Loving Him (Ashton Irwin a.u.)

Chapter 31

Since Peter's outburst at Aiden's party we hadn't spoken about it and he most certainly hadn't contacted Ashton. I was still meeting up with Ashton, but since he'd kissed me we weren't seeing each other as frequently as we had been before. It was awkward with him now, and we both knew it. I knew now that he wasn't over me, and if anything he actually wanted to get back together - right? He did want to get back together, didn't he? Or was it just a spur of the moment thing when he kissed me? That was probably it: why else would he kiss me? We had been apart for months now, and a guy like him should've had no problem moving on from a girl like me. So, no. No, he did not still love me or whatever. He was just caught up in the moment. And it's a good thing I wasn't because who knows where that kiss would've taken us if I hadn't stopped it. It was immature, and totally not me. I was with Peter now, and we were happy with each other, and a silly boy unable to control himself in a romantic moment wasn't going to change that.

Peter was a man. A tall, muscular, butch man with his life together. Sure, he occasionally bought things using the money his dad gave him when he was rich, but that was only when he was truly struggling himself. He was ambitious, and that sometimes meant he needed to borrow money. It wasn't a bad thing. If anything, I admired him for his resourcefulness.

And that's why, when Peter was away on a business trip with a woman helping him develop his ideas, I trusted him to get shit done. I sat down on my sofa, a blanket wrapped around my legs and a TV remote placed in my hand. Netflix was waiting for me when my phone buzzed on my thigh and I groaned with I-can't-be-arsed as I paused my movie and looked at my phone screen. It was Ashton.

From: Ashton

You home? I'm a couple of blocks away and I think Aid knows that because he's spent our whole walk telling me how much he misses you. Mind if we come over for a little bit? x

I groaned again. As much as I was happy to see Ashton, I really didn't know if I could be bothered to make conversation, especially when I had already started watching something. Knowing it would be good for me to be sociable, I texted him back.

To: Ashton

I'm home but hardly presentable so you'd better not expect anything aesthetically pleasing to greet you at the door

From: Ashton

I never do :P

To: Ashton

Sorry something just popped up. You can't come over.

From: Ashton

I'M SORRY MAISIE honestly i'm not but u love me so i'll be there in ten :)

I ignored him. Did I really go out with that man-child? Whatever - at least my tastes had matured since we broke up months ago. God knows how I would've been behaving at this point in my life if I was still dating someone as immature as him.

Except... He wasn't immature at all. He had a child. He was responsible for someone besides himself and there's no responsibility demanding more maturity than parenthood. He had a stable job he was good at and that he loved, he could afford daycare, he brought his son home every night and cooked them dinner himself. He did all the grocery shopping, the cleaning, the ironing, without a second thought. Because all he really cared about in the grand scheme of things was his son.

A few knocks on the door disturbed my pointless, irrelevant daze. I couldn't see anyone directly in front of the peephole, but when I opened the door I saw Aiden standing at the foot of it looking happily sideways to where Ashton was obviously hiding down the corridor.

"Aiden!" I squealed, picking him up by his underarms and pulling him up to my chest. "You came to visit! What a pleasant surprise! And without your dad as well?"