All We Thought // Ashton Irwin [AU]

Chapter 4: Dress Up

When I walked into work the next day, I went straight to my office.  I wouldn't be surprised if Ashton would be late today, he had a late night yesterday and he's probably exhausted.  He seemed like a the sleepy kind of rock star that would sleep till 12:00 the next day after a show, lazily crawl out of bed and spend the whole day in his underwear doing nothing and eating cereal for dinner.  

I walked into my office, my mind racing a million miles an hour, and I almost screamed when I opened the door.  Ashton was sitting in the chair across from my desk and scared the crap out of me.  

Ashton jumped off of the chair, "Oh my god I am so so sorry.   I didn't intend to scare you I promise."

Clearly I was wrong about him, again, he apparently was a bright and early rock star.  

Today his outfit consisted of a black beanie, dark wash skinny jeans, all black converse, and a Marvel T-shirt covered by a blazer.  My heart was racing still from him scaring me and it was so strange to see him after seeing him outside the work setting last night.  

I finally sat down at my desk, trying to quickly rearrange the thoughts and my head, but he interrupted them again, "So, boss, what are we up to today?"

I shuffled the papers around on my desk and turned on my computer, "How are you here so early when you had such an eventful night?  Don't you need the normal human amount of 8 - 12 hours of sleep?"  I couldn't stop myself, I had to ask.  If I slept anything less than 8 hours I couldn't function.

He laughed, something I haven't heard yet.  I literally have no clue how to describe it, it was a cross between a giggle, a snort, a squeak and him gasping for air.  I must say though, if he laughed long enough, it would probably be contagious.  

"I don't know, I just don't need the sleep.  Between all the travelling we've done with all the time zone changes and all the shows and interviews mixed with recording, you learn to live without it."  he said.  

He mentioned how's he's been all over, including France, Italy, Spain, Japan, Germany, Canada, and even a few places in South America.  I was so jealous, traveling had always been on my bucket list ever since I was a kid.  My mother hated the heat, and my dad was too busy to travel.  My older brother, Harrison always promised me when we were kids that we would travel the world together, but after he met his wife and they got married, they moved out of the house and I was left behind with my parents.  Evan promised me that we would travel together, but I'm still waiting.  I have 3 weeks vacation saved up, but he has been busy with his job so he hasn't had any opportunity to take a break.  

Me and Ashton headed into the lab and got right to work.  He was working besides me, and that's when it hit me about the charity ball this weekend.  It was already Wednesday, and I was running out of time, if I didn't have a date my mom would have a heart attack.  

I looked over at him, watching him concentrate on whatever he was looking at under the microscope.  He kept lifting his black framed glasses off his nose to look through the lens, and then would put them back on to write notes in his lab book.  

He caught me staring at him, "Something wrong boss? Or do you just like what you see?" he asked as he wiggled his eyebrows.  

I rolled my eyes and laughed, "Stop calling me boss.  I have a name, and no I wasn't staring I just got caught in thought for a second and spaced out."

He put something new under the microscope and continued to look through the lenses, adjusting the knobs to focus on the sample, "What were you thinking about?"

I sighed as I labeled a fresh petri dish, "Nothing...I just..."  I stopped mid sentence, I couldn't ask him.  He would say no and it would be ridiculous anyway.  

He picked up his head to look at me when I didn't immediately answer and started to whine, "Tell me.  Tell meeeeeeee, please, please, please!"  He was loud enough where a few of the lab technicians picked up their heads to look at us.

"Shhhhh. Fine, fine I'll tell you.  I'm just thinking about this stupid charity formal ball I have to go to this weekend and..."

"I'll go with you"  he stopped himself realizing that he didn't even let me finish, "I mean...if you need someone to go with...you know since you mentioned that your fiance was away..."

My breath caught, he would really go with me?  "Seriously?  You would go with me?"

He smiled, "Heck yeah I would.  I would get to play dress up and be fancy for one night, and be your date...I mean escort, plus you did come to my concert last night so I owe you one."

I was relieved and nervous at the same time.  I filled him in a little bit about the event.  I told him that it was black tie dress event and no sneakers were allowed.  He pouted for awhile, but quickly got over it when I mentioned how much food there would be.  I told him very, very briefly about how overbearing my parents could be and that they would probably grill him with questions, but he shrugged it off and teased me to stop worrying.  He ensured me that he knew how to act in public, but I questioned it sometimes.  I didn't realize how quickly I was rambling and that I was practically out of breath.  

We finished up the day and when I got home I decided to tell my mom about my new date...I mean escort for the ball.  

"So, what's he like?"  she questioned, waiting to pounce on any wrong answer.

Shit, how could I possibly describe Ashton to her?  He was like a box of mystery colored crayons, each time you opened the box, you never knew what you were going to get.  I couldn't tell her his actual occupation and what an amazing musician he was.  

I decided to go for the general description for the time being, "He's taller than me, blonde hair, bluish greenish eyes, I don't know he's just a regular guy."  

Man were those words a lie, he was far from your typical guy.  

She scoffed at my not-up-to-her-standards description and said, "Make sure he can dance, you know the slow dancing is the most iconic parts of the evening."  she smiled wickedly and then walked away.  

Ugh, I was doomed.  Maybe I'll just hide under the table the whole night.  

The rest of the week went by quickly, too quickly.  I talked to Evan a few times over the phone, he seemed really happy and was enjoying himself as always.  He said the guys went out to a sports bar the other night after the meetings and conferences and they've learned a lot of new techniques to improve the business.  I missed him, I really did.  I hated when he went on these trips, I feel like when he left he took a piece of me with him, leaving the lonely part of me home.  

Saturday came and I laid in bed most of the morning staring at the ceiling, I couldn't believe Ashton was coming to the event with me tonight.

 I told Evan, and he laughed, telling me that I would probably miss him by the end of the night.  He was probably right, but he didn't have to put a knife in my already open wounds.  

I eventually got out of bed and Patricia made me brunch and then I took a shower.  I wanted to give myself enough time to get ready since my hair was going to take forever to style.  I gave myself a manicure and a pedicure and blow dried my hair into soft waves.  I then curled my hair and then pinned it into a half up half down style, holding the up parts up with crystal pins.  I did my makeup next, doing full eye shadow, eyeliner, blush, everything.  It was simple and just enough.  The smoky eye look really accentuated my green eyes.  

I put on all my jewelry and then slipped on my gown.  The gown was a deep blue color, like the color of sapphires, it hugged my curves and then was loose at the bottom.  It was a halter top with a low neckline, so I grabbed a shawl out of my closet and slipped on my silver heels.  I grabbed my matching diamond studded silver clutch and headed downstairs, to meet my parents.  

My parents looked great.  My mom had a pink gown on, it was much more conservative and simple than mine, but she still looked pretty.  The pink color of her gown matched my dad's tie that he wore with his gray suit.  

Just then the doorbell rang, and my stomach twisted into knots.  Ashton promised me he would know how to dress, but I've seen the way he comes to work.  I don't think he even owned a suit.  

I walked nervously to the door, my ankles shaking a bit in my heels.  I opened the door and my jaw practically fell to the floor.