The Butterfly Effect

Chapter 31

Sunday

Sitting alone on a bench at Central Park on Sunday morning, Ashley's eyes were swollen from bawling her eyes out most nights in the past week. After that night with Joey, she couldn't help but feel stupid for being so drunk and reckless. But, then again, the deepest part of her heart might have wanted that night to happen, except how it had turned out wasn't supposed to be like this. However, how could she expect him to pathetically catch feelings after just one night sleeping together like she had?

The idea of not talking to Joey was killing her had never occurred to Ashley until they literally hadn't been speaking a single word to each other for over a week. Her tears were dry because of him. She just missed him so much. She would rather have an argument with him every day than not talk to him at all. She wished things would go back the way it used to be.

The sound of footsteps approaching made her look over, a familiar guy's figure walking toward her.

"Thanks for meeting me here," Harley said in his deep, husky voice, falling in next to her on the bench.

"Sure."

An hour ago, Ashley had received a text from him asking her if she could meet him at the park in an hour. Curiosity and agitation grew inside her since she didn't know what he wanted to say which sounded very important that he couldn't just knock on her door and ask. The weirder thing was he had told her not to tell Jessica about this.

"Here," Harley handed her a cup of hot drink, "I picked up a cup of coffee for you on my way here."

"Oh, thanks," she smiled. "That's very thoughtful of you."

Adorable dimples formed as he smiled back at her. "How are you today, Ash?"

Ashley sighed heavily. "I've been better."

"What happened with you?"

Her brows furrowed. It was a bizarre question for someone who had asked to meet up first. "Do you know something?"

"Know what?"

"I don't know. You tell me."

Harley slurped his coffee then cleared his throat. "Did something happen between you and Joey recently?"

How does he know about this? Did Jessica tell him? Wait... Does Joey know that they know? What are they up to? Ashley questioned herself.

Holding her breath, she tilted her head down. "No," she lied.

"I could sense something was off between you two in the hall a couple days ago."

"Really?" she said in a pitch higher than she had intended, pretending to laugh to deceive him. "I didn't sense anything. Don't worry, nothing's wrong between me and Joey."

Even just saying Joey's name caused her to fight back tears. And from the keen way Harley looked her in the eyes, she was aware that he noticed it. "Ash..."

His stare was so intimidating that somehow she knew he knew she was lying. She averted her eyes from him, not knowing where to start.

"I saw your boots in our living room last week," he added.

She gasped. "You didn't!"

"Yes, I did."

"Did Jessica tell you about this?"

He lifted his eyebrows. "She knows?"

Running her hands down her face in frustration, Ashley took a deep breath and groaned. She gulped her coffee to contain her uneasiness. One way or another had she known Jessica and Harley would discover about this eventually, but she didn't think it would be this soon. When Jessica had asked Ashley the same thing a few days ago, it also surprised her how her best friend was fully aware that something unusual had happened between her and Joey. She just hadn't realized she was being so obvious.