CHAPTER – 4

LOVE ISN'T A CHALLENGE

If there is one thing I can be thankful for to my birth parents is the same fact for which I hate them - their drug addiction. I hate them for obvious reasons, but I'm thankful because just because of them I'm still habitual to sleep in no matter how much noises surround me. The only thing that needs to be quiet is my brain. So, fortunately, while I was dwelling about that night of four months back, I fell asleep and woke up after about an hour or so. The moment my eyes opened, I registered the fact that loud music was being played in my room. I frowned and got up to turn it off. And just as I was about to turn it off, another fact registered in my head.

She was here. In my apartment. And no, it wasn't a dream.

My hands went up to brush my hair as a sigh escaped my lips. I turned off the music once I had freshened up. It was time to face her.

No matter how much I tried to make sense of things, it seemed as if it was all beyond me. This had to be the biggest coincidence of my entire life.

What could I say to her? How was I supposed to act? I couldn't just ask her to stay still for a while so I could complete the painting that I had started few days back. I didn't want anyone who knew me to know that I was an artist by profession. And it was obvious that she would go and announce it to her entire office, especially my mother. I couldn't even begin to imagine the many scenarios it could bring upon me.

So, I decided to do one thing that could make her get out of this place and hence, my life, for good. I had to be rude to her. As rude as rude could ever be. I had to make her say 'no' from doing this foolish assignment. Yes, that was it. And I was fairly certain that it wasn't going to difficult for me to achieve.

After all, I had been a pro at making people run away from me. Ms. Liana Moore was not going to be any different, I was sure of that.

With determination, I turned off the music and stepped out of my room. My eyebrows furrowed as I watched her lying on my couch as if it was her bedroom. "Don't worry, Steph. I'm perfectly fine as I was spending the last two hours with myself and trust me, I so needed this 'me time' since such a long time. How would I ever thank the Mr. Parker for being so grateful to me?" she said sarcastically and I realized that she was talking to someone on phone.

Steph... Stephanie was the girl at whose apartment I had dropped her that night.

Focusing back on the situation at hand, I interrupted her. "You can start by making lunch for me."

"How is making lunch for you and thanking him related?" she questioned her friend, making me raise my eyebrows in amusement. She was probably the least observant person I had ever met. "And, why do you sound like him, Steph?"

Her friend said something while I tried to patiently wait for Ms. Moore to realize that that was my voice and I was here now, waiting for her to end her call. The key word being 'tried'. So, I interrupted her yet again. "A dumb, romantic fool."

Her head snapped towards me and her eyes widened dramatically. "Oh... finally!" She breathed out in relief while sitting down on the couch. She focused back on her phone and told her friend. "I've to go. Talk to you later."

"Now you decide to come out?" she asked as if she was my Mom and was about to tell me that I was grounded.

Rolling my eyes at her dramatics, I yawned, stretched, and groaned, all at the same time. "I'm so hungry." With that I turned around and walked towards the kitchen. But two steps away from the couch and I noticed something different.

I turned around and looked at her with an incredulous expression on my face. "Did you clean up here?"

Her cheeks reddened slightly, as if embarrassed by what she had done. But then she looked at my living room, like it was a piece of art, like I look at my paintings once they are complete. It was stupid, really. I cleared my throat to gain her attention and her head snapped towards me. She scratched the side of her head and shrugged. "I was getting bored."

She was crazy, it was established. Raising my eyebrows, I shook my head, unsure if I heard her correctly. "And you decided to clean up my apartment?"

She answered my question with a question of her own. "What were you doing inside?" She gasped as she stared at my face and continued without waiting for me to answer, "Were you sleeping inside while I was waiting here alone? Didn't you know you have a guest? You knew and yet you decided to go insane and go inside and play some really loud, stupid music and ignore my existence for almost two long hours. What is wrong with you? You know, there is no need for you to be so rude with me. I'm not here by choice. It's a compulsion and I've to bear you for the next twenty days. And, judging by the last two hours, I know it's not going to be easy. Can't you just try act a tad bit civil with me and make this time slightly enduring for me? Oh... and if you think that all this rudeness and stubbornness of yours is going to make me run away, then let me tell you, Mr. Aston Parker that you are very wrong. I'll stay and try my best to complete this assignment because I always finish what I start."

I stared at her, holding back my smile as she breathed out. Well, at least one thing that was common between the 'Ana' I remembered from that night and this 'Liana' who was standing in front of me was the fact that she sure did speak a lot.

But I wasn't here to reminisce the past... hell, what past? It was just one f*cking night! I was here to make her day hell, to irritate her to the core, to make her leave this f*cking project, and me.

"Ten," I said, looking straight in her eyes with a new-found determination.

She blinked and uttered, "Wh... what?"

Rolling my eyes at her stunned look, I turned around and started walking inside the kitchen, "You used the word 'and' ten times in your rant." I wasn't counting but I was pretty sure that she said quite a lot. And who the f*ck was going to rewind the last two minutes and count the number of 'ands' she had used in rant?

"What?" she asked again after some silence in a high-pitched voice.

I turned abruptly to look at her flabbergasted expressions. To add a few more notches to my rudeness, I brought my finger to rub my ear implying that she was way too loud for my liking, and suggested her, "I was informed that you're a writer. Anyways, you should start all over again. Take some basic English lessons." All she did was stare at me with her mouth open and wide eyes. My lips threatened to twitch in a smile and to stop myself from breaking my demeanor in front of her, I turned around and walked in the kitchen only to shout over my shoulder, "You definitely need some hearing aids as well. You use 'what' way too much."

She didn't follow me in the kitchen and I took that opportunity to chuckle a little at her cute reactions. I stepped back in the living room and spotted her deep in her thoughts. With furrowed eyebrows, I broke away her train of thoughts and asked in a mock thoughtful manner, "If I'm not wrong my mother pays you, right?"

Well, I could very easily use 'my mother is your boss' card to my own convenience. Low, I know! Do I care? Hell, no!

**********

She made a quick sandwich for both of us, grumbling to herself all the while, and I tried to stop the laughter that was about to erupt any given moment from my lips. She was awfully quiet and even though I wanted to irritate the hell out of her, I didn't like the fact that she was so quiet.

So, for the sake of my happiness, I broke the silence, "Have you ever eaten a bear?"

She looked up with narrowed eyes and gave me what she probably thought was a deadly stare. Without bothering to answer my question, she focused back on the half eaten sandwich on her plate. I snorted at her childishness and continued, "I mean, you look like a bear so you must have eaten a bear." Her head snapped up at my awesome logic and she looked at me with completely ridiculous expressions. The smirk on my face grew and in a mock thoughtful manner, I told her, "People say you are what you eat. That's funny, I don't remember eating a sexy beast lately!"

She stared at me for a while as if lost in some thoughts, and for a few seconds, I wondered if she actually recognized me. I swallowed the bite in my mouth and sighed in relief when she removed her gaze from me and picked up her coffee. I smirked at her when she looked back at me, only to annoy her further.

"Look, Mr. Parker," she started and stopped when she looked at my narrowed eyes. I was Ashton, just Ashton. Dylan was Mr. Parker. Hell, Priscila's husband was Mr. Parker. I was just Ashton.

"Ashton," I told her in a low voice, warning her not use that last name for me again.

She blinked a few times and after a minute of silence, she started again, "Look, Ashton, you know why I'm here. And seriously, it's not by choice. I don't know what acquired Priscilla's mind and why she sent me here, but what I do know is that I'm given an assignment and I'll complete it."

I stared at her for a long time. Thinking if she was for real. Was she really so keen to make me fall in love with some girl? I, the guy, who had tried to make her fall out of love from that asshole of a cheating boyfriend she had? I ate my sandwich, all the while staring at her and wondering what the actual hell was she up to? Didn't she remember the golden rule of life that I had taught her four months back? 'Love is bullshit.' Plain and simple. Had she forgotten that? Well, she has forgotten me, and forgetting me was hell lot more difficult than forgetting the rule. So, I didn't blame her. I blamed the alcohol. The unlimited amounts of alcohol she had consumed that night. The alcohol that spoiled that night for me, and which was again spoiling this day for me. How the f*ck could she not remember me?

I swallowed the bite in my mouth, like I was swallowing the questions I wanted to ask her, and ended up asking instead, "You mean that you'll make me fall in shit?"

She pressed her lips tightly, giving away the fact that she was trying to stop herself from smiling, but she stayed quiet, not answering my question. "Look, Liana," I started and her eyes snapped towards me. I continued, "I'm not in this with my own choice too. Trust me, if it was up to me, you'd have never been able to step inside my apartment."

"Oh! Trust me, it was no less a conquest." She rolled her eyes at the fresh memory, making me smirk a bit.

But I continued, "All I'm saying is it would be better for you to just stay out of my way and I'll stay out of yours. Make a fake draft and an article, use my name; I don't give a f*ck. But just stay away." There, there I said it – loud and clear. I didn't give a damn if some more rumors in my name went around, so I was perfectly fine with whatever she wanted to write. She could write that I'm an a*shole, a heartless person, or I'm a playboy with a history of girls in my list, or I'm a cheater who is multi-timing girls a few girls, or I'm bisexual. I couldn't care less. There were already worse things people said about me everywhere.

She nodded her head in what looked like complete determination. "But what if I succeed in making you fall in love with someone?"

I snickered at her determination and asked her with narrowed eyes, "You really want to try. Don't you?"

"What's the harm in it?" she answered my question with a question. "You don't believe in love and I'm pretty sure that nothing would change in the next twenty days for you. So, why not give this a try? You've got nothing to lose."

I stared at her, wondering why she so badly wanted to do this pathetic, impractical assignment. How could anyone fall in love just by meeting a girl one time? And according to the brilliant plan of Mrs. Parker, I had to meet twenty girls. One thing was sure, Mrs. Parker was out of her mind when she came up with this sad excuse of an idea. However, in this entire ordeal she ended up doing one good thing, and that was selecting Liana to be the matchmaker. Maybe this was how I was supposed to meet her again and finish the incomplete paintings. Maybe I could use these twenty days to remember each and every expression of her face and use it in my paintings like the f*cking creep I was coming out to be.

Maybe it was the four f*cking months during which I waited to see just a glimpse of her, that made me say the next word to her. "Okay!" Her eyes widened in surprise and a huge grin covered her face. She opened her mouth to say something after basking in her little victory, but I beat her at it. "But, there's a condition."

"What condition?" she asked.

This was my chance to understand whether my words had any effect on her that night, to see if she was still with that ass of a boyfriend of hers', and to see if she really did believe in love. With all these things in my mind, I put forward my condition, "Every day for the next twenty days, you've to tell me what love is. One definition per day, that's all. The day when I'd be fully satisfied with your given definition would be the day you'd succeed in this assignment." The expressions of incredulousness were crystal clear on her face, so I tried to push the right buttons, "It mustn't be difficult for you. You're the writer of the famous 'Love Column' after all. Giving twenty basic definitions must be an easy task, right?"

It was a challenge-plain and simple, which after some thoughts she accepted. A challenge at the end of which I wanted her to say and give me the definition that I had so firmly told her that night. 'Love is bullshit, nothing but bullshit.''

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Hellos Peoples!

I know, I know. I'm terrible. Sorry. Really sorry! But the chapter was pretty nice, no? Forgive me? :)

Hope you all are doing incredible in your life! Stay awesome. Stay tuned. <3

Love, Richa