Love Is...

29. A Choice

CHAPTER – 29

LOVE IS... A CHOICE

'He loved her, of course, but better than that, he chose her, day after day. Choice: that was the thing.'- Sherman Alexie

Saving Ashton from Dad's deadly gaze was easier said than done. Add to that, it looked like my parents had gone through every possible website upon searching the words 'Negative effects of drugs' on Google the night before and were keen on making me understand each and every point in grave detail in Ashton's presence, who looked nothing but amused with his lips pressed tightly in a thin line. I was getting really late for my meeting with Priscilla. I had already repeated that almost twenty times, but they still thought that pointing out the many negative effects of taking drugs was a lot more important than my job.

After what seemed like an entire day, but was an entire hour, I managed to convince them that I was anti-drugs and they let me leave for office.

Just as I was about to rush out of my apartment in haste, Ashton called out from inside, "I'll drop you!" His voice sounded hastier than mine, courtesy – Dad's deadly gaze fixed on him.

"Oh, thanks," I replied while adjusting the strap of laptop handbag on my shoulder and glancing back at him with a grateful smile. My eyes fell on Dad, who was looking at Ashton's retreating back with narrowed eyes. "Dad," I called out, doing my bit in saving Ashton. His eyes snapped towards me and I shot an innocent smile in his direction. "Bye!" Not giving a chance for him to reply, I shut the door once both of us were outside my apartment.

Ashton relaxed visibly and let out a breath of relief which made me laugh at him. He rolled his eyes at me and asked, "Do you have any idea what exactly happened in the last one hour?"

"Of course!" I exclaimed, going down the stairs with him beside me. "I just got lectured as if I'm the drug mafia or I'm the one who is responsible for all the drug dealings in the country."

"No, Liana. You're wrong here," he informed me and I shot an incredulous look in his direction. "I got killed about a hundred times, attended my own funerals, funerals – pay attention to the 's' as in plural, and came back from the dead all hundred times, like the freaking Undertaker." Laughter escaped my lips at his description while he shuddered at the memory.

"Undertaker had seven lives, Ashton. Not hundred." I corrected the childhood joke in between my laughter.

Snorting, he jumped the last stair and said, "Lucky him. He was not at the receiving end of your father's deadly gaze." My laughter doubled at that, while he continued, "If it would have been Undertaker, he would have chosen to stay in the grave the first time itself."

"Oh please. He is the Undertaker. He would have handled the situation better than you." I snorted and followed him as he led the way towards his car that was parked in the neighborhood.

He snickered at my sentence and said in a highly smug tone, "Yes, Liana, he is the Undertaker, but why do you forget that I'm the beast?" He unlocked the car and got inside in the driver's seat.

There was his stupid 'beast' joke again. My lips cracked up in a smile, but I hid it before he could see my expressions. "Maybe because you're not?" I offered with a sweet, innocent smile as I sat down on the passenger seat.

He raised his eyebrows at me and said, "Then maybe you can walk your way to your current destination."

"Ashton!" I whined, looking at him with wide eyes. "Stop it. You, yourself, offered that you'd drop me. Be a man of your words."