"The lines between real and fake are starting to blur, Liam," he thought to himself. The rest of the entire meal course was spent with Mr. and Mrs. Ross teasing Liam and Ashley and also telling them about their relationship when they were their age. The two of them had met when they were just 16. Their parents had arranged for them to get married, but the two of them fell in love before they found out that their marriage was arranged by their parents. Ashley knew bits of this story already, but she couldn't help but feel like she wanted that kind of love too. She loves the couple honestly, but being with them always makes her remember that she might never feel the type of love the two of them had. She knew that having love was almost impossible for her anymore, especially with the contract marriage thing with Liam. Not that she ever felt like it was possible. The only friend she has ever had even left her because she was so unloveable. They had both gotten into an accident, and sh
A lot of things had been going through Ashley's mind since they left Gwen's restaurant two weeks before. She was glad the whole meeting went well because she had been so stressed about the meeting not going well because she knew that Liam would blame everything on her.She was currently working on an app that she was creating when her phone rang. She had not gotten any calls from Jacob since her last job, so the only way to keep her mind from overthinking is by coding. She hadn't really faltered, like hacking into any server.She picked her phone up and saw that it was a call from Ethan, Liam's secretary. Her heart literally jumped to her chest, seeing that.She knew that it was not going to be Liam that would be at the end of the call, but that doesn't make her any less anxious. She knew that he was most likely calling to tell her about the trip tomorrow.Liam had told her on their way from Gwen's restaurant that she should get prepared and that they would be going to Carlifonia to m
Ashley was surprised to see that Liam was calling her."What does he have to tell me? Ethan has already told me about tomorrow's plans; is he planning on yelling and snapping at me again?" she thought to herself, her heart racing.She was so busy panicking that the phone had stopped ringing before she could even gather the courage to pick up his call."Oh my goodness, what do I do now? Do I call him?" she screamed dramatically as she looked frantically around her room as if she were talking to someone.Ashley took a deep breath, trying to calm herself down. She realized that overthinking wouldn't solve anything and decided to gather her thoughts before deciding whether to call Liam back or not.As she sat down on her bed, she reminded herself that she and Liam had a mutually beneficial contract and that she shouldn't be so scared of him, so she decided to call him back."Uhmm, here we go," she said to herself, and she was about to pick up her phone to call him when his phone started r
Ashley was quiet throughout the entire ride, and so was Liam. She contemplated talking to him since the silence was becoming deafening.Liam, on the other hand, was going crazy. He was hyper-aware of her beside him, and that was driving him crazy, especially with her sweet floral scent."So, why didn't Thomas drive you today?" Ashley asked, and Liam frowned immediately.He was annoyed that the first thing she decided to do was talk about his driver and not even ask him how his work was."You sure know how to drive me crazy," he mumbled to himself."What did you say?" Ashley asked."Uhmm nothing. I gave Thomas the day off so he could pick up his son and spend time with him after school." I said, and she nodded in response."So, have you thought about what our backstory would be?" She asked him."We will go along with some parts of the scandal, but I want us to make it mor
Ashley sighed at Emily’s childishness. The woman looked like she was old enough to give birth to Ashley, but she was acting like a petty child.She couldn’t bring herself to care though; she had to be careful of her from now on, but she also had other things to worry about.The two of them both headed to the kitchen. Ashley couldn’t deny that the food looked good. She just had to compliment Emily.“The food looks so good, Emily,” she said, but Emily just grunted in response. Liam noticed this but just passed the whole thing off as her being overly protective.Emily has been working with him for the past 7 years since he started the company. He had inherited the house from his grandmother when he was just 21 before he started the company.He moved there after graduation and needed someone to take care of the big house and cook for him since he was always busy. Emily has been a godsend and honestly a nice person, so he d
“Is that….?” Ashley asked as the rain started falling heavily.“Yeah, it’s the rain.” Liam responded, looking worried.“It sounds heavy, though.”"Yeah, it does. Liam responded by checking the time.“It’s almost 10 p.m. already, and it looks like we lost track of time. It looks like you are going to have to sleep in my guest room tonight. I don’t think driving is going to be safe or a smart choice tonight with how heavy this rain is. Liam said with a frown.Ashley was quite shocked to hear this. She honestly didn’t feel like she had spent that long talking to Liam.“Wow, I didn’t realize that it'd been that long. I don’t have anything to change either, though, and what about our trip tomorrow morning? I still have some last-minute things to pack tomorrow morning before we leave.” Ashley said, looking worried.She wasn’t really worried about packing since she was almost done, but she also wasn’t about to tell Liam that the reason she was nervous was because she had never slept outside
Ashley woke up the next day feeling very hung over.“Damn, I promised myself that I will never touch alcohol again” she groaned slapping her face repeatedly.“I hope I didn’t say anything weird to him last night.” She thought to herself looking around the room that she was in.Ashley couldn’t help but blush at the thought of Liam carrying her to his guest room because she was drunk. The last thing she remembered was drinking inside the living room so Liam must have brought her to the room.“Wait, he must have thought I was too heavy” she thought to herself which spoilt her mood. Ashley has always been sensitive about her looks since high school because she was bullied.She wasn’t exactly fat but she wasn’t model thin either. She had been able to keep the weight of these days and has a health relationship with food now but she feels self-conscious most time.She had bec
Liam felt guilty for the way he ignored her and was going through turmoil in his mind trying to decide if he should go in.He wanted to have as limited contact as possible with her father because he didn't trust him, but he also felt like her mother and siblings couldn't be so bad.As Liam stood outside the house, he couldn't help but feel torn between his distrust for Ashley's father and his curiosity about her mother and siblings. Despite his reservations, he knew that avoiding them completely might not be the best solution. He took a deep breath, steeling himself for whatever awaited him inside.She is following me to go and meet my parents when I don't have to. I should show her a little respect by going in to meet her family instead of just standing outside on the hood of my car while waiting for her to come out like a debt collector." He thought to himself."Don't overthink it, boss, just go after her." He heard Thomas, who was looking at him intently, say,."Yeah, I probably sh