was..."

"Interesting," he finished my sentence as he started the car.

I wanted to say so many things to him. I wanted to tell him how I hated that he mentioned the kiss in front of Savannah, how I hated his mood swings, and how much I hated the fact that he kept so many secrets. I didn't want him to be a mystery to me. I wanted him to open up like I did to him - only and only him. Couldn't I be the one with whom he shared his feelings?

"You are staring." He snapped his fingers in front of my eyes and stopped me from doing exactly what he pointed out.

"I wasn't staring," I denied, diverting my attention to the view outside the window.

"And I'm not driving." He snorted, making me shut my eyes tightly in annoyance of being caught and annoyance of him being over smart with his tongue.

"Where are we going?" I asked when upon opening my eyes I saw that we were not on the route from where we came.

"It's a short cut," he answered curtly not even glancing my way. I huffed and closed my eyes to give them a much needed rest. Ashton drove silently and I continued to listen in peace the songs that were being played on the stereo. I liked his collection of Led Zeppelin but I was never going to confess this to him as it would have resulted in boosting his already stoned ego.

Suddenly, I felt the car slowing down and eventually coming to a stop. I opened my eyes in curiosity and what I saw made my eyes widen in shock. "Why in the world are there so many cars in front of us?" I asked in a state of confusion and shock.

He looked at me with a twisted mouth showing how ridiculous he found my question, but eventually answered, "It is called a traffic jam - lines of stationary or slow moving traffic, usually caused by roadwork or an accident or heavy congestion."

I sneered at him. "I know what a traffic jam is, you jerk. But why here?" I asked in disappointment. "Take U-turn. We'll go from the way we came from in the afternoon," I told him and turned around only to see a number of cars parked right behind us. Apparently, there was no turning back.

"What's the rush all about? Just chill, Liana." He chuckled while he unbuckled his seatbelt and relaxed in his seat.

I looked at the time in the digital clock in his car and gasped when I saw that it was almost five in the evening. "I had to meet Mike at six," I mumbled to myself as my shoulders slumped down in defeat and sadness.

"Oops!" Ashton mumbled as he clicked his tongue, looking anything but apologetic.

"Oh no!" I whined and unbuckled my seatbelt. "Nothing goes as planned."

"Isn't that the fun part about life?" he asked looking at me with his trademark smirk and raised eyebrow. "Life is unplanned."

My lips twitched up in a smile and I cursed myself for being so gullible around him. I couldn't stay mad at him for even five minutes. It was true that nothing neither in this assignment nor in my life had gone as per plan, and truly, that was the fun part about all of it. Enjoying Ashton's

You are reading the story above: TeenFic.Net