CHAPTER – 30

LOVE IS... A TEST

'The test of love is not when we are together. It comes when we are not together and realize that despite the distance, love is still there.'

Brooke Wright – our next candidate - was the daughter of one of the famous designers of the New York City. No wonder her red short dress spoke volumes about sophistication, exclusiveness, class, and money. Her raven hair contrasted her sharp blue eyes. In one word, she was 'gorgeous'. As I looked at her from across the table, I concluded that Ashton's disinterest from the beginning of this assignment was soon going to vanish. Every man in the room had eyes only for her. And every woman, just like me, was staring at her in jealousy. My apple green dress, though, well fitted, was nothing in comparison to her red dress. My brown hair seemed dull in front of her shining black hair. Her blue eyes were enough to demand every ounce of attention from everybody in the room. And then there was that pimple right in between my eyebrows that just made me realize that I was nothing but a mere human, and she was nothing short of a Goddess. There was just no doubt about the fact that Ashton was going to like her.

"You must be Liana Moore," she said, the moment she approached the table I was seated at.

Smiling, a task I managed to accomplish somehow, I stood up and confirmed her suspicions, "Yes. And you must be Brooke Wright."

Her red tainted lips lifted up in a smile as she nodded. She sat down on the chair opposite me and flicked her hair to the back. Biting my lips, I sat down on my chair as well. "Ashton Parker is not here yet?" she asked, raising her perfectly arched eyebrow.

Grimacing slightly, I told her, "He should get here soon. He is usually always on time. I wonder, what happened." Liar! In order to ask him about his current whereabouts, I picked up my phone from the table and started dialing his number.

"Oh, it's okay. The traffic tonight is pretty bad." She dismissed with a reassuring smile.

I smiled back, but messaged Ashton, 'Where are you? She is already here.'

Immediately, I regretted my decision of meeting him directly at the hotel instead of going to his apartment and coming with him. He had asked me earlier in the day if I would meet him at his apartment, but me being in a terribly confused state of mind, had told him that I would meet him at the hotel only. He had found it weird considering the fact that we had went to all the appointments, before this one, together. But I dismissed it, saying that I had to spend some 'family time' with my parents who were in town.

He replied about two minutes later, 'In the New York City'.

Chuckling slightly at his stupid reply, I replied back sarcastically, 'No! That's impossible.' There was just no use of trying to get a straight answer from him.

'Love is impossible,' was his reply and I bit my lip after reading that.

'No! It's not,' I wanted to reply and just as I was about to type it, I was interrupted by Brooke.

"I hope you don't mind, but I really need to have a drink before I meet him." I looked up from my phone to Brooke, who was looking at me with a hopeful look on her.

"What?" I asked again, doubting my hearing abilities.

"Yeah. This stuff is new for me," she mumbled, tugging a strand of hair behind her ear. A little surprised smile made its way to my lips at the obvious nervousness displayed by a woman as beautiful and striking as her, while she continued, "I mean, I don't even know what we would talk about. Can you tell me, how he is? I wasn't even shown any picture of him. Oh, is he nice?"

Shooting a comforting smile in her direction, I called the waiter. "So, what would you like to have?"

"Red wine." She smiled gratefully.

"And you, Miss?" the handsome waiter asked with a smile.

"A glass of water would be perfect for now," I replied with a smile and he went away after scribbling the order in his writing pad. "Don't worry about Ashton. He is... well, different." I settled with 'different' as I really didn't want to set her hopes high. Wrong! The truth was that I didn't want to tell her how amazing he was, as I didn't want her to fall for him and he for her. I was acting so, so selfish.

Her glass of wine soon arrived. I watched with my mouth slightly wide open as she let her nervousness take the best of her and she gulped almost half of her wine in one go. She set it on the table and I watched as she smiled after taking that huge sip. "So good!" She breathed in relief. I shut my mouth and smiled at being caught staring.

"Yeah," I mumbled with that smile fixed on my face. That smile dropped when she took yet another sip and gulped all the contents of the glass in one smooth go.

"A lot better now," she mumbled to herself, setting aside the now empty glass of wine on the table between us.

'Either she is as nervous as nervous could ever be, or she is an alcoholic, just like Ashton.' I grimaced at the thought.

My eyes drifted towards the entrance of the hotel and my heart successfully skipped a beat as my eyes landed on Ashton, who had just entered the place and was looking around the place. His eyes fell on me and I watched as his perfect lips lifted upwards upon seeing me. His dark blue button up shirt was doing wonders to his appearance just like his perfectly combed hair. And as I looked at him, coming towards me, taking slow strides, I realized that I needed to breathe in order to survive. I did exactly that and put an end to my state of breathlessness.

Brooke must have noticed me spacing out as I heard her breath out an awed, "Wow!"

My head snapped in her direction as I heard her say the first expression that I had said when I had first seen Ashton at that bar four months ago. Sure enough, she was staring at Ashton as if he was the finest piece of specimen she had ever laid eyes on. He definitely was that for me, at least.

But what exactly was I doing? I had to stop myself from feeling these feelings again. I couldn't afford to get hurt. It was better if Ashton would end up falling for her, just like I had fallen for him. I had my career to take care of... Yes, I had made my decision. I didn't want to make the same mistake again in my life by choosing love over my career. This definitely was once in a lifetime opportunity that had come knocking at my door and like Ashton, I wasn't going to shut the door in its face. I was ready to welcome this wonderful opportunity with open arms and accept it. It would be perfect if Ashton falls for her. It would help me get over him quickly... And suddenly, there was that feeling of loneliness in my heart accompanying my last shred of thoughts.

"You look rather..." Ashton's voice reached my ears and I looked towards him.

"What?" I asked, raising my eyebrows. "Stupid? Ugly? So out of place? Unsophisticated? Unclassy?" There I asked about all the adjectives that I had been feeling since I met Brooke hardly ten minutes ago.

Ashton looked surprised at my interrogation as he raised his eyebrows at me as if asking me 'Are you crazy?', but he just finished he trailed off sentence, "... confused."

"Oh!" I mumbled, feeling exactly what he had said – confused.

"Are you okay?" He frowned slightly. "What's going on in that overused, pretty little head of yours?"

Pretty

The word rang in my head and my lips twitched up in a little smile. He had never praised my appearance or me in general. Just as I was about to tease him regarding the same, voice of throat clearing interrupted us. Our heads snapped towards Brooke – whose presence I had forgotten about – who was looking between Ashton and me with curiosity.

"Oh, I'm sorry," I apologized immediately. I looked towards Ashton and saw him looking at Brooke with a smirk fixed on his face. And Brooke was looking at Ashton again with an awed expression on her perfect face. It was clear that both of them liked what they saw. This time, it was me who cleared my throat to get their attention. Brooke's head snapped towards me while Ashton's smirk increased as he looked at me after a moment. "Ashton, Brooke. Brooke, Ashton." I introduced them not letting the little pain in my heart take control of my brain.

Brooke chose to say a formal hello while Ashton used an overused pick up line after pretending to search for something on the floor. "Did you drop something? What are you looking for?" Brooke asked.

"My jaw," was his cheesy reply and I rolled my eyes at him. Brooke, on the other hand, giggled and blushed.

'Mission accomplished, Ashton. Congrats!' I wanted to say in a rather sarcastic tone, but settled with a 'How immature could you be? A pick up line? Seriously?' look; a look I wasn't sure if he got or not.

We settled on the table and Ashton asked, "What would you like to have, Brooke?"

A rare display of manners from the one and only Ashton Parker.

I could have savored this moment had it not been for a girl other than me. The slightly uncomfortable, unsettling feelings in my heart were not letting me savor them.

"Red wine," was her instant answer and I stopped myself from shaking my head at her. She was still nervous, very nervous. Her squeaky voice while answering his question was proof enough. She definitely needed some wine.

"And you, Liana?"

"I'd like to leave now," I told him with a smile fixed on my face. He was surprised at my answer, but I continued, "My purpose was to let both of you meet each other. I think it would be great if you get to spend some alone time together." With that, I stood up. "Hope to see you soon, Brooke," I told her with a friendly smile. 'Because seeing you again would mean Ashton's likeness towards you and that would make my decisions easier,' I wanted to add.

Glancing one last time towards Ashton, I left the table and started walking outside the restaurant.

"Liana!" His voice stopped me and I closed my eyes in distress. When I opened my eyes, he was there standing in front of me, looking at me with a curious look on his face. He frowned at me. "What's wrong with you? You never leave me with these candidates alone. You always stay till the meeting ends. Why are you going now?"

"I'm not going to be with you every time, Ashton," I told him, looking straight in his eyes. 'I'm going to go away,' I wanted to tell him but kept quite. I watched as his eyes widened ever so slightly at my harsh tone and I was quick to backtrack by shaking my head and clarifying him further, "I meant every meeting. You need to spend some alone time with the girls, then only you would get to understand them. I don't want to come between all this now."

"And what if I don't want to understand any of them?" He fired back. "I had told you earlier only, Liana, that I'm in this only because of my mother and only because you wanted this challenge. I had told you earlier that I don't want to meet any of the girls. Yet, I'm doing this for..." He closed his eyes and took a deep breath. After opening his eyes, he completed his sentence, "... for you."

A sad smile made its way to my face, but I quickly changed it to playful one. "She won't bite, Ashton. I'm pretty sure of it." I winked at him and he rolled his eyes at me.

"And what if I want her to bite me?" he asked, raising an eyebrow at me even though his eyes were serious and he knew that I was merely trying to change the topic at hand. But did he really want her to bite him... in that way?

"Then ask her!" I snapped at him, thanks to my fast thought process. He chuckled at my reaction as if satisfied and again, I shook my head at him. "I'll be in the restaurant across this one. I'm having dinner there with my parents as they are leaving tomorrow. They are waiting for me," I told him one of my reasons of leaving them alone. The other one was I couldn't afford to see them flirting. Standing there for merely two minutes had been such a pain, I really couldn't endure an hour or two.

"Oh! Cool," he mumbled, nodding his head in understanding.

"Yeah," I mumbled back. "And you would enjoy yourself, I'm sure of that. She is hot, after all," I said to lighten up the mood and to make him say his views about her appearance.

"Well, that she is. Totally hot," he said with a he smirk, without missing a beat and making me regret arranging this meeting.

"Yeah." I nodded.

He stared at me with something weird in his eyes and after a prolonged silence, said, "You didn't give me any definition yesterday." Was he serious? Asking for a definition when his date was waiting for him merely few steps away from us? He could have asked for it after his dinner. Ashton really was weird in every sense, and I was still stupid enough to fall for him.

Biting my lip, I stared back at him and whispered, "Love is a test."

He smirked slightly, not taking his eyes off me. "Surprise test?" Chuckling, I nodded my head in agreement. It really was a surprise test, wasn't it? It comes and knocks at our heart without any prior information and tests us in ways that we couldn't even imagine. Passing it or failing it is up to the person facing it.

"I always used to fail surprise tests," he said with a smirk, and I detected the underlying meaning of his words. He didn't want to fall in love. He wanted to fail. He wanted love to fail.

Smiling, I told him, "I've failed twice." The smirk from his face wiped off slowly and I shot one last smile in his direction. Then, I walked out of the restaurant towards the restaurant where my parents were waiting for me.

First – Nolan

Second – You

Failed twice!

***********

A/N

Hey all! I know it's rather short. Please don't complaint. I wanted to give you an update because I'm going out of station, yet again, for a little holiday during the weekend and I didn't want to make you guys wait for one more week. So, please appreciate, rather than complaining about the length. :)

How was it? So, Liana has decided to choose Career, but I wonder till how long she will stay with this decision of hers. ;)

VOTE. COMMENT. FAN.

Thanks! <3 God bless you all.