he'll never be the one (a.i)

people from a past life

• C H A P T E R • T W O •

"Why are we always hosting these things?" Noa asks through a groan as she talks to her roommate Alice on the phone. Noa has been looking between two nearly identical tomatoes for the past two minutes; she can't quite decide which one looks better. She's half tempted to place them both in the bag she had ripped from the roll but the thought of having an extra tomato only stresses her out.

"Because three of the five of us live together," Alice reminds her friend only to be responded to with a huff. "I'm sorry for throwing this on you at the last second. I wish I could at least be there with you. I'll try my best to be your assistant chef though," Alice's words cause Noa to laugh; they both know that Noa is a terror to be around whenever she's in charge in the kitchen. She works best alone; she always had. After deciding on a tomato, Noa slips the red fruit into the bag and places it in her buggy. Noa scans the extended produce section while thinking about what else she might need. As her eyes reach the banana display across the room from her, they slowly travel up to look at a guy who's standing just beside the display.

"We've got a very nice-looking man in aisle 5," Noa jokingly makes up a bogus aisle number as she whispers into the phone to her friend. As the guy turns around, however, Noa gasps and sharply turns away as a panic sets in. "Holy shit."

"What?" Alice asks in a mirrored panic. Noa's hardly the type of person to freak out over little things, so Alice instantly feels unsettled. Noa struggles to give her roommate an answer as she instead tries to stealthily leave the area. "Noa?!"

"A guy I used to hook up with from college is in here," Noa whispers. It takes everything in her to not physically duck and wait for him to leave the premises. Noa cannot believe her luck.

"No way. Who?" Alice asks.

"Just some guy," Noa answers in a rush as she sneaks a peek over her shoulder. She finds that the guy has faded from view and she lets out a relieved sigh. "I think I'm in the clear."

"Noa?" A shriek leaves Noa's lips as she physically jumps in surprise. Her eyes squeeze shut as she tries to compose herself. She rushes to tell her roommate that she'll call her later before turning to look at the guy she has failed to avoid.

"Ashton!" she exclaims in half-genuine surprise and excitement. It's not that Noa's unhappy to see the boy in front of her; she mostly just can't believe that he's suddenly in her town, and seeing her in her current state. It was laundry day and she had never planned to be the one out and about shopping for groceries; Alice was stuck taking someone else's shift for the afternoon, so Noa had to step up to the plate. Her hair's an unshowered mess and she's wearing her house shoes. Aware of how bad she looks, she even traveled an extra ten minutes just to go to the supermarket that wasn't her usual go-to; she had done everything in her power to avoid seeing someone she might know.

But then comes Ashton. Who, admittedly, is the absolute last person she could have expected to run into.

To Noa's surprise, Ashton steps forward and wraps his arms around her. Though she had expected this to be an embarrassing encounter, Ashton seems determined to make sure that isn't the case. As they hug, a genuine smile reaches Noa's face.

"It is so good to see you. Holy shit," Ashton beams as he hugs her tight. His face is lit up with happiness as he pulls away from her.

"It's good to see you, too. It's a surprise, but a good one." Noa stares up at the honey brunette in awe as she tries to wrap her head around how this is happening. "What the hell are you even doing here?" she asks Ashton as she tries to subtly fix her appearance; she has, for a moment, forgotten what she looks like. But it's suddenly on the forefront of her mind again. She's appreciative that Ashton isn't making any comments about how rough she looks but she still feels insecure knowing that he's seeing her in such a state.

Though the more she thinks about it, he has definitely seen her looking much worse.

"I actually moved here—just over a month ago," Ashton informs her. Her eyes widen slightly at his words. Although his living in town makes more sense than him just happening to be passing through, she can't quite believe that he had been in her area for a month.

"No way," she says. "What were the odds that we'd end up back in the same place after all this time?"

"That's what I'm here thinking," he says with a charming laugh. "Well, you know Jordan lives around here now? And I think Luke's actually looking at places around here in hopes to move." Ashton begins to bring up people that they had both been friends with in college and Noa slowly nods her head.

"Yeah, yeah. I guess I did know Jordan was living around here," Noa tells him. "God, I haven't thought about Luke in ages," she says through a laugh. To be honest, Noa hasn't thought about almost any of the mutual friends they once had. She's only really close with one of her friends from college at the ripe age of twenty-four. She's the type to send out a heart-felt Happy birthday! message to the people she used to be close to, but she hasn't made plans or seen most of her college friends since graduation.

Noa and Ashton find themselves in comfortable silence and, after realizing that neither could think of what to say next, they let out breathy laughs. There's so much left to talk about but it seems so meaningless to have such a catch-up in the middle of the Hannaford they're occupying.

Ashton suddenly peers down at Noa's cart and raises a brow before speaking: "You a chef these days, Peters?"

"Only on the weekends," she says through an embarrassed laugh. "Uh, my friends are having our big monthly dinner party tonight. Usually, my roommate does the shopping and I do the cooking, but... she's working."

"She?" Ashton asks with a sense of surprise. "Did you switch lanes?"

"I said roommate, Ashton," Noa says through a cheap laugh.

"I thought maybe you were trying to let me down easy," he jokes. Noa's eyes playfully roll; his sense of humor is enough to bring her back to all the time they had spent together in college. A plethora of memories begin to swarm her mind. "I don't want to keep you, but I'd love to see you again sometime. Why be strangers, yeah?"

"Yeah," Noa says with a nod and a smile. But on the inside, of course, she's thinking about how they'd likely never see each other again. This is just what you say when you run into people from a past life. "It was really good to see you."

"You too," Ashton tells her before giving Noa one last hug. Noa can't help but think how comically comforting it is to be in such a familiar pair of arms. After pulling away, the closer-than-strangers personalities go their separate ways. Noa visits one last aisle before heading to the checkout. Her mind is flooded with Ashton and she can't help but laugh to herself as she thinks back on certain events from their past.

As Noa waits next in line, her phone vibrates from her back pocket. She pulls the slim device from its makeshift home and looks down at the screen. As she reads the text, she lets out a scoff.

Ashton (Irwin)

3:46 PM
Friday, September 23

Just so you know

If you had gone around looking
that ravishingly sexy in college,
wearing your bedhead and slippers,
I woulda never let go

It was good seeing you Noa 😎

Noa laughs and shakes her head. What a smartass.

a/n:

hi

i know only a couple of u are interested in this bad boy

but guys i'm so obsessed w writing this story

there may or may not be smut coming in the next chapter so uh

prepare yourself ig??

love u mwah

<3

j