Until the Stars Fade

Chapter 41

Asher and I are both busy working, so not much has changed between us since our weekend in St. Augustine, other than he tells me he loves me every chance he gets. He's planning another weekend visit around Valentine's Day and we settled on a long weekend in March for me to fly there and visit him.

In between visits, we continue our texting, calls and FaceTime. It's like I'm living two separate lives, my life in Jacksonville where I work, go to class and hang out with my friends. And my life with Asher that exists almost solely in my phone. We haven't talked about how a relationship between us is going to work, acting as if everything happening is normal.

My internship is going fantastic and the firm's partners all loved my design ideas for their branding. They asked for a few tweaks and I've presented the final project which they approved. Now they are in the process of printing marketing materials with my designs. This is an amazing opportunity for me and a huge item I can put in my portfolio and on my resume. Andie has even started bringing me in on her client meetings so I can learn those aspects of the business too.

Jake has already secured a job after graduation and Henry has enrolled in law school in the fall, so they are looking to buy a house in the area. I've tagged along to a lot of their showings so we can talk design because they have promised to provide me a blank slate to work with once they settle on a house. There won't be much money to spend, but it will be a lot of fun for all of us, and I'm thrilled they are staying in the city. I'm hoping Five Points Design wants to hire me permanently after graduation but I'm keeping my eyes open for any other potential opportunities.

When March finally rolls around, I'm counting down the days until I see Asher again. It's been over a month since he was here for Valentine's Day where we spent the weekend locked in my apartment, not even leaving for food and just having it delivered. It was a blissful escape from reality.

I've never flown first class, so I enjoy all the perks on my cross-country flight. After I land and get my bag, I walk outside and scan the many people holding signs waiting to collect their passengers. I finally spot a guy holding a sign with my name on it and walk over.

"Hi, I'm Kinsley," I tell him.

"Ah, Ms. Davis, lovely to meet you. I hope your flight was uneventful. I'm James," he introduces himself as he opens the back door to the Town Car. I slide in and am surprised when I find Asher already in the backseat.

"What are you doing here? You said you had to work today?" I ask as I throw myself in his arms. He looks so good with his dark hair a little longer than normal and a few days' growth on his face. He holds my face in his hands and kisses me softly.

"I already worked this morning and we finished earlier than expected, so I had James pick me up on the way. Welcome to the City of Angels Kins! I'm so glad you're finally here, I missed you so much."

Today's Thursday and I don't fly home until late Sunday. I'll be overly tired at work on Monday, but I didn't want to take too much time off and Asher had to work anyway.

James drives us to Asher's house and tells Asher to call him if we need anything. Asher explained that he met James the first time he came to California, the studio had arranged for a driver and he and Asher bonded. So now Asher calls him whenever he goes to an event or flies out of town. James was quite happy to meet me as apparently Asher had talked a lot about me over the past months and he had more frequent trips to the airport.

I'm surprised to find that Asher's house is not in a gated community but just in a cute, suburban neighborhood, much like the ones in Jacksonville.

"Ash, your house is so cute! But aren't you worried about security out here?" He carries my bag to the front door, unlocks it and ushers me inside. An alarm beeps and he reaches to the panel to turn it off. I watch him enter 11894. He turns to me sheepishly and smiles.