Close As Strangers

Chapter 8

Once the brunette finished her lectures on Wednesday, she made her way to the lakes that were part of her university's campus where she had arranged to meet the man she knew as Adair. She sat on one of the benches overlooking the water, watching the ducks that swam on the calm surface as she waited. After a few minutes, she pulled her mp3 player out of her bag and put one of the headphones in, letting Daughtry play as she looked across the lake on the surprisingly warm February afternoon.

Before long, she removed one of the books she was reading for her project from her bag, hoping to stay productive until her friend turned up. She flipped through the pages slowly as she took the information in, not noticing as the time passed and people came and went, instead losing herself in the words both on the page and in her ear.

Before she realised, two hours had passed since she had arrived, leading her to sit straighter when she checked her watch and saw how long she had been there. She bit her lip and put her book down, debating whether or not to wait for a while longer or cut her losses and go home.

"Bethany," a voice interrupted her musings, causing her to look to her left and see Ashton standing beside the bench. "May I? What brings you here, love?" he added once she nodded for him to sit down.

"Hey, Ash," she murmured, closing her book after marking her page and pulling her headphones from her ear. "I was meant to be meeting someone, but he hasn't shown up. What are you doing here?"

"I've been stood up too," he replied, dropping his bag by his feet and looking at her as she returned her mp3 to her bag. "Whoever he is, he's an idiot for letting you down."

"It might not be his fault," she sighed, not wanting to believe that Adair had purposely left her waiting. "I should just go home; there's no point in staying here if he's not coming."

"Hey!" he protested, nudging her shoulder with his. "You don't want to hang out with me instead?"

"You have better things to do than entertain me," she told him, smiling half-heartedly.

"I really don't," said Ashton, putting an arm around her shoulders. "Unless you count essays, but we don't talk about those," he teased. "One day off won't kill you, love. You can even keep reading if you like."

"If you're sure," she relented, moving closer to him, partly so he didn't have to reach as far and partly to lean against something more comfortable than the wooden bench. She instinctively rested her head on his shoulder as she opened her book again.

"So who's the idiot that stood you up?" the drummer asked softly, having noticed the upset look on her face when he had walked over, moving his arm to her waist as she settled against him.

"Just a friend," sighed Bethany as she found her page and resumed reading, wishing that studying in his arms could be a regular thing. "We've been talking for a while, but we were going to meet for the first time today."

"You want me to beat him up for you?" he offered, hating to see her hurting.

"It's fine, Ash," she told him, her eyes following the words on the pages of her book. "Something must've come up. He's the one who suggested we meet and he seemed excited. What about your friend; what happened to them?"

"Let me know if you change your mind," replied Ashton with a smile, watching her as she studied happily in his arms. "She's a great girl," he continued, thinking about Aurelia. "Today was the first day we were going to meet face to face. It was my suggestion and she didn't seem sure, so I don't blame her for not showing up. I was hoping, but..."

"She's missing out," murmured the brunette, content in his arms. "You're a great friend, Ash; she'd be lucky to have you in her life. I know I am."

"I'm really nervous about meeting her," he admitted shyly a few minutes later, glad she couldn't see the insecurity in his face.

"Why's that?" questioned Bethany as she continued reading.

"I told myself if we ever met, I'd tell her I'm falling for her," he explained, too caught up in his thoughts to notice the woman in his arms tense and her breath catch in her throat. "Every time we talk, I fall a little more and I want to be the man who shows her that love isn't something to be scared of simply because one jerk broke her heart. I want to be the one who treats her right and makes her happy."

"So you're nervous about telling her, not meeting her," clarified the twenty two year old, staring at her book without seeing it.

"I suppose," he agreed, letting out a sigh. "Maybe I wouldn't be if she wasn't hung up on a friend of hers. I just want to tell her without having to worry about her saying no because of him. She deserves someone who can see her for the amazing woman she is."

"It's hard to give up on someone you love," she mumbled, leaning into him a little more and turning the page.

"I need the confidence to tell her first," said Ashton softly.

"A man can fly anywhere if he flies on the back of an eagle," she told him, losing herself in her book in an attempt to forget that he was in love with someone else, not noticing the way he froze at her words as they descended into silence.

As the brunette studied, the drummer couldn't help glancing down at her as things pieced themselves together in his mind, linking the girl in his arms to the one he had spent the past four months talking to. The more he thought about it, the more obvious it was.

Aurelia had briefly mentioned finding her ex-boyfriend sleeping with another girl, which was the same thing Bethany had choked out as she cried in his arms the night it had happened. Remembering how heartbroken she had been, Ashton couldn't help being glad that he and Michael had beaten him up, especially now he knew he had done it for Aurelia as well.

Her comments about her friend's cool looking boyfriend who was really a kitten were now obviously about Michael. Thinking about it further, he knew the three girls called Michael a kitten, who desperately hoped it was because he was a badass, though everyone else knew it was because he was anything but. How could he have missed that?

Even little things such as finding out that she liked Nickelback and Daughtry when Aurelia had told him the same thing, and her being in Sydney over summer made so much more sense now he knew they were the same girl. She had been right in front of him the whole time and he had been too blind to see her. All he had to do now was work out how to tell her.