Aston’s POV
“Thanks mate,” I said, taking an envelope off of one of the guys who worked at our management’s office. “Lucky girl you’ve got there,” he winked.
“Yeah…” I sighed. I slipped the envelope into my coat and then headed out to run a few more errands. I was pretty chuffed that I’d managed to get the tickets Jess had asked for, and she was going to be shocked when she saw just how good they were. After a stop at Selfridge’s and another at Marks & Spencer I headed off to Jess’ to deliver the envelope and tell her what favor she had to do for me. My relationship with Jess was weird. I’d know her practically forever, and she’d always sort of been like a little sister to me. Her best friend was my best friend’s sister, and we’d all spent way too much time together growing up. I think it was when I was 16 that I realized I liked Jess. Like, like liked. I had way too much fun getting her worked up over nothing, and I loved to see her huff at me all embarrassed. I also loved that I was the only one who made her feel that way. It was probably pretty schoolboy of me, but I didn’t care. I rang the bell at her flat, Natalie letting me in. “Delivery for Jess,” I said, waving the envelope in her face. “She’s going to die,” Natalie said, “She’s down in her room.”
“Cheers!” I walked down the hall to Jess’ room. I’d been in this flat a million times, I knew where everything was practically like it was my own house. I knocked gently on Jess’ bedroom door, pushing my way in when I heard her voice faintly call out. “Hey,” I said, pushing the door shut behind me. “Oh hey,” Jess said. She was sat in the middle of her bed, piles of books around her and a pen in her hand. “Are you seriously revising?” I asked. “Yeah.”
“Babe, it’s the holidays now. You’re meant to relax!” “I know, but I’ve got a big project due after the New Year and I want to get a head start on it now before I’m in a drunken stupor for the next week.”
“Drunken stupor?” I grinned. “Christmas into New Year’s… you know how it is.”
“Yeah ok,” I said, “I brought you something?” She jumped off her bed and took the envelope I was holding out, her fingers opening it quickly. “Ast… what is this?”
“One Direction tickets. O2 Arena. Just like you asked.”
“I just asked for simple tickets, nothing fancy,” she said, “This is fancy.”
“It’s all there was,” I shrugged.
“You can’t tell me that the only tickets you could get were box seats.”
“Not just box seats,” Aston said, “They’re Meet & Greet too. Exclusive.”
“Ast!” “Listen, I got them to sort out a whole box for me, and I’m passing on a handful of the seats in MY box to your family.” “Still,” Jess said, “This is too much.”
“Just take them,” I grinned. “But…”
“You can come too.”
She rolled her eyes at me, slipping the tickets back into the envelope and setting it in the middle of her desk. I hated when she rolled her eyes at me, like she wasn’t taking me seriously. I wanted her to take me seriously but I didn’t know how to get her to. “So do you know what favor you want me to do?” she asked me lightly. Her back was to me, but I could tell she was cringing slightly. “Yup!” I replied. Really I just wanted her to kiss me again, but I knew that was asking way to much.
“Go on,” she said, turning back to look at me.
“I’m invited to a holiday party tomorrow night and I want you to come.”
“Why so you can embarrass me?” she asked. “No, I just want you to come,” I shrugged, my brow furrowed. Is that really what she thought of me? “As my date.” “I thought I told you I’d never go on a date with you again,” she said.
“But you owe me a favor. Please?” “Aston,” Jess sighed, “I’m not going to relive our Nando’s debacle of two years ago.” She was referring to the one time I’d managed to get her to go on a date with me. I’d been so nervous I’d failed to make dinner reservations and we’d ended up at Nando’s. It was a total disaster.
“You won’t,” I said.
“So you aren’t going to make me pay for our meals?” she smirked, “You aren’t going to ignore me the entire night so you can talk to fans?” “Jess…”
“Just saying, it was awful. Worst date of my life. By far.”
“Ouch,” I said. “Yeah,” Jess replied, “So you’ll promise that you won’t do anything to make me feel like an idiot?” “I never do that.”
“You do it all the time,” Jess said, climbing onto the middle of her bed and taking a deep breath. “Actually, I’ve been meaning to ask… Why do you tease me so much?” I balked at her question, not sure what to say. It was obviously she didn’t have the same feelings as I did, and I didn’t really want her to know. After the Nando’s debacle I’d vowed to keep my feelings a secret… but maybe it was time she knew?
