ASHLEY or ASTRID

"I'm sorry. I know it's too late to say this. But I think we should break up," Karl Jackson said calmly while handing a wedding invitation card to Ashley White, his current girlfriend. They both just finished eating dinner at an outdoor restaurant.

"What? You're kidding, right?" Ashley took the card and scanned it. She looked back at Karl and that man only showed a serious gaze. She read the card again and saw the bride-to-be was Lucia Darcy, her nemesis since high school.

"Karl, you can't do this to me. We'd been together for five years now. How could you..." she stood up immediately and Karl stood up as well, trying to calm her down. There were a lot of people there and Karl did not want Ashley to make any ruckus.

"Since when?" She asked with a broken voice.

"I'd been seeing Lucia since five months ago..."

"And you decided to marry her? We'd been together for five years but you choose to marry someone you had just known for five months?!" She almost lost it.

"To be fair, I know Lucia since high school. We all went to the same high school, Ashley. I knew her as long as I knew you too," he tried to justify his decision.

"But you cheat on me... You could have told me five months ago. Why did you only tell me now? Now that you wanted to marry her!"

"I didn't want to fight with you, Ashley. I cared for you so much and I know I was wrong to break your heart like this. But I had made up my mind. I'm sorry that you are not the one for me. Knowing Lucia made me realize that there's something about you that just didn't feel right to me."

"What? What is it that didn't feel right to you?" Ashley was truly frustrated at this moment. She stared at her now ex-boyfriend, waiting for his answer. She really wanted to know what were the things that he felt were wrong with their relationship.

"I don't feel excited anymore when we did it in bed... Not as much as when I did it with Lucia," he was a bit hesitant to say it.

"What?" Ashley was truly flabbergasted by his words. He just shamelessly admitted that he had slept with Lucia too. Her lips trembled so much as she tried to suppress the curse words that were trying to come out of her mouth. Her gaze went down, looking at the wedding card again. Then she scoffed in bitterness, still couldn't believe that the man she had poured her whole heart out was betraying her and going to marry the woman she hated the most.

"You know what... I'm going to your wedding... And I'm going to congratulate you like a sane person. And I'm going to bring another man with me. I'm going to prove to you that I, Ashley White, could replace you with someone better in less than a week," Ashley proclaimed her resolution to him clearly and left.

She walked back to her car elegantly, still maintaining her chick posture even though deep down inside, her heart was crumbling into million pieces. The car engine was started and she drove off immediately, didn't even look back at that bastard. Ten minutes into driving and her eyes didn't want to concur with her. Tears streaming down her cheeks and she began to sob uncontrollably inside the car.

Ashley's vision went blurry and she stopped the car at the side of the road. She didn't even know where the hell she had driven herself to. There was an old vintage-looking bar at the side of the road and she went in there without having a second thought. She really needed to drown her sorrow away.

"I have a glass of whiskey, please. The strong one," she said to the bartender. Seconds later, her drink arrived. She gulped the whole glass in one go.

"Wow. Easy, lady. That one is strong," someone approached her and sat beside her.

Ashley glanced at him for a bit and then she gestured to the bartender to give her another glass.

"Just bring the bottle here," she said loudly and the bartender did as she demanded. She poured down the whiskey into her own glass and drank again. She did that until the bottle was half empty. The man sitting beside her didn't even move a bit. He stayed there as if trying to take advantage of her.

"Why are you still here? Can't you see that I'm not interested?" Ashley glared at the man. She could see he formed a faint smile on his face.

"I'm just looking out for you. It's not good for a young beautiful woman like you to be drunk alone," that man said. He scanned Ashley's body and saw that she had the perfect body for a model.

"Have you ever heard about Golden Ratio or divine proportion?" He began to start a conversation with her.

"What's that?" Ashley pretended not to know. She took a fashion design course during college, of course, she had heard that terms before.

"It's a perfect combination of female body measurements. And it's extremely rare to find a woman who has such measurements," he replied in a way as if trying to impress her. He scanned her body again and this time, Ashley noticed the movement of his eyes.

"What do you think you're doing? Checking my body like that, mister?" She reproved him.

"Sorry, I just thought that you maybe have a Golden Ratio type of body," he chuckled and smiled ravishingly.

'This man is weird,' Ashley thought. But she was too drunk to make a deal out of it. She just ignored his gaze that was still looking at her like some kind of prey. She drank her whiskey again, trying to knock herself out that day. She really just wanted that day to be over.

"Do you mind if I check?" That man talked to her again. Ashley turned to him and saw him taking out a measuring tape from his suit.

"That's weird! Why would a man carry a measuring tape with him?" She ridiculed him and laughed. Yet, she still adhere to his request and stood up, letting him check her body measurements. The man only smiled while measuring her.

"You got to tell me your name. You're so weird, I wanted to remember you," Ashley said drunkenly, still laughing at him but the man remained silent.

He was done measuring her body and he stood up in front of her. He stared at her with his eyes filled with amazement.

"I never found one before. Not even once. Miss, do you know how to do modelling?" That man's voice suddenly turned serious.

"I'm working at a local boutique as a designer. I don't do modelling. I just design clothes for them," she replied. Her body staggered as she went to approach the stool again. She sat there, ignoring him. The man sat beside her again and still looked at her with amazement.

"What the hell is wrong with you?" She got annoyed at him for staring at her for too long.

"You got a Golden Ratio body..." he made a remark. Seeing his serious face, Ashley laughed even louder this time.

"What nonsense are you talking about? How can I have a Golden Ratio body? I eat a lot of food. I loved food. I eat a lot..." she ridiculed him again.

"I don't know how. But you did. And you're coming home with me tonight."

"What? No no no..." she shook her head in refusal. She stopped talking to him and just focused on her drinks. The whiskey bottle was now empty, yet she still remembered the fact that her boyfriend cheated on her for five months.

"That bastard!!!" She suddenly yelled and was about to throw the whiskey bottle to a wall behind the bar, but got stopped immediately by the man who sat beside her.

"Yo, man! That was close. Do you know this chick? Someone got to get her home. I almost got in trouble just now. My boss would kill me if something wrecked inside this bar," the bartender lost his cool after Ashley tried to throw the whiskey bottle before.

"Here. I'll pay her bill as well," the man who was holding Ashley just now took a black card from his wallet and gave it to the bartender.

After paying for their drinks, the man took Ashley out of the bar. Right now, she was totally out. Another man in his thirties approached the one who was holding Ashley.

"Mr Grey, who's this?"

"I don't know her name either. Haven't checked it yet and she's too drunk to tell me. But I found her car key inside her coat. Here, take it and drive her car back to my villa. I'm sure she parked around here."

Just one click from the car key and Ashley's car that was parked in front of the bar made an unlocked door sound.

"Found it!"