Quote of the day: There are few times in your life when you need to do a few cleansing, get rid of those garbages and free your mind of all those anger, jealousy and hatred, just go ahead and do it, you become a lot happier instantly.

   Ashley sat in his car fidgeting, the words she had said was dangling right before her eyes, mocking her, why does she have to be so forward with everything? She just wished her mouth would always listen to her head once in a while.
  
     Greg wasn't talking, she was also too scared to look at him, she didn't know what she would see.

     What would he think of her now?  He must think she is some desperate leech just waiting for him to give the green light.

   "Well, is it working?" Greg said with a nervous laugh. Ashley wanted to know what he was talking about, she looked at him and met with his green eyes staring right into hers. And as you can already guessed, she was hypnotized. She couldn't look elsewhere but those eyes of his, those eyes do a lot of things to her, things he had no idea of.

   "What?" She asked still looking into his eyes.

    "You are right, I am indeed trying to ask you to be my girlfriend, so is it working?" Greg asked and she was really surprised he actually said that. What surprised her more was Greg's nervousness. "I was actually going to that you know, but then you took the words right out of my mouth and I...I really..."

    For real, Greg was a nervous wreck and it was all so new to her. She wasn't expecting Greg to ask her to be his girlfriend. And she hadn't even expected him to be nervous about it, and it made her curious. She wanted to ask him a question but she knew it was quite a stupid question, but you know all about her curiosity and how her mouth works. So she asked. "Is this the first time you will be asking a girl out?" After saying that she laughed because she knew Greg would be laughing at her face soon.

    But instead of laughing Greg looked all the more nervous and she regretted she asked the stupid question. She bent her head in embarrassment afraid to meet his eyes.

  "Is it that obvious?" Greg said. This was so shocking that her head shot up instantly.

    "Are you serious?"

   "Yes I am, this is the first time I would actually be asking a girl out. And I must be really clueless at it," he said and laughed nervously trying to loosen his tie but he must have forgotten he dumped the tie in his office. And when he noticed his tie was gone he went right back to his second bad habit, running his hand through his hair.

    "That is a huge joke, you can't tell me you never had a girlfriend all your life," she said giving him a once over,  assessing his hot looks.

  "Get your fact right Ashley, I didn't say I never had a girlfriend just that I never asked a girl out," he said a little bit of his nervousness was gone by now, but she was more confused.

  "So you did have girlfriends?"

  "Yeah a few of them."

  "And you never asked a girl out," She said the one thing that had her confused.

   "I never had a reason to ask a girl out," Greg said smugly, all his nervousness gone by now.

    "Ohh and you had girlfriends, so you just went up to a random girl and claimed her as your girlfriend, or what?" She said giving him a look of utter confusion.

    "You must be really clueless Ashley..." He said giving her a frustrated look. "I never asked a girl out because they always do the asking."

   Ashley looked at him with utter bewilderment and assessed his looks again. She could understand those girls plight, who wouldn't want to be with a fine piece like him, she looked at his face and all she could see was ego. "So you just agree to date them."

   "Why not," he said shrugging.

  "So there was never a girl you liked so much and asked?" Ashley asked again, this was beginning to look like an interview she knew, but she needed to know.

    "No... As I said I never had a reason to ask any girl out," he said growing a little nervous again. "Until you." This he said with that sweet smile of his melting her into a puddle then. It was like he was the sun, and she was ice cream.

    "I...I..." And here she was again stuttering like a fool. Her mouth actually fails her when she needs it the most.

   "You don't have to say anything Ashley, just listen. I like you...a lot at that, and I can assure you that this isn't just because I want to get in your pants. I want something real with you, I really can't tell if you feel the same way about me...but."

  Ashley did feel the same way, she liked him a lot too, she wished she could just tell him that but, she couldn't. She really wanted to just forget everything and date him, but she would only be digging her grave faster. "I.. I really."

   "You don't have to say anything now..." Greg said stopping her from giving another round of stuttering and making a fool of herself. "I know whatever you're gonna say now is not what I want to hear."

   And he was so damn right, she doesn't know how she was gonna say it, but no matter how much her heart wanted it, her history just won't allow it. If only she had done things differently then. "Greg..."

    "I won't listen to anything you say until you have given much thought to it, so you are not allowed to answer yet." And lord of mercy, he was really nervous, Greg really liked her, and she had no right to even breath the same air he does.

    "Okay I will think about it Greg and give you an answer, when I have thought well enough about it," Ashley said, but she knew her answer would remain the same. She was afraid she had actually taken things too far, she had to leave New York, she had to forget everything the priest said and just leave.

   What the priest wanted for her was redemption.

  What she wanted was redemption.

But she was afraid redemption was way too good for her.

  She had done more harm than good to Greg.

  He doesn't know it, and that was why he was looking at her with so much admiration ready to go into a relationship with her.

   Greg gave her a big smile. She must confess Greg had the prettiest smile she had ever seen on a person's face, whenever he smiled his green eyes twinkled. She had first noticed this the day Nora came and he smiled at her, now she understood the reason.

    "Good night, Ashley," he said.

"Good night," she said and made to get out of his car and for the second time that night Greg stopped her. "What now Greg, you want me to become your wife already?" Sarcasm dripping in every word.

    "Not yet," he said with a stupid and silly grin plastered on his beautiful face. "But you can give me a goodnight kiss while we await your response, you know."

  "Oh really" she said moving closer to him, his smile widen, she had a evil smile on her face as she moved closer to his lips and stared at those green orbs of his. "Let me burst your bubble lover boy, you are not getting any kiss from me until I decide to become your girlfriend." He frowned at what she said but didn't say anything.

    Happy with her little victory she turned hopping down from his car,  she turned to him with a smile. "Goodnight Mr Marshall."

     "Good night for real, Miss Wells." He had a little frown on his face but his voice was filled with an undeniable smile. Ashley turned and walked up to her front porch and turned back to wave goodbye to him, he waved back and maneuvered his car out of her lawn.

   She watched him leave and her heart felt really heavy, she really needed to leave before things got worse, she likes Greg, a lot, and she was scared she was falling for him, and she knew she of all people had no right to do so.

   If she stayed with him a while longer he might keep on thinking she was some saint, but she wasn't, she was worse than the devil.

   It took a while before she finally came to terms with the great idea that she was still standing on her front porch staring into nothingness, damn she was going nuts now.

    Ashley turned to her beautiful door, on opening it her already pretty muddled up brain scattered into many pieces with the loud blast of music that filled her eardrums on stepping into the house. She cringed so hard. After a few seconds she realized that aliens hadn't invaded her home and it was in fact her silly best friend who was playing the loud music and singing on top of her lungs. 

    Ashley watched Chloe with curious eyes, the girl was in a blue shorts and pink tank top, she was unnecessarily bouncing here and there on the poor old couch and her brunette hair was bouncing along with her. Chloe was so engrossed in the music that she didn't notice her enter and close the door.  Ashley watched her friend for a good five minutes and decided that she must have won a lottery, she did seem very happy.

     
     "So we'll piss off the neighbors,
     In the  place that feels the tears
     A place to loose your fears,
     Yeah, reckless behavior  
     A place that is so pure, so dirty and
    raw.
    In the bed all day, bed all day... "

Ashley stood where she was and listened to Chloe sing, sorry screech. It took her a long time before she realized that her friend was actually singing along with Zayn Malik, and if you must know her voice was terrible. Ashley was sure that the only thing that could kill Zayn right now is hearing Chloe sing her version of his 'Pillow talk.'

   Ashley walked around the couch careful not to spoil Chloe's fun, she ended up standing in front of her and by now Chloe had noticed her presence, thank the sweet lord.

   Ashley sat down on the couch opposite to the one Chloe was bouncing on and placed her bag close to her. Chloe stopped bouncing to reduce the volume of the music, letting Zayn's soothing voice play in the background, she couldn't deny it, his voice was so good it gave her goosebumps most of the time. Chloe sat down with a huge smile plastered on her delicate features.

    "So, what are you celebrating, dear friend?" Ashley asked with curiosity. Her friend rarely puts on this sort of show, except if there was something worth celebrating for example if one of her babies won an award, or whatever.

    "Well my ship is finally setting to SAIL!!!" Chloe said screaming on top of her lungs. It took Ashley a while before she realized what her friend just said. A lot of things were running through her mind.

    First of all, Chloe had a ship and didn't let her know until it was setting to sail.

And where the heck did she get the money to buy a fucking ship?

   "Wait...wait wait...so you are telling me that you have a ship and didn't bother to tell me until it was setting to sail!" Ashley said with anger. She watched Chloe's face fall into a frustrated look. "And I'm supposed to be your best friend...and moreover where did you get the money to buy a fucking ship?"

    Chloe gave her that look she always had whenever she was about to tell her to go get a boyfriend.

  "We both know you don't have that kind of money, and the only person who could give you that amount of money is your parents, but they stopped giving you money," Ashley said this with every bit of her still angry.
 
     Chloe's parent could actually afford a ship, yeah they are both stinking rich, but Chloe stopped going home and money stopped coming to her, simple. If only Chloe would just stop being so stubborn.

    "You really are indeed the most clueless human on earth," Chloe said face palming.

   Ashley recalled that Greg had said the same thing about her this night, was she really that clueless? she can't tell,  so back to the issue on ground.

    "So I'm clueless because I didn't find out about your ship sooner, like I'm supposed to just know you have a ship."

    "Sweet mother of Jesus!" Chloe said frustration written all over her face. "Why don't you tell me best friend do I look like I have the money to buy a fucking ship?"

    "No actually," Ashley said with confusion lacing her voice. "Then what ship are you talking about?"

   "My ship 'Grashy,'" Chloe said with a huge smile, and for real Ashley was more confused than ever.

    "Grachi?" Ashley asked,  remembering when she used to watch a particular magical series titled 'Grachi.'

    "Grashy, as in Greg and Ashley," Chloe said with an eye roll.

   "Ohh really," Ashley said picking her bag and heading for her room.

  "He made you wait so I'm guessing you guys..." She watched Chloe join two of her fingers together with a stupid grin on her face.

    "Since you are so interested in guessing, I will just go to my room and forget the news I was gon give you about your precious ship," Ashley said and turned on her heels heading for her room.

     "Noo queen Ashley, please don't do this to me," Chloe said running after her. Ashley laughed and started running towards her room so Chloe won't catch up with her.

  Chapter twenty two.
Mary Aden.