Heartthrob ✓

twenty seven

T W E N T Y - S E V E N

ELIJAH DIDN'T HAVE TO SAY ANYTHING.

While I would've enjoyed a chance to enjoy some privacy and quiet, there was anything but inside the office today. The moment people saw the two of us walk into Baldwin Industries together, it just clicked for some people. The rumor mill had instantly exploded and I was fortunate - or rather unfortunate - to catch snippets of conversations that involved people calling me all sorts of names. Thankfully, I was still assisting Nolan or it would've been even more disastrous. My only priority was avoiding Ashton when necessary because there was just too much pressure.

That was easier said than done when my plan was one-sided. Because Ashton and I seemed to run into each other everywhere. When I went to print something out for Nolan so he could more easily cross-reference and annotate it, I found Ashton being talked to by some of his employees who I happened to recognize as the sales hotties who all shot me a wink, each one making my stomach fill with dread. And speaking of my stomach, I later found Ashton in the break room, taking a bite out of the burger Dana had bought me. In his defense, it had been in there for a while and he didn't want it to be wasted, but I knew he had ulterior motives when he ripped it in two and handed me the other half. Of course I accepted it because I knew about not wasting food way better than he did. I didn't appreciate him playing to his strengths when pitting them against my weaknesses, but the gesture made my heart melt a bit - which was surprising when considering how my heart was a puddle of goo at this point.

I was finally able to get some peace and quiet at my desk since the commotion died down when people realized they had jobs to do. But it didn't exactly last very long when I felt something press against my back. It wasn't hard like Ashton's body, in fact, it was quite soft. So I shouldn't have been surprised when I turned around to be met with a face full of large boobs - specifically Dana's.

"Dana?" I said, having removed myself from her booby trap - in the most literal sense, "what the hell?"

Of course, this made her burst into a fit of giggles, nearly keeling over from how amused she was. She had to take a few minutes to recover, in which she had pulled up a chair to my desk and pulled out a bag of chips which, from some reason, was in her purse but I didn't plan on questioning it.

"Sorry about that," she said as she put a potato chip into her mouth. "But I was stopping by to ask if you could do lunch with us. We know everybody wants you to describe the scenery on the inside of Ashton's pants, so it'll just be Elijah and Eric - and maybe Lily, but I don't know yet. Only if she wants to come."

I hadn't went out with my friends in a while, so I was honestly delighted to be asked. Even if it meant having Dana's boobs nearly choke me. "I'd love to!"

-

LILY WASN'T ALL THAT ENTHUSED.

Not about going to lunch, of course, but about Ashton, who I told her the truth about. But then again, she was just a naturally cool and calm woman who I was sure didn't give a damn about my romantic relationships, which I guess I needed a bit of in my life. All of the perspectives I got on my dilemma were either from romantics who believed that winning over Ashton's heart despite his lifestyle and parents and usual choice of women would be the perfect triumph for all of the hard work I had put in for the past two months, or they felt that Luke's gentleness and down to earth charm gave him a dreamlike quality - not to mention the fact that he had developed some pretty deep feelings for me early on that I reciprocated deep down - made him a better man for me to be with. No, I needed someone with no preconceived notions - or attraction to men on Lily's part - to give it to me straight (no pun intended).