the silver lining playbook// a. irwin

chapter twenty-one

As soon as we got to the suite, I was in love. It had a whole room for bathroom and bedroom and a whole another room for kitchen and balcony and living room and dining room. Only Ashton would make sure everything was perfect.

"I'm going to have to ge-" Ashton began to speak, coming out of his room, jacket off and looking down at his phone. As soon as he saw me pouting, he cleared his throat and looked up, "what?"

"I'm sorry if I hurt you downstairs. I don't want people making assumptions," I sighed, running my hands through my hair.

Ashton grinned and pecked my lips, hugged me, and said as he walked out the door, "Alright. Go out and have lunch, I'll be back in a few hours. Charles is downstairs."

He left without a word further, just blowing a kiss my way, which I thought was adorable. Even though I had no clue where he was going, I had faith it had to do with business. Because that's who Ashton is. Business.

I walked downstairs a little while later. But on the way out, I bumped into someone, making their purse fall to the ground. "I'm so sor- May?"

I had stared up at my best childhood friend. She used to come over all the time. Her mom and my dad were very close friends, almost attatched at the hip.

As soon as May saw me, she freaked out, slinging her purse over her shoulder and hugging me, "Layla, I've missed you!"

Her excitement hadn't faded since we were kids. This was something definitely admirable. "Me too. We should meet up later."

"Sure thing, I'm in a hurry anyway," May told me, laughing to herself.

We exchanged numbers, but I just told her to call the hotel and ask for the room 3153.

Then I got in the car and started thinking as Charles drove to wherever Ashton had told him to.

It was almost ironic how I had seen my childhood friend my first day in London. Maybe even a sign. I began to feel slightly sick, as if there was something impeding me from having a good time. I felt almost uncomfortable to be back home. All of the sudden, I didn't want to eat anymore.

"Charles, could you please take me back to the hotel?" I asked politely, ny head in my hands.

"Yes," Charles said, sympathy in his voice.

"And Charles?"

"Yes?"

"Don't tell Mr. Irwin."

--:--

"Yeah, so here I was on top of a fucking roof about to jump into the pool," May said, trying not to crack up as she spoke into the phone. "and I jump, but not into the pool. To the trampoline, where I fall on top of a couple. So that's the story of my first threesome."

"So you just fell on them," I said, laughing my ass off, "and they decided to have sex with you?"

"In a nutshell," May laughed.

The door opened and closed, and soon enough, Ashton was at the bedroom door. He dropped yet another mysterious envelope next to the tv and looked at me, all laid in bed, a telephone pressed to my ear.

As May told me where she was working, Ashton dropped on top if me, one arm on each side. He began to kiss all parts of my face, making me giggle.

Luckily for me, May had to go call her sister so she left me, saying goodbye as she hung up. Once I did hang up though, Ashton stopped kissing my face and his lips rested on mine, "Hey."

"Hi," I told him, kissing back and only leaving his lips for a second as I uttered my words, "how was it?"

"Same old," he shrugged, propping his head back so that he could look at me. "who were you talking to?"

"Someone I know that I bumped into in the way to lunch," I smiled, looking at the glow that Ashton's eyes held. It was so adorable.

"That's fun. Did you enjoy yourself?" He asked, a glint of nervousness in his voice.

"Sure did."

As he sighed a sigh of relief, he muttered to me, as if there was someone else in the room, "That's where I want to meet your mom."

"I- I don't think that's a good idea," I told him, making Ashton sit up, I doing so as well.

"But why?" Ashton asked, his head tilting.

I sighed, "Well, I feel that it's best if we don't me-"

"Is it because you're afraid of commitment?" Ashton blurted out, as if he knew his answer was right. It wasn't. But one word did change my view of things. Afraid.

If there was anything I was not is a coward. I'm not afraid of death, nevertheless commitment. So just to prove him wrong and not thinking about the outcome, I stammered, "I think you should come meet my mom in Wales."

But how could I let him down. He had a glint of hope and joy in his eye. One that I couldn't take from him. Not in a million years. And so he said, "You want me to see where you come from?"

"S-Sure, I mean-" I shrugged, trying to make it awkward and covering up the fact that I had made a mistake that I wasn't gonna own up to.

Ashton grinned and pulled me close to him, bashing his lips against mine. While in this, he basically tackled me so that I was laying on the bed. Pulling away for a second, he said, "You know how I said Cara was the best girl I'd ever dated?"

"Yeah."

"That changed when I started dating you."