Chapter – 2

LOVE ISN'T... A DREAM

"This must be a dream," I mumbled to myself as I ran my fingers through my hair. Of course, it was. My mind was playing games due to lack of proper sleep. "Yes, definitely, a dream."

But then I heard her groan from the other side which immediately shattered my assumptions. There was a part of me which wanted it to be a dream, and then there was a part of me which wanted to talk to her. The truth was that I wasn't ready to face her. My plans involved seeing her from a distance just once, and completing the paintings that were pending. They didn't involve her landing at my apartment at the most unexpected times. I heard her growl in complete frustration and a little chuckle at her expense escaped my lips. In an instant, I opened the door and commented, "Now you're speaking your language."

Much to my pleasure, she narrowed her green eyes at me and asked in a voice that contradicted her narrowed eyes, "Ahem... Ashton Parker?"

These three words struck three points in my head. First was that she didn't recognize me as the man she had met four months back at that bar. Second was that she came here to meet me and she wasn't aware that I was Ashton. And lastly, her voice was way better than I recalled it, especially when she said my name so innocently.

I wasn't sure whether I should shake her hard and make her remember that night, so I just stared at her with narrowed eyes from head to toe, once again realizing how different she looked from the memory I had of her. She cleared her throat; effectively pulling me out of my observations of her attire and making me observe the irritation in her eyes. Dare I say, I liked that look a little too much for my own good and to continue seeing that, I scratched my chin and leaned closer to her, only to make her take a step back. "You look like an Ashley to me," I muttered with humor in my voice.

The time she took to react to my statement, reminded me of a light bulb. Her eyes widened and her cheeks turned red when she stuttered, "O... of course, I'm an Ashley." At the end of which she scowled, and damn it, she looked f*cking cute with that scowl on her face. "I mean to say that I'm not Ashton, you moron. I'm here to meet Ashton Parker."

I didn't know whether to feel offended at the fact that she didn't recognize me at all, or to play along with her as I had been doing because this was definitely more fun than I had imagined it could be. Without a doubt, I gave all the credit to the girl who was cluelessly standing in front of me, looking like this was the last place she wanted to be at.

Well, I didn't know what to feel about that particular thought either...

"Moron?" I snickered, choosing to play along as I took a step back and leaned against the door frame. "Are you eight, bear?" Bear? Seriously? What was it? A nickname?

In response, well, actually in lack of it, her jaw dropped open and she seemed to be in a dilemma. It was just one of the many expressions that she had displayed in the short while that she had been standing here. And it was just one of the many expressions that I liked on her.

"Something," she uttered, after what seemed like hours.

'Something is definitely wrong with her,' I concluded as I watched her shut her tightly as she probably realized that she had said something completely out of the blue just now. Mentally, I added this expression of complete embarrassment in the list of Ana's reactions that I liked. Clenching my teeth lightly, to stop the laughter that was threatening to erupt, I managed to snicker. "No, not eight; you act like a seven year old."

She took a deep breath, maybe to recollect her thoughts and looked at her straight in the eyes. "Is Ashton Parker here?" With that, her eyes drifted behind me as if searching for some other man to come out and introduce himself as Ashton f*cking Parker. And that straight out hit at my ego! How could she not recognize me? "He is definitely here. But who the f*ck are you?" I asked, letting the little manners I had slip aside even further.

My clear lack of manners seemed to have riled her up as her eyes narrowed while she took a step towards me; a step that was probably supposed to be intimidating. "I don't think I need to introduce myself to some weird guy who clearly lacks manners. I'm here to meet Ashton Parker, and not to talk to a jerk. So will you please just call him already as I have certain limits as to the amount of stupidity, I can face in a day, and you've kind of surpassed it."

The satisfaction on her face, amused me to no end and with the clear aim of pissing her off and making her go away, I shook my head in utter disappointment and mumbled as I folded my hands across my chest, "Six year old."

She didn't get angry as I had expected her to be. In fact, her cheeks went visibly red in embarrassment, much to my annoyance as that made her look much more attractive. Just as I was about to hit myself on the head and to bring back my senses, she shut her eyes and took a few deep breaths. And finally, I smiled, looking at her. I smiled just like I wanted to smile; just the way I had thought I would smile when I would meet her again and she would recognize me in an instant. I smiled because I was finally seeing her...

Just as she opened her eyes, I twitched my lips as a smirk. Wouldn't it have been creepy for her to open her eyes and see a man staring at her with a definitely creepy smile behind his beard?

In response to my smirk, she smiled and I raised my eyebrows at the sudden change in her mood. "Could you please ask Mr. Ashton Parker to come out? I'm here to meet him," she asked in a completely changed tone.

And no matter how much I wanted to laugh at the different ways she was trying to make me listen to her, I couldn't help but get angry at the fact that she had no memory of me... and maybe no memory of that night... The thought made my head spin and I looked at her with cold eyes. "No," I answered with the tone that always made Harry and Dylan back out of persuading me for anything. They always knew not to argue once this tone has been used.

But again, much to my annoyance, she asked as if this was the most unexpected answer she had thought that I would give, "What? Why?"

Couldn't she understand the simple fact that I wanted her gone? I didn't want Mrs. Parker's employees in my apartment even for a second, forget about twenty f*cking days. With clenched jaw, I answered her, "My wish." She was lucky that I was answering her even after my famous 'tone of finality'. Harry would have been shocked to see me answer her.

"B... but this is not acceptable. I'm here to meet him. His mother has sent me and I'm not going to leave before meeting him," she continued, making me head spin even more with the mere mention of that woman as my mother.

"Will you stop yapping over my head so early in the morning?" I asked with tightly clenched jaw, closed fists and narrowed eyes fixed on her, warning her silently to go away before I do anything that I might regret later... like being more rude to her than I already was, or maybe just kissing her and making her shut up.

She took a step towards me, bringing me out of my thoughts and smirked, "Technically, it's not morning."

Concluding that kissing her would not be safe option, I opted to being much more rude. "Really, genius?" I asked with a smirk and took a step towards her, leaving almost negligible distance between us. My eyes landed on her lips and I found myself thinking about that night once again. Taking a deep breath, I reminded myself that I had just chucked out 'kissing' out of the options I had to deal with her.

She nodded her head, reminding me of the current conversation that was going between us and not in my head. "Good! So you agree with the 'yapping over my head' part?" She pressed her lips together, making it easier for me to concentrate on the matter in hand and act the way I had planned to. "Why don't you use your genius brains and find Ashton Parker somewhere else? Because what you're doing here is just wasting your precious time." I stepped back and with one last look at her, I said, "Goodbye. Hope to never see you again." With that, I shut the door at her face and my wandering thoughts.

I took a few deep breaths the moment I was behind the closed door and she couldn't see me any longer. "This has to be a joke," I mumbled to myself, still not believing the situation I had just faced. I found myself cursing my fate, once again in my life. One thing I was sure about after this was that I was destiny's favorite pawn; the pawn it played with, in however way it liked, not giving a f*ck about that pawn's feelings. Destiny was definitely having a good laugh at my expense right now.

I hit my head lightly on the door and successfully cleared it off the past games that destiny had played in my life. It was bad, no, terrible, that she was here when I had least expected her to be here. I was supposed to look at her from a distance and continue with my paintings. Who was I kidding? I was pretty sure that she remembered me and wanted to meet me just like I had wanted to meet her. Upon seeing me, she was supposed to smile that brilliant smile of hers, tell me that she was fine, and that it was wonderful meeting me. There were many such things that were supposed to happen, but she wasn't supposed to be standing at my door. This was not what I had planned or imagined.

Instead of her, it should have been some other girl who I could have asked to get out even before entering my apartment. Not that I was even slightly polite to her, but it wasn't entirely my fault too.

She was the one who didn't recognize me!

"How can she not recognize me?" I muttered to myself, still not able to digest this simple fact.

The silence on the other side of the door made me wonder if she had left. An uneasy feeling settled in me and I, instantly, threw it away. I wanted her gone.

'Well, at least, I can finish my pending paintings now,' I thought, looking at the brighter side of the events.

And just as I took a step away from the door, I heard her banging on the door mercilessly and shouting, "Ashton Parker! Why are you hiding, Ashton? Come out! How can you do this to me after the wonderful night we had spent together? Is this what you do to a girl who tells you that she is pregnant with your child?"

My eyes widened at her words. 'Wonderful night we had spent together?' Did she remember...? I opened the door and looked at her with a hard look on my face. "What the f*ck?"

I watched as her lips twitched a bit and before they could spread further, she pressed them together. My jaw clenched tightly as I realized that this was her way of making me open the damn door.

"What's going on here?" My sixty two year old neighbor, Bob's voice reached my ears. Sure, this idiot girl had disturbed not only me, but my neighbor also.

Just as I was about to tell him that it was nothing and he could go and enjoy watching 'The Godfather' for the hundredth time, Ana answered him, "I'm sorry for disturbing you. But this jerk is not letting me meet the father of my unborn child - Ashton Parker. Could you please ask this person to call Ashton?"

Bob hid his smile as he looked at her with an amused look, while I shook my head at her idiocy while my lips twitched up slightly. She was an idiot.

"Sure," Bob told her, and faced me, "Let her meet Ashton, Ashton."

He was humoring her and I tried to stop the smile that was threatening to overcome my smirk. She had the audacity to look at me with a smug look on her face, and that was the moment when I pressed my lips and stopped my laughter, to look at her with a raised eyebrow. It took a good one minute before her eyes widened, telling us that her slow brain had finally managed to settle Bob's words in them.

'How could she not know that I was Ashton? How could she not recognize me?' I found myself wondering for the umpteenth time, as I watched her open and close her mouth like a fish.

"I like her, Ashton. She is funny." Bob laughed, finding this situation funny. I didn't blame him though.

Like her? My mind went to last night and all the nights I had looked for her. Just a muse, that's what she was. And funny? No! She was nothing but an idiot.

"See you later, Bob." I nodded at him.

"His beard kind of makes his unrecognizable," Ana butted in, trying to save herself from further embarrassment and I stopped myself from chuckling at her stupid ways.

And just because her embarrassed face was one of the expressions I liked on her, I took part in the drama and sniffed, "She was way too drunk that night to even remember my face, Bob. I feel betrayed! Do you think I should accept her?" She narrowed my eyes at her as if trying to intimidate me, while I found her nothing but cute. With wide eyes, I asked, "Are you even sure that it's my child?" That did it, and there was that look that I was looking for!

"Kids these days!" Bob mumbled. "Handle your personal matters at home, Ashton. Later!" He waved his hand towards us and went inside his apartment.

Once again, we were left alone and while she stared at Bob's closed door for a few seconds, I realized that going by my experience with her of the last few minutes, leaving her outside my apartment was not a good option. Her eyes settled on me and I looked at her with a smug expression, which she returned with a damn serious look. This time, I decided that it was better if she came inside as I didn't want her to create a scene in the hallway once again. So, I turned around, leaving the door open for her to enter.

"You are Ashton Parker." I heard her say and a sigh escaped my lips.

I turned to look at her and snorted. "So much for calling you a genius."

She rolled her eyes at me and dismissed me with a wave of her hand. Before I could comment about that little action of hers, she said, "I'm Liana Moore. I work for your mother."

Liana? Hadn't she introduced herself as Ana to me on that night? Putting two and two together, I concluded that her a*shole boyfriend must have given her that nickname. But who in their right minds would do that to such a great name?

"Liana." I tested her real name and liked how it rolled out of my tongue. It was unusual and it suited her. Suddenly, I didn't like the fact that I had known her as 'Ana' all this time.

Before I could ponder any further, I watched as her eyes widened and she jumped on the couch. I, too, looked at her with wide eyes and just as I was about to ask her in complete concern whether she was okay, she asked in a shaky, meek voice, "Do you have a snake here?"

And all I could think about was that fact that she really was an idiot. A cute idiot, nonetheless.

**

A/N

Sorry for being absent for so long, but many things are happening in life right now. Sorry!

Oh, I told my fiancé that I write, and about how wonderful you guys are. I told this BIG SECRET to him on my birthday (8th August) and he was super happy and extremely supportive! He is amazing. <3 he has been asking me to show him my stories, but I don't have that much guts! I'm still scared about what he might think about my writing. Maybe with time, I'll make him read these. :D

Thanks,

Richa :) <3