The Switch [COMPLETED]

Chapter 42

Asher Halen:

I was nervous as I ducked through the doorway of the swanky New York hotel, but the nerves had nothing to do with the swarm of fans crowding the entryway or the fact that my first ever solo concert was tonight. No, it had to do with the fact that I was currently in the same city as Paisley Monroe after two whole years.

Not once over the past two years had I ever stopped thinking about her. I would replay our goodbye in my head over and over, berating myself for my lack of courage and wondering where we would be now if I had only been honest - if I had only told her that I wanted her to stay - that I was insanely in love with her.

I wondered about her often. Did she still look the same? Was her hair still as long? Were her eyes still as bright as I remembered? Did she remember me? Did she WANT to?

Another thought often entered my mind as well, one that I tried hard to push into the back of my mind and keep there where it couldn't come up and bother me: had she moved on? Was she seeing someone else?

I would hear vague whispers of her name every so often. You don't just date an A-list celebrity without your name being thrown around a bit, even after the relationship is over. Over time, however, her name stopped being synonymous with "Asher Halen's ex" and took on a new tone: Paisley Monroe, one of the youngest authors to ever be on the New York Times best seller's list.

People, especially teen girls, were buzzing about her book everywhere I went. They talked about how they hoped she would turn it into a series. They talked about the characters, Hayden and Mallory; their strengths and their weaknesses. What peaked my interest the most, though, is when they talked about the ending.

"Ugh, isn't it just SO romantic?" I overheard a girl telling her friend at a coffee shop a few hours ago. I was sitting in the corner wearing a pair of reading glasses and a baseball cap pulled down low over my face, reading a book. If anyone had recognized me so far, they hadn't said anything.

"SO romantic," her friend gushed. "Hayden is, like, the perfect boyfriend. I'm so glad they ended up together in the end. Do you think Paisley Monroe based his character off of Asher Halen at all? I mean, they DID date."

My ears perked up a bit, and I strained to listen to their conversation without being too obvious.

The first girl pursed her lips and looked up to the ceiling with a thoughtful expression.

"Maybe," she finally answered. "But I kinda doubt it. It seems like things ended pretty suddenly between Asher and Paisley. Hayden would never do that. He's just so..."

"Passionate?" her friend finished for her.

"YES! Passionate. You can just tell how much he loves Mallory, and how much she loves him in return. I don't think those kind of feelings exist in real life, to be honest. Even if you ARE dating Asher Halen."

It was at that moment that they noticed me staring at them, and I quickly buried my head back in my book as they exchanged nervous glances and scurried out of the coffee shop, looking over their shoulders as if they were afraid I was going to chase them out.

Well, at least now I knew that my disguise was effective, even if it did apparently make me look like a coffee house creeper.

My mind quickly turned away from my appearance and back to the girls' conversation. Was Paisley's book really about us? Was I supposed to be Hayden? Was she supposed to be Mallory? If the CHARACTERS were in love, then did that mean...?

I was sharply pulled back to reality by the loud ring of my cell phone. A few middle-aged women at a table nearby looked up at me sharply, irritated by the interruption to their conversation, and I dug around in my pocket as fast as I could to stop the noise. I pressed the green answer button without even looking at who was calling, effectively silencing the ringer.