All We Thought // Ashton Irwin [AU]

Chapter 2: Nothing More

I eventually composed myself and introduced myself, "Hi, I'm Roxie Winslet.  It's a pleasure to meet you.  I'll be your mentor for the next couple months."  

"Sweet!"  he yelled, a little too loudly.  A few patients lifted their heads from their magazines to glare at the source of the noise.  He held his hand up for a high five.  I hesitated for a second before touching his hand to mine, following along with his childish ways.  

The next few months were going to be long.  

I asked him to follow me into my office, he had to sign some waivers and paperwork.  He sat across from me, and as I sifted through the papers on my desk I decided to find out more about him, considering we would be spending a lot of time together.  

"So, tell me a little bit about yourself."  I said, as I marked all the places on the contract that he had to sign.

"Sure let's see, I use to live in Australia but then me and all my mates moved here not too long ago.  We all use to be in a band together, but you can only be a rock star for so long.  We still perform but we wanted to experience some of the normal life for awhile, so we all went to university and then wanted to experience the states more so we moved here."  he said.  

He looked over on my desk seeing all the photos I had in colorful frames, "Is that your boyfriend?"  he asked, adjusting the thick black framed glasses he put on so he could read the contract.

"No, that's my brother when we went to St. Thomas with the family last year on vacation."  

He continued to read the contract, signing at all the X's and asked, "So what's your deal?  Family?  Kids?  Hobbies?"  

I laughed, he was being so nonchalant about everything, it was so different from all the professionals I dealt with all day.  I really hope he became serious once we stepped into the lab, I'm not sure how long I could tolerate his childish ways.  

 "I definitely do not have kids, I'm newly engaged.  I have an older brother and I live with my mom and dad."  I stated, taking the clipboard from him.  

He scrunched his face in disapproval, "How come you don't live with your fiance?"  

I didn't want to openly admit that my mom refused to let me move out till me and Evan were officially married.  She thought that it was inappropriate to live with a man, unless you were married.  

Yet another one of my mother's stone age opinions.  

I thought about moving out without her permission many times, but it just so happened that her and Evan's mom were extremely close and shared the same views.  It didn't help the situation that Evan was a tad of a momma's boy so he would never go against her word.  

I flipped through the paperwork, double checking everything and avoiding his gaze, "Well, you know we are newly engaged and don't want to rush anything."  

He stuck his glasses into his blazer pocket, "How long have you guys been engaged?"  

Damn this kid asked a lot of questions, "Um about a year."

He scuffed, "Are you kidding?  You guys should have already been living together, married, and having sex.  Geeze, what's he waiting for.  I bet his mom is a control freak, that's he hasn't asked you to move in with him."  

I could feel my cheeks turn a shade of red.  He clearly was a lot smarter then he looked.  

I was so flustered from his comment, me and Evan had never had sex.  We had hot make out sessions, but that was as far as things ever went.  

I cleared my throat and said, "We, um, we just have high moral values that's all."

He raised his eyebrow and said, "Mhmmm moral values.  You stick to that story."  

I was growing slightly annoyed with how much guts he had.  It was his first freaking day!  I stayed calm, brushing off his comments and standing up from my desk.  I was better than this.  

"Okay Ashton, you can follow me, I'll show you around the lab and the offices and give you your assignments."  

He followed me at my heels, looking excitedly at everything as I gave him the tour, pointing at things and asking a ton of questions.  The last stop was to give him his own office.  It was smaller than all the other offices, but he would need a space to keep all his paperwork and a computer to input data each day.  

"This is the last stop on our tour.  This will be your personal office for the time that you're here.  It's pretty empty so feel free to decorate how you like."  I pulled the keys from my lab coat pocket and unlocked the door.  

"Oh this is pretty sweet.  It needs a touch of Ash though, these white walls won't work."  he said, surveying the room.

I decided to let him have his moment, "Alright Ashton I'll let you get settled in.  When you're done come meet me down in the lab."  I handed him the spare set of keys for his office and turned around, "Oh and Roxie?" he called.

When I turned around to face him, a smirk slowly formed on his face as he said, "Unless you start calling me Ash, I'm going to start calling you Roxanne."  

Ugh the nerve of this kid to threaten me, I could terminate his internship in a second, but I really did need this intern to impress my boss.  

I hated being called Roxanne though, it reminded me too much of my mother.  Work was the only escape I had from her and I wasn't allowing that wall to be broken.  

Even my relationship with Evan was all because of my mom.  I had met Evan through one of my mom's book club friends.  

The first time Evan's mom, Anna, met me, she praised me on how beautiful and sophisticated I was.  She told me she would set me up with her son, because we would be the perfect match.  Naturally I declined politely, I didn't really need to be set up on a date, but she insisted.  Evan ended up coming with her to my mom's next book reading and Anna introduced us.  

Small talk, lead to a date, which lead to many more dates, and the rest is history. 

"Okay, from now on I will call you Ash, and I expect the same respect from you to call me Roxie."  I stated.  

He nodded his head, "You got it.  I have a feeling that we're going to become close friends."  I smiled as I walked out of the office.  

I think that was the one thing that Ashton was dead wrong about, our relationship was nothing more than a work relationship and that would never change.