Asher (Completed)

Winter

Alistair's POV 


I still could not wrap my head around Winter being Elaine and from the way Ian was staring at her in shock, he was definitely just as shocked. 

Ian finally broke the silence “You know her?”, I nodded my head slowly breaking out of the shock I felt to give him an actual reply “Yeah, She, Ash and I actually go way back. She’s actually Raine’s aunt”

Ian looked back over at Win- Elaine, with widened eyes “Raine, like Asher’s raine?”, I slowly nodded my head again.

Elaine, finally settled back into her seat which was next to Ian and close to Layanne’s, who also seemed to be in shock, though there seemed to be a mix of disdain in that expression which confused me. 

I decided to focus on one issue at a time, starting with the biggest “Winter first of all, how in the world is your name Elaine? And how did you know Ian? Did you know he was working with Ash and I?”

Winter, assessed me with her eyes with the same cold poise and attitude I remembered from our few encounters all those years back, as she replied me she seemed to be carefully picking at her words

“Well, I knew Ian from time at cambridge university, during which I decided to go by my middle name Elaine;

That’s the name Ian knew me by, we were always good friends, but not as close as either of us would have liked due to being in two different friend groups, the sort of groups that didn’t really go well together.

Then life and our career choices caused us to drift further apart, but because of how high profile Ian and his work is, I often saw him on TV, though I didn’t have any personal social media accounts or really followed much of that sort of news.

After a while of that, I couldn’t really get him out of my head, so I finally gave in, got an instagram account, searched him up and followed him. From there I chatted him up and we reconnected.

I did remember he told me he was working and travelling with an artist, but he simply said he was young, talented and his name was Asher. I didn’t connect the dots, there were so many Asher’s out there, and if I’m being frank I guess I wasn’t really looking out for him or from anyone really from Raine’s past, I moved back to cambridge to get away from the reminder of it all, you know…”

I released a low sigh at her words, remembering that  Ash had done the same thing. 

She gave me a cool gaze in response to my sighed interruption as she went on “Sometime after, we decided to just take a break before it all went too far because of both our equally hectic schedules, so we stopped talking. Then two weeks ago he texted me out of the blue and in the middle of the night, said he just needed someone to talk to, and proceeded to tell me he thought he’d really screwed things up with the artist he was working with.

During the conversation, he finally let Asher’s full name slip, and it especially clicked that it really could be him when he also brought up your name Alistair and Raine’s when talking about the new book deal he may have royally screwed up with his carelessness.

When I realized it really was you two, I decided I had to surprise you both, I really am sorry if you feel deceived by this Ian but I told no lies, I truly am a big fan of Asher’s, Alistair’s too; these boys have always had so much talent in them”. 

I scoffed internally, I’m not sure Winter was a fan of anyone other than herself with Raine being the very limited exception.

Just from the way she stated she was a fan of Asher’s, the way she carefully picked her words and seemed to be the only one at this table not caught by surprise by this situation made me think she was definitely up to something. 

I wasn’t saying Winter was a bad person, she could be nice especially with Raine but when she wanted to be an evil, cold, conniving bitch, she could be. 

I remember when she’d arranged with an agent to list Phoenix and Raine’s home as a property for sale, just to get them to move back to california which she believed was the better option for them; she did everything to get it sold and when the “new owners” showed up, phoenix almost had to get into a legal battle, but after some calm explanations, a very embarrassed agent and their full refund, they left it as a simple misunderstanding.