Heartthrob ✓

twenty six

T W E N T Y - S I X

THE AIR AT THE TABLE WAS UNSURPRISINGLY QUITE HOSTILE.

I sat in between Ashton and Vivian while their parents sat opposite of us. I expected for it to be uncomfortable, so I was in for no surprises, just lots of awkward silence and guarded expressions sent my way by the pair who sat across from me and pinches from Vivian on my side every now and then. It was noting I couldn't handle.

In fact, Hanna Baldwin - the strong-jawed and straw-haired matriarch who ever so often sent a disdainful look at my cleavage - decided to strike up a conversation with Vivian about her poor grades which had relieved me of taking most of the heat.

Ashton turned and nodded at me as if to inquire whether I was okay or not. I smiled and nodded back, grateful to know that he was concerned. Vivian seemed to be in quite the doghouse, so I used that time to eat as much food as I could. I knew the second they decided to focus on me, they'd rip me a new one - figuratively, of course - and I didn't want to suffer on an empty stomach.

"Well, I guess it's not that bad," Steven Baldwin - Ashton and Vivian's silver-haired father - said. "Your grades are definitely clumsy, but we've got enough of that at this table to share with everyone else. Especially since your brother really thought it would be wise to bring this klutz into our lives. Right now, I'd call you stable."

It was painfully obvious that they were talking about the two of us, so I didn't want to seem like I was affected and turn to Ashton for back-up. But I could feel his body tense beside me and I knew that his eyebrows would be furrowed with anger and shame. What kind of father would just say that about their son and their son's guest right to their faces?

"Yeah," Hanna said as she looked over me disdainfully. "And of course she would show up to dinner at the Roosevelt dressed up like a hooker. Did you hire her from a street corner in Mantua?"

I defensively crossed my arms over my cleavage before I could even stop myself, feeling terribly offended. I knew this dress would be a bad idea, but of course I let Elijah get me thinking about seducing him.

"Is she why you invited us here?" Steven continued on with his rant. "Is she the new tramp who you decided to spend our money and not your own on?"

"You always have some foxy girl on your arm who you give too much in too little time and we're sick of it, Ashton. You should know better after all the trouble you got in not even that long ago."

While Vivian looked relieved to be in the clear with her furious parents, even she looked uncomfortable by the condescending way they felt they could speak to their children. I was glad they called me foxy, but despite that, I was thoroughly disgusted. If this was how their parents treated them, I was disappointed at how distant Ashton and Vivian were from each other. Screw their stark age difference, they needed each other.

"Father," Ashton said with a stern look on his face. "I think you misunderstood why I brought you guys here."

He didn't even have to yell because like always, something about his presence was just so commanding and imposing. His parents - who honestly scared the shit out of me and I hadn't even been eating for more than twenty minutes - were struck with silence. The look on his mother's face was stern and cold, but unmoving as she waited to hear what he had to say for himself, while his father had closed his eyes and brought a hand to his forehead in disdain.

"I brought the three of you here because I wanted to introduce you all formally to Fiona White," he said with a pause, "my girlfriend."

To be honest, even I almost choked on the bite of steak I was currently working on. That was until I remembered the fact that I played as his fake girlfriend for Amanda. He definitely could've given me a heads up, but then again, he was my boss so I should be ready to follow orders when given - unless I don't want a paycheck.