Ash's Darling | ✔

Chapter 15

~Esther~

"I'm going to go to the bathroom real quick, I'll be right back." Ash told me as he got up from the couch. We had been sitting here talking to the guys for almost an hour and a half and I realized they were all really nice. Roy has more of a sense of humor than Ash but other than that everyone gets along really well and I'm starting to fit in their group.

As Ash leaves the room I see Kyle turn to me out of the corner of my eye. "Can I ask you something, Esther?" He seems oddly serious right now. While Ash was sitting here I talked to him a bit and he seemed fun and light so it seems weird that now he's suddenly serious.

I look at him questioningly before I answer. "Sure?"

"Did Ash do that to you?" He gestures at my face and I realized I forgot to cover my black eye back up before they came. The bruise is lighter now but it's still very noticeable, especially since the water from my shower had washed off more of the foundation. Even if I wanted to, I couldn't cover it back up though, I ran out of foundation earlier and I forgot to ask Ash to stop at a drugstore to grab some on our way to his house.

Before I could even open my mouth to answer, Seth, Roy, and Parker all snapped their heads in my direction, now looking at the bruise on my eye. Seth is the first one to speak up. "How the fuck did we not notice that before?"

"I swear to God if you say Ash did that I'm going to fucking kill him, I don't even care if I loose my job. I never thought he would put his hands on a woman." Roy spoke up.

"Novah's going to be fucking pissed, we all thought she raised him better than that." Parker seemed shocked at the thought of his friend, and boss, hitting me.

"Noavh?" I questioned, knowing I had heard the name before but not sure exactly where.

Parker nodded. "His mom."

I nodded back in understanding before quickly cut everyone off as they started to throw around more threats. "Enough! It wasn't Ash. It's a long story that I don't really want to get into right now but Ash would never lay a hand on me like that."

Ash walked back in before the rest of them could say anything else. "What is going on and why did you guys sound pissed?"

"They were asking about the bruise on my face and at first they all thought it was you who hit me." I explained to him.

"You really think I would fucking hit her?" He addressed the guys now. "I would never hit a woman, let alone my woman." Ash seemed pissed that they would even suggest such a thing.

"What else were we supposed to think? None of us saw it while you were at the building but we come over almost an hour later and she suddenly has a damn black eye." Seth pointed out.

Before they could continue arguing I put my hand on Ash's arm hoping to calm him down. "Ash, they were just trying to look out for me, okay?" I turn back to the guys in front of us as I continue. "You didn't see it when we were at Ash's building because I had it covered with foundation. The rain, mixed with the shower I took when we got here, washed some of the foundation off because it wasn't waterproof and I had a shitty brand of it. Ash didn't know about the bruise either until after he got back to his office earlier."

After a few minutes of me explaining they all seemed to calm down and accept the fact that it wasn't Ash who hit me. We were watching the intro to some marvel movie when Seth spoke again. "So who did actually hit you, Esther?"

I saw Ash looked at me out of the corner of my eye and I could tell he wanted to hear my answer too since I had refused to tell him earlier. "I'd rather not say. I haven't even told him yet." I explained gesturing at Ash.