Dedicating this chapter to AngelBaexo for the lovely cover on the side. I loved it. It's very pretty so I've decided to use it as cover for a few days. I'll come back to the original one soon. :D

Brace yourself for a SURPRISE in this chapter!! :D

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CHAPTER - 26

LOVE IS... CRAZY

'Falling in love is a crazy thing to do. It's kind of like a form of socially acceptable insanity.'

"You used to live here?" I asked from Ashton in complete awe as soon as we entered the huge hall. Everything about it from its furniture to its huge chandeliers, from the walls to its décor shouted 'grand'. It looked like they had invited almost every important person of New York or even America.

He grumbled something inappropriate under his breath which I conveniently decided not to pay attention to. "This hall was built ten years ago exclusively for parties," he informed me in a bored tone.

"Loaded," I mumbled and he snickered. "Can I ask you something?" I asked out of manners.

"No," he answered in an instant, picking up a glass of scotch from one of the waiters.

"How do you pay for all the bills, the food and everything when you don't even work?" I had assumed that his family pays for him. Priscilla did care for him and he talked to Dylan. I had no clue about his equation with his father though. But looking at how terribly loaded they were, this question again entered my mind and I let it slip this time.

Ashton narrowed his eyes at me as if catching the underlying meaning of my question and said in a harsh sarcastic tone, "For free, I get everything for free."

"Don't get so worked up. I was just curious." I scowled at him.

He smirked and whispered, "You look even sexier when you are angry."

"You and your irritating mood swings," I muttered in annoyance, though my reddening cheeks had a different story to tell.

"You love both of them." He snorted, leaving me at my spot to blush some more. I covered my cheeks with my hands to cool them down and went to stand beside him. His gaze was fixed on someone across the hall, and my own eyes followed it only to stop at Priscilla.

Priscilla made her royal blue gown look exquisite. Beside her was a tall, well built man, whom I recognized as her husband, Ryan Parker. My eyes landed on the person standing on the right side of Priscilla and I, concluded that Dylan was the younger version of Ryan Parker. The three of them looked perfect with their overpriced dresses and well tailored suits. They had perfect smiles on their faces as they talked to one of their guests.

"Perfect f*cking happy family," Ashton muttered from beside me in a bitter tone.

I bit my lower lip, thinking about what I could say to ease the tension, to make him feel better. I had tried 'let's skip the party' card but it hadn't worked. Then I had hugged him which seemed to have an opposite effect on him than it must have had. While I couldn't wipe the silly smile off my face, Ashton had been quiet.

Wasn't a hug supposed to make him feel better? It should have according to any normal romantic novel norm, but neither was my life a novel nor the words 'normal' and 'romantic' existed in Ashton's dictionary.

As if feeling eyes on her, Priscilla's eyes wandered and widened when she spotted us. Her face immediately lighted up and a huge smile covered it. Without removing her gaze from Ashton and without caring about the person she was indulged in talking to, she started moving in our direction.

Her little display of eagerness to talk to her son without caring about anything else made me smile instantly. Ashton, on the other hand, tensed immediately. I shot a concerned look in his direction only to see his jaw tightly clenched. His hold on his glass was so tight that it could shatter any given moment. He had undoubtedly noticed Priscilla walking towards us, but he kept his eyes focused on the glass in his hand.

"Ashton!" She exclaimed, her voice brimming with happiness just like her facial expressions.

How in the world could he have problems with such a lovely lady?

Ashton chose to finish the rest of his drink in greeting and didn't share even an ounce of her enthusiasm.  

Probably she was used to these kinds of reactions or her happiness overtook her thinking abilities, that she didn't look least bit bothered by his reaction. I, on the other hand, was very well aware of the tensed vibes beside me and the happy vibes in front of me.

To bring them at equilibrium, I punched Ashton from the back making him glare at me and Priscilla look between us with a confused look on her face.

"Hi, Priscilla." I waved awkwardly.

"Did you just wave?" Ashton snorted.

Blushing beetroot red, I realized how lame I was being. "Happy birthday," I wished her with way too much enthusiasm. Seriously lame!

She replied with a welcoming smile. "Thank you so much, Liana. I really appreciate your presence." If she was surprised to see me here, she didn't show it.

"Yay!" I laughed showing enthusiasm of two individuals in one. That must have made me look insane.

"What the f*ck is wrong with you?" Ashton asked incredulously.

"Ashton!" Priscilla warned on his use of language.

Wasn't she aware of his love for foul language? Seriously, what was the use of warning a twenty seven year old man?

He chose to ignore her and I punched him again. "Stop it!" he hissed, glaring at me.

I, too, glared at him and looked towards Priscilla with a smile. "He talks so much about you," I gushed, trying to pacify things between them.

"Who?" Ashton asked in a warning tone.

"Really?" Priscilla asked at the same time, her happiness returning in reluctantly.

"Yup!" Conveniently ignoring Ashton's question, I continued, "He even brought something special for you. Right, Ashton?" I narrowed my eyes at him, trying to make him understand that it was high time that he talked to his mother and be polite with her. Mentally, I prayed that he must have got something for her... something special. He had asked me not to get anything, so I had just blurted out the first thing that came to my mind to make things fine between them.

A sighed in relief when Ashton grunted a "yeah" after killing me with his gaze for a few seconds.

"Where is it? In the car?" I asked, ready to go back to the parking lot and bring her gift. He was empty handed, save the scotch glass. My main motive was to give them some time to talk and maybe... just maybe resolve their matters.

Before I could move, Ashton grabbed my wrist with his free hand. "Calm down," he told me as if talking to a two year old.

Grimacing, I watched as he placed the glass on the table beside him and took out something from his tux's pocket, all the while holding my wrist in a firm grip. He handed the jewelry box to Priscilla and mumbled, "Happy birthday."

"Th-thank you," Priscilla choked as she was way too emotional and she blinked back the tears. I took a deep breath and picked up a glass of colorful mocktail that a waiter was serving. I tried to busy myself with the drink as their moment seemed too personal... too emotional. The mocktail was good, nonetheless.

Dylan interrupted the mother - son moment with his graceful entry. "Am I interrupting?" Ashton grumbled in agreement, but Dylan chose not to pay heed to him and focused his attention to me. His blue eyes looked me from top to bottom and he smirked. "Wow, Liana. Don't you look gorgeous?"

"Thank you," I mumbled with a smile.

"No," Ashton grunted at the same time, tightening his hold on my wrist. This made me look at him with a scowl. He, himself, had shown no courtesy in complimenting me; all he had done was shock me by showing his clean shaven face and when his well mannered brother did the same, all he did is make fun of me.

Clearly, manners and Ashton couldn't go hand in hand.

Dylan rolled his eyes at his brother. "My little brother definitely does not know how to make a beautiful woman, like yourself, feel wonderful."

"Is this why you invited me? To piss me off?" Ashton glared at him.

Dylan's lips twitched up in a grin and he answered, "Is there ever a time when you are not pissed?" A chuckle escaped my lips which I converted into a cough due to Ashton's glare on me.

"Dylan, stop it." Priscilla warned him in a stern voice. She looked back at Ashton and her eyes softened again. "Let's go and meet your father."

Ashton didn't move. In fact, he left my hand and clenched his fists, becoming visibly tensed at the mention of his father. His actions made me realize that even Mr. Ryan Parker had made no move to come and meet Ashton. Probably, that was where the problem lied and Ashton was venting out his anger on Priscilla.

Dylan, too, noticed the tension and anger radiating from Ashton as he interrupted his mother. "Actually, Mom, I've to talk to Ashton about a few things. We'll catch up with Dad and you a bit later."

Priscilla's lips pressed in a thin line and she nodded her head. "Sure." She forced a smile and looked at me when the brothers left us standing there.

I expected her to start asking about the progress of the assignment and in all honesty, I had no answers to her questions. 'I don't know about your son but I'm definitely going to fall in love by the end of twenty days,' didn't seem like an appropriate answer.

But what she said was unexpected. "Thank you for bringing Ashton here. It really means a lot to me."

"Um... but I didn't bring him here, Priscilla. It's the other way round," I informed her with a little smile on my face.

She nodded with a smile. "That's true but he could have skipped this party like he had been doing since the last few years. What changed this time?"

Confusion clouded my mind and all I could say was, "I don't know."

She kept looking at me with a smile on her face for the next few moments and I kept staring at her with confusion etched on every feature of my face. She didn't bother clearing up my confusion and rather said, "Why don't you come and see me in my office tomorrow? There are certain matters that need to be discussed." Though it sounded like a question, I knew it was more of an order from a boss to her employee. I had no other option than to quickly comply with it.

"Sure." I nodded my head.

She smiled again. "Enjoy the party. See you around." With that she turned around and started attending more important guests than an employee who was soon going to quit her company.

Confusion and many more questions clouded my head as I was left alone in a crowd of strangers. What 'certain matters' was Priscilla talking about? What problem did Ashton have with his family exactly? I wanted answers tonight but I highly doubted that my wish would be fulfilled. Ashton was a tough nut to crack... a really tough one.

A defeated sigh escaped my lips as I realized what a strange night this was turning out to be. First finding out that Ashton was the stranger with whom I almost had sex that night; he was the guy who had brainwashed me and made me believe in his theories of love; he was the guy who had unknowingly helped me in getting over Nolan. Then remembering a simple statements that he had said that night; a statement that had few words but many meanings. Ashton was not a Parker. No wonder, he used to get so pissed when I used to address him as 'Ashton Parker' in the beginning of the assignment. For some reason, I didn't know that exactly which fact had me in a mess... or was it because of all the facts together.

It seemed like my eyes had a mind of their own and they always landed on Ashton wherever he was in this huge hall. It was official that I was going crazier with each passing second. I still couldn't wrap my head around the fact that Ashton was that guy. A few times our eyes met and I looked away focusing on anything but him. I couldn't help but stare at his handsome face again and again. He was exactly how I had described him that night - wow. Even my drunken self could make that out and that made me proud of myself. Way to go, drunken Liana! She was way more talanted and bold than the sober one.

There were times when Dylan said something and he smirked in a mocking manner. Suddenly, he scowled at Dylan. And that scowl was so scary that I could have peed in my pants if it would have been directed towards me. It seemed like Dylan was satisfied with his reaction as he patted his shoulder with a grin and passed a drink to him. Ashton took it with a frown etched on his face and looked deep in thought.

Without giving any thought to my actions, I fetched my phone from my purse and messaged him, 'Wow! That was one scary scowl. Well done!' That was one of my silly attempts of making Ashton feel okay.

I watched as he felt his phone vibrate in his pants pocket and took out his phone. With a frown he opened his phone but that frown slowly disappeared. His eyes flickered towards me and he smirked, making me blush at the way he looked at me with.

I felt my phone vibrate and I swiped the screen to read his reply. 'Wow! You pay way too much attention on me. Well done!'

That mockery and his words were enough for my blood to rush to my cheeks and I ducked my head so he couldn't catch my red cheeks. There was no use of messaging him anymore. He was nothing but an idiot.

If only he knew how much attention I actually paid to him...

My eyes wandered towards a waiter who was serving cheesecakes and just one piece of the cake was left on his tray. Some sweets could probably brighten up my spirit. I was about to pick up the last piece of the cheesecake from the tray, but a hand beat me at it. I looked up to see the brunette smiling as if she had just won a lottery. A smile made its way on my face when I saw her happy smile. She noticed me staring and looked towards me. Her eyes widened slightly, probably just realizing that both of us were pitching for the same piece of cake.

"It tastes horrible," she informed me.

"Oh-kay." I frowned.

"It tastes like shit. I don't want people in this party to suffer, so I'm throwing these out; one by one," she told me in a very serious voice.

My lips pressed in a thin line at the comparison of cheesecake with shit, and all I could manage to say was, "That's very considerate of you."

She beamed at me and chirped, "Thanks." She glanced back at the cake in her plate and then at me. She sighed. "Actually, it is amazing. Have it." She winked and passed the plate to me.

A light chuckle escaped my lips at her weird behavior as I took the plate from her. "Why did you say that it was horrible?" I took a bite of the cheesecake which was delicious and watched as her eyes followed the cake like a hunter's eyes follows his prey.

Her eyes snapped to me and she answered, "I am Kim. I love cheesecakes and I love being dramatic."

Laughter escaped my lips at her introduction and I concluded that I liked her instantly. I offered the cake to her, of which she took a bite with a huge smile on her face. "I am Liana." I introduced myself.

"You are God send," she said with her mouth full of cake. "You shared cheesecake with me." I laughed again and she grinned. "No, I'm God send. I shared a cheesecake with someone," she mumbled to herself in disbelief. "This is news!"

Laughing along with her, I told her, "I like you already."

"I am engaged... to a guy." My mouth gaped open at her implication and before I could clarify the misunderstanding, she started laughing. "I just told you that I love drama," she said between her laughs, making me chuckle and shake my head at her frank behavior. "So good to find someone normal in this party," she commented.

"You stole my words."

She smiled. "Here with somebody?"

My eyes wandered towards Ashton, who was involved in a conversation with Dylan. But for some reason, I decided to answer her vaguely, "I work for Priscilla."

"Cool." She nodded and after a second, she said, "Liana... Liana Moore? The Love Column?"

Her eyebrows were raised in curiosity. I cleared my throat and smiled, which felt more like a grimace, "Yeah." I was not in a mood to hear about how good I was at writing it.

She pressed her lips in a thin line and mumbled, "So cheesy." I heard her and laughter escaped my lips at her bluntness. I liked her even more for not liking my writing and saying it at my face. "I meant the cheesecake?" she offered the question as a peace offering but there was no need. There was already peace.

"Very cheesy." I nodded my head in agreement to her original meaning, making her smile. "Who are you here with?"

"Priscilla has signed me for an assignment." She shrugged. Before I could pry about the details of the assignment, she continued, "And I've tagged along with my fiancé, who very well knows how much I dislike going to such parties, but still he chose to bring me here."

Despite of the roll of eyes that accompanied her words, I could see that she loved her fiancé. It was obvious with the glow on her face, the happiness in her eyes and the smile on her lips. Did I use to look like this when I used to talk about Nolan four months ago? Did I look the same while talking about Ashton...?

"You know, there is a really hot hunk over there who has been staring at you," she said, bringing me out of my thoughts.

"Huh?" I turned towards the direction where she pointing to and my eyes landed on Ashton. True. He was staring at me. But when I caught him staring, he didn't remove his gaze. In fact, he flicked his eyes in Kim's direction and looked back at me, wiggling his eyebrows suggestively. Of course, he would find her hot. She was beautiful and her quirks were a plus point.

Rolling my eyes at him, I looked back at Kim and she said with a shake of her head, "The dude is sneaky. He was staring at you the entire time and when you caught him, he wiggled his eyebrows at me."

Ashton was staring at me? My mouth gaped open at her stupid observation and despite of my burning cheeks, I managed to tell her, "I think you're mistaken."

Snorting, she told me, "I'm not because no matter how hot he is, if he was wiggling his eyebrows at me, I would have gladly waxed them."

There was something in her voice that told me that she was not kidding and I didn't know whether to laugh at the image of eyebrow-less Ashton or be a little terrified of her. First it was his beard then his eyebrows. The day was not good for Ashton's hairs.

She probably noticed my skeptical look and shot me cheeky smile. "Kim. Dramatic. I told you that!"

Light chuckles left my lips and I nodded my head. The cheesecake had finished and she placed the plate on the nearby table. She came back to stand beside me and I mentally thanked her as I was not going to get bored. My eyes landed on a guy standing across the hall and my mouth gaped open.

He looked gorgeous from the distance in a tux with his brown hair brushed back. "Isn't that Keith-"

"Warren." Kim finished my question with an answer.

"-the famous footballer. He is hot," I continued. 'Not more than Ashton though,' I added mentally.

She waved her hand in dismissal despite of the smile on her face. "He is okay."

With a chuckle, I looked back in his direction and saw him talking to beautiful red head. The girl turned around and I watched as his eyes wandered to her butt. Then he looked at her when she turned around and shook his head while saying something.

"Typical men," Kim mumbled from beside me.

A gasp escaped my lips and I asked, "Isn't he engaged?"

"After what we just saw, I'd say 'not anymore'," she said, making me look at her with a frown. She was staring at him with raised eyebrows and a little smile. With raised eyebrows, I looked back towards Keith and saw him walking in our direction with a heart melting smile on his face and looking at Kim as if she was the only girl in this party. He shouldn't have been looking. He was engaged for God's sake! I loathed cheaters and I really didn't want to hate him. He was way too handsome.

Confused at what was happening and what she had just said I looked back at her to see that her little smile had been converted into a big one.

"Hello," he greeted me and my mouth gaped open as I lived a little fan moment. My lack of reaction probably didn't bother him as he looked back towards Kim. "What are you smiling at?" he asked her with a smirk.

"Huh? Oh nothing, I was thinking about Adam's ass," she replied with a dreamy look on her face and it didn't take even a second for the color to drain from Keith's face.

He rubbed his forehead, shook his head and mumbled in a defeated voice, "I have no idea why I mess with you."

"You are his fiancé?" I, shamelessly, interrupted them putting two and two together.

Keith smiled, looking at Kim with love and pride in his eyes.. "Yup"

Kim, on the other hand, snorted at the same time, "He wishes."

"Kim!" He rolled his eyes and looked down at her.

"Yup, that's the name you should have thought about when you were checking out her ass." She smiled an innocent smile at him and I pressed my lips together to stop the laughter that was threatening to erupt from my lips. It was surreal to see Keith Warren like this in front of his fiancé. The popular incident of his wedding being dramatically crashed by a girl had been all over the tabloids about a year ago. Later it was learnt that he had gotten engaged to the same girl - Kimberly Jones.

"Honey, I was not checking her out. She asked me to check if there was something on her dress. She turned, I saw and told her that there was nothing," he clarified, looking straight in her eyes telling the truth.

"No honey, there was something. And that something was her butt cheeks!"

This time, I couldn't stop the laughter that erupted from my lips. Keith rubbed the back of his head while Kim chuckled. "Sorry," I apologized. "You guys are really cute together," I complimented them whole-heartedly. 'And crazy,' I added mentally.

"It's perfectly okay, Liana. This is very normal." Kim winked and looking towards Keith with soft eyes. Keith must have seen something in her eyes that made him stare at her for a few seconds before leaning down for a quick kiss. My heart skipped a beat at how much in love they looked.

"Come with me. I have to show you something." My thoughts were interrupted by Ashton's voice and my head snapped towards him as he came to stand beside me.

"What?" I asked, coming out of my thoughts by blinking my eyes.

"The hunk said that he wants to show you something," Kim repeated on his behalf while wiggling her eyebrows like Ashton had done a few minutes back. She was clearly mocking him.

Ashton smirked at the suggestive tone Kim had used while Keith couldn't digest one word that she had used. "Hunk?" Keith asked her in disbelief.

"Liana's hunk, honey. Not mine. You are my hunk." She smiled at him making him roll his eyes at her cheesiness, even though his lips twitched up in a smile. I, on the other hand, shot daggers at Kim as Ashton stared at me with raised eyebrows. "He had been staring at her from across the hall since such a long time that it was starting to get really creepy," she told him as if it was nothing while Ashton's head snapped towards her with wide eyes and this time, it was my turn to look at him with raised eyebrows. She continued, "There is so much tension between them that it's not even funny." It was time for me to look in different direction altogether as if I hadn't heard even a word of everything she had just babbled and for Ashton to look at her dead panned.

"Kim, let it be. You're making them uncomfortable," Keith mumbled.

"Oops. Sorry," she mumbled, smiling slightly. "But don't take too long..." she drawled off making me more and more embarrassed. I didn't even dare to look towards Ashton. She was visibly satisfied with my reaction as she grinned.

The four of us got indulged in a chat. Keith was charming and in love with Kim, while Kim was fun to talk to. They were seriously crazy together and it was perfect that way. They complimented each other. Ashton, as expected, was not giving much input to the conversation. But he was not rude as well. In Ashton's code of actions that meant he was cool with you.

Keith and Kim were probably the second couple I had met in my life after William and Lily, my parents' old neighbors, who looked so happy and perfect together. Despite of their bickering, teasing each other to no ends and saying everything bluntly to the other, there was immense love in them. Even I, as a spectator, could see that and this made me slightly jealous.

Wasn't love supposed to be a painful lie? Wasn't it supposed to break hearts? Wasn't it supposed to be a useless emotion that only weak felt? Wasn't it supposed to be nothing but bullshit?

This happy couple was proving each and every theory taught to me by Ashton that night utterly wrong. And all I could think about was, 'Why can't I have all this?', as the truth was that I, too, wanted to be loved again. Involuntarily, my eyes went towards Ashton who was chuckling at whatever story Keith and Kim were telling us while I was busy in my thoughts.

This kind of love...

I was definitely going crazy.

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A/N

This was one hell of a lengthy chapter, seriously!!! Huff!

How was the SURPRISE? :D Kim & Keith... yayyy! :D To my readers who don't know who they are, don't get confused as they are the main characters of my other book - And We Meet Again.

I did post that I was missing them terribly and that was the night that I wrote the part of them meeting Ashton and Liana at the party. And what better than Kim's favorite cheesecakes, right? ;)

Hope you guys liked the chapter. Don't hate it please. Hahaha!

God bless you all!