CHAPTER - 16 (Not edited)

LOVE IS... HOPE

'Love lives on hope and dies when hope is dead.'

Day - 6

Stephanie - the beautician was in her best form on the day of Seth's wedding. She had made sure that I wore a dress to the wedding and not something else. I really didn't know what she expected me to wear? I wasn't going to wear my formals or casuals or pajamas or worse, a bikini to a wedding. Of course, I had planned to wear a dress, but she created a huge hype out of it. After a lot of negotiations, we settled with the dress I had originally thought about wearing. It was sky blue colored, one shouldered dress with a slit on the left leg. I loved it. I had last worn it about a year ago at one of my friend's wedding. So, I liked to call it a 'wedding dress'. It was perfect for this occasion.

I simply blow dried my hair, much against Steph's wish of tying my hair in a side-low bun which she said was very 'in' these days. As the hairstyle and the dress were of my choice, Steph had decided not to listen even a word I said about the makeup. Thankfully, Stephanie had settled with light, natural makeup which made me adore my entire look. I didn't want any kind of attention at this wedding. I really didn't. I was attending it just because of Seth, who was quite close to me.

"I can't believe that he agreed to go with you," she commented. "I mean, I did ask him to accompany you but he refused. And now that you asked, he grabbed the opportunity." She chuckled at the end as if enjoying this one sided conversation.

"He-" I started but she cut me off.

"Shut up! Don't say even a word. You'll ruin the lipstick," she scolded while giving the final touches to my made-up face.

"I-"

She cut me off again and hissed, "Shut up, Lia! You know you have a terrible habit of eating your lipstick. How do you even do that?"

"I don't do it intentionally," I mumbled lightly. She narrowed her eyes at me and I continued, "Don't give me that look. It's not like I'm going to keep quite the entire day just for the sake of this stupid lipstick."

She smiled slightly and continued doing her work. She looked happier today; a lot better than she did the day before. She still hadn't talked to Shane and according to recent information that she had given me an hour ago, she had decided to take a break from him. I just hoped that this break would last longer than their last break had lasted.

Very evil of me, I know. But Shane was really not good for her.

"Where were you last night?" I asked her once she was done with the final touch ups. "I tried to call you but you never answered."

She smiled a huge smile and answered, "I was out for a dinner with..." She paused suddenly, and I raised my eyebrows, motioning her to continue. She sighed, finally giving up and said, "I'm not supposed to tell you his name."

My eyes widened and I yelled at her, "You went out with Shane?"

Her eyes widened as well as she protested herself. "No way! I told you I'm breaking all ties with him."

I sighed in relief. "Then you went out with whom?" I pried, narrowing my eyes at her playfully.

Her lips curved a bit in a smile and she answered, "Ashton's best friend."

A gasp escaped my lips and my eyes widened, yet again as I asked in disbelief, "You went out with Jacob?" Jacob was the last name he had introduced himself as when he had visited my apartment two days back.

Laughing lightly, she corrected me, "Jack Sparrow for the day."

I frowned at her and asked, "What did you mean by 'you're not supposed to tell me his name'?" I gasped again as I realized. "He told you his real name?" Wasn't I the one because of whom he met Stephanie? He should have told me his real name first!

Laughing at my reactions, she confirmed my suspicions. "Yup! He is so sweet and funny. He asked me to go out on dinner when we all hanged out here in your apartment, and of course, I was shocked. I told him that how could I trust him when I didn't even know him. Valid, right?" I nodded my head in agreement. "Then he introduced himself by telling me his name."

"And you agreed just because he told you his name?" I asked, incredulously. Not that I was against the idea of Stephanie and Ashton's friend together. I was just not comfortable with him being merely a rebound. He was a nice person and was genuinely attracted towards Stephanie. He deserved to be more than a rebound.

"No!" she exclaimed in protest. "I... I actually liked him. He is really funny, you know. He is sweet and he makes me forget about Shane. He makes me smile." She was grinning from ear to ear and it was a delight to watch her like this after breaking up with Shane. All thanks to Jacob... err... Jack Sparrow.

Before I could pass any kind of judgment on their relationship, the doorbell of my apartment rang. "Here comes your date," she sang.

I blew out a breath and told her in a stern voice, "He is not my date." We went out of my room, towards the door and I asked her, "Tell me, does he have a really weird name that he doesn't like to share?" I was curious, really curious.

"Lia darlin', you have no idea." She grimaced.

Laughing, I opened the door and my loud laughter soon got converted into silent laughter as my eyes fell on Ashton. He was wearing a black shirt beneath his grey tux, which just made his eyes look even more magical. No, he still hadn't shaved but it was noticeable that he had trimmed a bit. To say that he looked handsome would be a pure understatement.

"H-Hi," I stuttered after ogling at him for a few seconds.

He smirked and commented, "Well, finally Ms. Uptight decided to loosen up. You look f*ckable."

Instantly, my cheeks turned to the darkest shade of red as my eyes widened at his usage of words. All thoughts of his utterly good looks were thrown out of the window as I stared at him with wide eyes and completely blank mind. Sound of laughter from behind me, made me come back to my senses and I scowled at Stephanie. Looking back at Ashton, I maintained the scowl on my face and told him, "Sadly, you are still a manner less, perverted jerk."

As always, my remarks didn't bother him and he asked rhetorically with a raised eyebrow and a smirk, "Was that supposed to be an insult?

I blew a loud breath and mumbled, "Only you can take this as a compliment."

He bowed a bit in thanks with his cocky smirk pasted on his lips. "Ready to go?" he asked, once he was done with his antiques.

"Absolutely!"

"No! Pictures first!" Stephanie exclaimed way too excitedly earning an 'are-you-serious' look from both Ashton and me. "Oh, come on! Don't spoil my mood," she begged noticing our reactions.

Before I could ask her to shut her mouth up, Ashton asked, "Don't you have a date with-"

Stephanie interrupted him, "Jack Sparrow."

"He is in Pirates mode today?" Ashton frowned.

"You have a date with him?" I asked her, ignoring their conversation.

"Uh... well..." she stammered, thinking of a way to save herself. "You're going on a date too." She tried to justify herself.

My cheeks reddened at her calling attending Seth's wedding with Ashton as a date in front of Ashton himself. As if he had left any scope of embarrassing me. He chose that moment to look at me and smirked. "Date? You have a date? Who got so unlucky to go on a date with you, Ms. Uptight?"

I sighed, already feeling tired with the conversation. "Let's leave now. We are getting late," I told him and started moving out of the apartment as I walked past him. He just laughed it off and followed me anyway.

*****

"We are late," I complained, stepping out of his car once we reached the venue.

He rolled his eyes and got out of his car as well. "You didn't even wanted to attend this," he pointed out.

I held his hand in order to make him walk faster and he complied with a scoff. "I just don't like to get late," I told him.

"And I don't like to be on time." He chuckled and I didn't comment. Ashton and I were way too different in every sense.

The door of the hall was closed, confirming that we were really very late. "Crap!" I cursed, which Ashton found humorous in some way as he chuckled. I pushed open the door and started apologizing for being late, "I-"

But I was cut off by loud gasps of their guests, many of whom were my relatives. "Why?" Seth's shocked voice reached my ears and my eyes landed on the wonderful couple standing at the end, looking at me with wide, shocked eyes.

"I didn't do it intentionally. I swear. You know that I hate being late," I clarified myself and for a second thought about the irrelevance of this topic in his wedding. Why were we even talking about this? I added, "You both are looking so adorable. Aww."

"Late?" Seth asked and as if understanding something, he let out a huge sigh of relief and told everybody, "She was apologizing for being late. She wasn't interrupting the wedding."

A gasp escaped my mouth. "Why would I do such a horrible thing?"

Everybody present there started laughing at what just happened, and Ashton took that as an opportunity to drag me to one of the seats in the end row. "You are an idiot." He chuckled and added, "An idiot with the worst timing ever."

"Misunderstanding; this is called misunderstanding," I mumbled, feeling foolish when I realized that I had shouted 'I' at the time of preacher saying, 'Speak now or forever hold your peace.'

Ashton chuckled and sat down beside me. "I hate weddings," he grumbled as the wedding ceremony continued after my little misunderstanding.

"I didn't doubt that even for a second. Now shush!" I was, obviously, more interested in seeing the wedding ceremony now.

"You have way too much faith in me," he mumbled and did what I asked him to do.

For some reason, it was weird watching Seth and his long term girlfriend, Laura finally getting married. It was really nice to see Seth happy as he stared at Laura like she was the centre of his world. I was really very happy to see them say their vows. But at the same time, there was a cruel part of my heart that was hurt and despised witnessing this ordeal; the part which saw green at the picture that was being portrayed in front of it - picture of a 'happily ever after'; the part whose deep wounds had been freshened just a day before on seeing Nolan and Kelly together, living their 'happily ever after'.

I blinked away the negativity and a huge smile covered my face when they kissed as husband and wife. True that the entire ceremony was sickeningly sweet for my current taste, but it still left me feeling warm and happy.

"Congratulations!" I hugged my cousin, the moment I stepped up in the party hall to get some photographs clicked with the new couple and he laughed at my enthusiasm. After him, it was Laura's turn to receive my hug, which she did happily. She was a lovely girl and I had adored her since the time I had met her years ago.

"Thank you," both of them said at the same time and grinned.

Laughing, I stood beside Laura and commented, "Practice definitely makes one perfect... and in sync." This caused them to laugh along with me and I asked Laura, "Do you have hot, nice and single bridesmaids?"

"Have you swore off men after your break up with the d*ckhead?" Seth asked, frowning at me.

I swatted his shoulder and told him, "I'm most definitely not asking for myself. I'm asking for my friend." I pointed towards the bar where Ashton was having scotch, looking content with his own company.

The couple looked towards him. Seth was the first to comment, "I thought he was your date."

Laura, on the other hand, decided to fan herself. "Hotness alert!"

"Just married alert, babes!" he butted in, and held his wife's left hand to remind her of the wedding band on her finger.

Light laughter escaped my lips and my gaze went towards Ashton, again. There was no doubt that Ashton was really very hot. Add to that the tux he had decided to wear to this occasion and he had succeeded in taking the word 'hot' to an altogether different level. His carefree attitude added to the charm that he never even tried to display. Yet, the seriousness in his eyes and the mystery that he had been since the first day I met him intrigued me to no ends.

He chose that very moment to meet my curious gaze and raised an eyebrow towards me. My cheeks turned red at being caught by him and I quickly looked at my cousin and his wife. "Let's get some pictures clicked."

"Why don't you call your friend?" Laura winked at me.

Before I could act on her suggestion, I felt a hand wrap my waist from behind making me turn in an instant. "I'm sure you were talking about me, Laura." Michael winked at me and I removed his hand from my back by taking a step away from him.

"She was talking about Liana's friend, Mike, not my friend." Seth rolled his eyes at his best friend.

He gasped and said, "Touche!" Grinning at me, he held my hand and mumbled, "You are so beautiful, Lia."

A heavy sigh escaped my lips as I realized the situation I was stuck in. Michael or Mike, as he liked to be called, was Seth's best friend since forever and since last few years he had developed sudden interest in me. That sudden interest was due to my curvy figure, I assure you. "Let's just get our picture clicked, please," I begged to Seth and then the photographer, ignoring Michael's irritating existence. He chuckled in my ear and I went to stand beside Seth for the photograph. A grimace made its way on my face when I realized that Michael and I must look like a couple standing beside Laura and Seth respectively. And the photographer took that awful moment to click the picture. Bidding my goodbyes to the happy couple and avoiding the pervert, I sprinted towards another pervert who was indulged in his drink at the bar merely five minutes back. But now, he was not alone.

Clinging to him was one of Laura's bridesmaid but apparently, she was one of her friends I never liked since the beginning. I had met her hardly four to five times in last few years and every time, she had hit on Nolan. But Nolan was sweet and a gentleman at that time.

I came back from my past when Ashton decided to smirk at her his infamous and dangerously sexy smirk.

'Wait! Since when did I start finding his irritating smirk as a sexy one?'

Shaking my head at my confused thoughts, I again focused my attention on the couple at the bar. Not so subtly, she brought her hand over his tux clad chest and I watched as the smirk on his face grew. He was undoubtedly enjoying her company. Why won't he? She wasn't uptight like me.

Before I could see what else was going on between them, my view was blocked by someone taller than me. "Lia, dance with me" Mike grinned.

I looked up from his black tux to his face. He was a player in every sense. Being two years older than me in school, I had seen his playboy ways that were very famous during that time. My cousin, Seth, on the other hand, had always been loyal to Laura, even when they had been in a long distance relationship for two years and he was in Dubai for his job.

"Michael, trust me, I'm really not in mood," I told him without beating around the bush.

"Just one dance, please," he almost begged and his chocolate brown eyes seemed sincere for the first time.

"Just one," I warned him and accepted his stretched hand. He grinned in reply and with last one glance in Ashton's direction, who was still busy with the bridesmaid, I followed him to the dance floor. Some slow song was being played and Michael snaked his arms around my waist pulling closer to him but maintaining respectable distance between us. I rested my hands on his shoulders and we started swaying with the music slowly. He was a great footballer since school, good at studies but never a good dancer. And this still hadn't changed about him.

"You look really good," he commented with a little smile on his face.

Raising my eyebrows at him, I asked, "What do you mean?"

"You look really good and happy than you did the last time I had met you." He smiled warily, referring to almost a month ago.

"I look happy?" A chuckle escaped my lips. I was happy at that time as well.

"Yes," he mumbled. "Is it because of your date?" He tilted his head to the side in curiosity while his tone was teasing.

Light laughter escaped my lips and I shook my head in answer. My eyes again drifted towards Ashton who was again alone at the bar in the company of his scotch. A little frown made its way on my face at the heavy consumption of alcohol he indulged in. "He is not my date, Michael," I mumbled, looking back at Michael.

"Don't call me that, It's just Mike. Okay?" he hissed in good humor, making me laugh.

It was strange to see Mike like this with me. He was not exactly flirting with me. He was just being friendly and really nice. "You have changed," I commented, smiling at him.

He frowned and said, "I have always been like this, Lia." Just as I opened my mouth to say a teasing remark, he added, "You were just always too blind with Nolan to notice or understand someone else." That shut me up. "I won't deny that I used to like you. I really did for a long time. But your boyfriend was a real a*shole. You just never realized that. He made sure that you were away from everyone you loved and were always with him. And I still can't understand why you took such foolish decisions because of him. You left your friends, your family and your job for that a*shole. Stupid move, Lia."

Upon hearing these words from Mike, who never even knew me that well, I realized that all this was actually true. I was way too blinded by my love for Nolan. I did everything for him and in the process, lost my individuality along with some friends. Maybe Mike was right that I never even tried to understand his intentions with me. I just assumed and assumed the worst.

He brought me back from my realizations by saying, "But now, look at you! You look happy. You actually look independent, positive and really good; unlike the Liana of five months back or even of one month back."

His talks made me smile at him. It was a smile of being free, finally; a smile of having some positive hope inside me; hope of a better future despite of every evil existing in the world around us; hope of making everything alright. And as if Ashton was the reason behind this hope, my eyes drifted towards him on their own accord, and found him staring right back at me with his intense grey eyes.

********************************

A/N

No, this is not filler! Wait for a great, surprising chapter after this. Lol. This one was to build things for what is to follow next.

This story is reaching new heights! Lmao!

It reached #16 on Chicklit What's Hot and #19 on Humor What's Hot List. Even AWMA never reached upto this. So yayyyy!!! :D

Thanks a lot to all of my readers. I really appreciate the support. :)

Love! <3