Half Hearted

Chapter Nineteen

| Ash |

His eyes couldn't be lifted from his phone screen. Randall stayed true to his word. He was as fast as lightning when being the source.

Pictures of Ash and Teresa were already going viral all over social media. The one in front of the building barely came up, since Teresa's face was covered, but the one at the set outside was being retweeted multiple times. The hashtag even rose with popularity on Instagram.

Peter walked by him, only a towel covering his gentle areas. He saw what Ash was staring at, and then gave a whistle, "wow. Whose idea was it to do that? Even I didn't know you two were capable of being that close together without wanting to rip each other's heads off."

Ash rolled his eyes at him. "It was just for the cameras."

"Yeah, I know that. I just thought you two would keep it at the low-level kind of PDA - just holding hands or something. This is great!"

Scrolling past the hateful comments of his fans, he finally saw a question worth answering - containing no hate whatsoever.

The tweet read, 'Why don't you follow her yet? We already know what she looks like.'

Ash thought up of a good response, then replied back to the tweet, 'she's still not ready to make herself known. But I'll change her mind.'

He thought of Teresa, knowing she wasn't the biggest fan of social media. He never saw her on her phone, and that made her just a little bit more original.

He was still dazed, staring at the wall in front of him, when Peter took the phone from his hands. After fumbling his fingers, Peter threw Ash back his phone. "What did you do?"

"I figured you'd need her number," Peter answered, grinning wildly. "She is your girlfriend and also your personal assistant now."

He stared down at the new contact on his phone, having already memorized the number beforehand.

My personal assistant, he thought. What to do with a personal assistant?

"You should ask her to run an errand for you, at least," Peter spoke as if having read Ash's mind. "She keeps telling me she's getting paid for doing absolutely nothing. Me telling her that she's great publicity doesn't seem to make her any less uncomfortable."

Nodding, Ash pressed the 'call' button on his phone, and soon enough she picked up. "Hello?"

"Don't you have lessons at this time?"

"Who is this?" She asked. He heard her fumbling with the phone. She must've been trying to find out whose number it belonged to.

"It's Ash," he replied.

"How did you-" she was about to ask, but then remembered about Peter. "Anyways, our professor gave us an hour off to study since our test's in a week. Why'd you call?"

It was a great question - why did he call?

"I-I need you to do my laundry," he sputtered out. Ash wanted to slap himself. Do your laundry? What are you? The director of a porno movie?

"Can't you do that on your own?" She asked, slightly annoyed at his request.

"I'm in the middle of something," he lied, frenzied and staring at the bed he was lying down on.

Giving an exaggerated sigh, Teresa agreed. "Alright. Where's your hotel?"

So Ash gave her his address, and when he hung up, Peter interrupted his panicked thoughts. "So what were you in the middle of?"

"Shut up," Ash couldn't find a reason to defend himself.

"Just be sure to find a good reason to cover yourself up," the man with the beard teased, still lying down on the bed.

It was two in the afternoon and they'd already eaten lunch, but since it was Saturday, and there were no bookings, the two of them wanted to settle down for the day. That was the plan, until Ash began frantically looking around for something to 'busy' himself with.

After a minute or so of seeing the boy ransack the place through his peripheral vision, Peter gave a suggestion. "How about just pretend you've been taking a bath the whole time?"

"Sounds fair enough," he nodded, and then thought of something else. "But what about you?"

"I've got a date with Maud's soon anyways. I'll catch you two later," Peter smiled, taking a look at the clock and seeing that he had about two hours left until he would meet up with Maudie.

Just give them as much time alone as humanely possible, he thought to himself - still convinced that he would be the ultimate match maker.

Peter left the hotel at the same time Ash prepared his bath. But then he remembered that Teresa would have no way of getting inside the room whatsoever. He quickly went to the receptionist and gave them specific instructions. The two ladies nodded, trying to memorize the picture of Teresa, and then Peter went on his way.

Meanwhile, Ash couldn't bare the thought of being alone with Teresa.

His heart was going insane.

| Teresa |

I got to their hotel about half an hour later, taking a look at how high the skyscraper was. I huffed, shoving my hands into my pockets, and headed inside. Referring back to the room and floor he gave me, I was about to head to the elevator, but a lady behind the receptionist desk called out to me.

Raising my eyebrows, I walked towards her. "Hi..?"

"Would you by any chance be Miss Teresa?" She asked, trying hard to recall my name. I nodded, wondering if I knew her. The lady - with the name tag written Anna on it - handed me a card. I saw that it had Ash's room number written on it. I thanked her and went on my way.

After taking the elevator, I found his room soon enough and unlocked it with a swift motion. Looking around, no one was present. It was a nice room - a king suite, if that was what they called it. I hadn't been to hotels much, but I'd always seen them in advertisements and brochures.

Around me, piles of dirty clothing were found everywhere, and I mentally prepared myself for the worst. These were boys' clothes. I hadn't handled any laundry of the opposite sex other than my dad's.

Trying not to think about it, I grabbed the nearest empty bag and started filling it up with their clothes. I could tell that some of it was Peter's - as the sweat stains were much more visible.

After I finished cleaning up their bedroom area, I headed to the kitchen and saw that all was clean, so I went to the other rooms.

The last room, found all the way at the end of the hall, had its door closed. I didn't think much of it. I thought everyone had gone from the hotel, and that was why it was so quiet.

But I opened the door - which had no effort made to have been locked - and immediately regretted not knocking.

Ash was taking a bath, and he was very exposed.