06

“SELENA ! Stop it !”

“Ok,” she said still chuckling at the thought.

“Yah, so Heather just phoned me saying that would not be able to make it as she had some professional restrictions and since you already told me you were coming. But I told Jake to forget about bringing Ash but he insisted that he would want to meet his best friend as we’ve not seen him much lately and wanted…”

“Alright, I get it. It was not your fault but now I can’t promise that your nice evening won’t turn into another disaster.”

“No, please Selena. Can’t you be civilized to him ? I’m not asking you to like him or whatever. Just try to treat him as a friend. Look, he’s Jake’s best friend and I’m sure he would want to have him home more often. But only because of you…”

“Rachel, I hate it when you manipulate me like that. I’ll try but if anytime I want to leave, you’ve got to promise me not to stop me.”

“Deal,” agreed Rachel already halfway out of the living room.

“My, my. If it isn’t the high and mighty princess,” a voice mocked behind her and it took her all the willpower in the world not to turn around. She would never give him the satisfaction of knowing how much he got under her skin.

“Ashton ! I thought we had an agreement,” she heard Jake warning his friend and smiled inwardly.

Like you could make an agreement with the Devil ! Huh ! But she refrained from any comments not in the mood to get into another endless argument with the devil, loving the feeling of the sleeping baby in her arms. She had never been a fan of children but little Adam was too cute to resist. But she loved him only when he was sleeping !

Thankfully, Ashton feeling chastised most probably refrained from any further comments as well as Rachel joined them and greeted them, jumping on Jake like some starved wolf.

“Do we have to remind you that we are still here ?” Ashton and Selena echoed both in a disgusted voice.

“Oh, don’t mind them honey. They’re both frustrated human beings,” Rachel teased and got brooding looks from both of them. “Come and help me in the kitchen.”

As they both disappeared Ashton cleared his throat and sat next to Selena on the couch his thighs brushing her legs in the process. A jolt of awareness vibrated through her and she had to summon all her willpower not to bolt.

They both stared at the floor, an extremely uncomfortable silence stretching between them. He shifted again and his knee touched her again and this time she jumped unable to hide her reaction.

Closing her eyes in dismay, she waited for the goading which never came and felt astounded at his lack of reaction.

What the hell was happening here ? Selena wondered frantically trying to get a grip on her wayward thoughts. They were not fighting ; that was a strange enough but why was her heart beating loud enough for the whole world to hear ? Why was blood pounding in her heart ? Why was it an effort to draw in a breath ? Of course that was the way she had always felt with Ashton around but she had always associated her reactions with anger. But what was wrong now ? There was absolutely no anger but all the reactions were present as real as ever. Something was dreadfully wrong.

“I never thought you were such a fan of babies,” he finally remarked and Selena’s eyes flew to his in surprise. What the heck ? He was actually trying to make a conversation with her ?!

Or maybe Rachel had told him about her losing her job. He was pitying her !! That made sense ! And she had particularly warned her sister not to let on anything about losing her job. It had been the most humiliating experience which would last her a lifetime.

As promised, she had worked off her ass to be able to meet the strict deadline one month ago and had delivered the website in due time. However, her boss had decided to ‘postpone’ her promotion with the excuse that she was too young to be a leader yet. What the hell. She had her background degree in computer engineering and was paying for her part-time studies for her masters in project management. How can her employer be so heartless as to forgo her promotion ?

Loaded with debts, she had no other options as to remain silent and act as if it meant nothing to her. She could not risk quitting her job now when she was almost near to her goal. She would show that Ashton asshole how hard-working she was as compared to him. She was a legend.

However, when her boss had hinted that she could be promoted if she was willing to stay and convince him alone, she had categorically refused his advances and told him clearly what she thought of him as a person. Men were such bastards anyway, always looking for one thing ; sex.

Defeated and depressed, she had still endured his lecherous and disgusting comments but when he had started to touch her, she could not stopped herself from slapping him and leaving his office affronted. By the time, she had reached her place, everybody knew what had happened – well of course her idiot of a boss had twisted the story and every male was looking at her with a hungry expression.

She had felt cheap and had in spite of that tolerated the snide remarks from her colleagues for one whole week when someone else had asked her the rate for one night, she had given up. It had not been a good working environment anymore and she always returned home more depressed than tired. So, without thinking about the repercussions, she had left without even giving notice. She made that clear to the HR that given the circumstances, she was sure they could do an exception for her as she was not going to press charges for sexual harassment. Not that she would have done it but she had played her cards and it had worked out. The company had wanted to avoid any scandals and they had parted in amicably.

Which left her jobless and unable to pay her debts. Thankfully, she had some savings which would allow her to pay her monthly installment of her apartment for this month but she had to look for something else before next month. She could hardly imagine the humiliation she would feel when the bank would seize her apartment from her because she could not pay.

It would serve her right anyway ; her mother had warned her not to take such an expensive apartment but she had been too hasty to show her success to the world. She had needed to prove herself that her hard work had finally paid off in contrast to Ashton’s fluke.

And it had backfired on her. Now what ?

Just when she had thought it was time for her to smell the roses and settle down. Ruefully, she remembered one month ago, she had been planning to ask Rachel to help her having a boyfriend. Humph ! Everything had gone haywire and well life was as predictable as it never was.

She had a choice though ; she could mob in self-pity all day or she could fight back as she had always done. So, she squared her shoulders and looked at the man in front of her with affront before telling him to mind his own business.

Sensing his anger rising, she did not dare look in his direction and focused her attention on the baby in her lap. Inhaling the unique scent of the precious lump, she tried to snap out of her ‘poor me’ mode not wanting to break down in front of her worst nightmare. Hell, she was stronger than that ; had always fought life back with all she’s got and would continue to do so even if it killed her.

“Listen, I’m not interested in talking to you as well,” Ashton was lashing out at her unaware of her inner feelings. “Jake asked me to be nice to you and I’m making an effort here.”