Chapter 31: Chapter 31

Someone cleared his throat from the stairs making me turn around. Since when has Ashton been standing there looking our way?

"Can I have a minute of your time?" Ashton cleared his throat once more with his eyes on me and then Miranda.

Miranda gave me a confused look before looking back at Ashton.

"Sorry, I mean I want to talk to you Mabel. Can we get out of here for a bit?"

I almost nodded my head when Miranda crossed her arms for me to pass. She instead stepped closer to Ashton with a kind of cynical look. "You can talk to her here. How important is it to what you're going to talk about?"

"It's important between me and Mabel," Ashton's eyes snapped from Miranda straight to me.

I sighed softly, not wanting to let Miranda continue to have an argument with Ashton. I knew they both didn't give up easily. So I walked over to them, giving Miranda a soft nod telling her I would be fine. She looked at me with concern then looked back at Ashton with a glare.

Ashton led the way out of the villa with me trailing behind him. I wondered what he would talk about. I was too busy with questions in my head that I didn't notice he stopped walking. He turned around and cast his eyes on me. "Nothing really important, I lied to Miranda."

I rolled my eyes, I should have guessed that from the start. "So there's nothing important to talk about? I'd better go back inside,"

"Wait, Mabel. You're so grumpy, unlike the woman I used to know." Ashton stopped me by pulling my wrist closer to him. "I just need someone to talk to, is it difficult now for me to get your attention?"

After many events including the conflict with Adrian, I could no longer see everything through the same lens. I didn't even know why I felt distant from Ashton. We used to do everything together in the past, but lately things felt different.

"Okay, what do you want me to do now?" I put my hands on my waist, tilting my head slightly at him.

"How about we sit down first?" Ashton smiled.

I couldn't believe I nodded and sat on a park bench with him even though I had unfinished cooking parts with Miranda.

"So..." Ashton took a deep breath.

My little heart begged Ashton not to bring up his kiss with Rainy last night. Honestly I didn't want to hear it let alone from his mouth.

"You look so happy. Did I miss something?" I forced a smile, though my smile disappeared after seeing him smiling shyly. There was an uncomfortable feeling in my heart. Why should I ask that when my heart already showed its unwillingness to hear something hurtful?

"My company will cooporate with the owner of our favorite park center ice cream parlor. We will make ice cream products that will be distributed to every market,"

"What?" I blinked in surprise. So that's what made Ashton smile sweetly? My heart was instantly freed from the chains, able to regain composure.

Ashton chuckled at the good news, not yet aware of the confusion plastered on my face. "You'll be the first to taste the ice cream,"

A smile painted on my face. "I never knew you meant to do that,"

"You forget what day tomorrow is?" Ashton raised an eyebrow. "I did it as a gift for her,"

"W-wait," My jaw dropped as I stuttered as I remembered tomorrow was my birthday. How could I forget? Ashton smiled so beautifully seeing the look on my face that maybe like a fool forgot her own birthday. I pressed my lips together and covered my face in embarrassment. Damn, he still remembered my birthday.

Ashton slowly removed my hands from my face. He then tucked a strand of my hair behind my ear, then cupped my cheek. "Happy aging, Mabel."

It made me give him a glare and then slam his hand away from my cheek.

"I was just joking with you," Ashton chuckled, enjoying how he managed to irritate me. "I also prepared something for you, so tomorrow night at seven o'clock meet me by the pool?"

There was a hint of hope in his words. "No," I hummed. I showed him the mischievous glint from my eyes. It was nice to see Ashton pressing his gaze on me. He looked frustrated at my answer. He really wanted me to come see him. It made me laugh. "I'll come, Ash. Okay then I'll go back inside now,"

"Mabel," Ashton called as I stood up from the bench. His gaze looked at me as if it was hard for him to explain.

"Is there anything else you want to say?" I fumbled as to what was really bothering him.

"Last night I kissed Rainy," Ashton stood facing me with a sigh. "I was thinking of listening to your advice about me being with her,"

"So you're dating her now?" I asked slowly.

"No, maybe not for now? I don't know," Ashton shrugged with a confused expression. "Do you remember about the woman I liked that I told you about?"

"Well, yeah. Anything new about her?" I was more interested in discussing the mysterious woman than about Rainy.

Ashton looked at me sadly with a shake of his head. "There's nothing, she's living her life well."

I stared at Ashton questioningly. There was something else he wanted to tell me but still didn't have the courage. "Ash, just spill it."

"Fine, here's the thing..." Ashton raised his hands in the air. "I'm not enjoying this vacation, Mabel. How can you keep laughing and not being bothered at all by the fact we're on vacation with two mafia bosses?"

"Because of Anthonio's arrival? Of course I'm uncomfortable too, especially since I threw up on him." I plainly said. "And it's because of you,"

"Me?" Ashton didn't know what happened a year ago. I didn't tell him about it and acted like I hadn't done anything wrong to someone which made my heart flutter with fear.

"Remember when you asked me to pick you up at the bar? You knew I don't like crowds, and still forced me to pick you up." I huffed. "After that you said alcohol could make my anxiety go away, but in fact it didn't. My stomach actually felt like throwing up,"

Ashton was deep in thought, trying to remember until the corners of his lips lifted into a smile. That smile sucks! I could tell he was laughing at me after remembering what happened that night.

"Damn, how could I forget that day?" Ashton laughed out loud at me. "You looked really bad!"

"Stop it," I turned back away from him, and that's when my eyes met Adrian's amber eyes. He was standing across from us along with Daniel. The man did not speak, his mouth closed, allowing Daniel to speak without pause.

I smiled, about to walk up to Adrian when Ashton stopped me again by grabbing my shoulder. "Don't forget about tomorrow night,"

"Oh my Goodness, Ashton! I'm not," I bluffed him after that immediately ran away from there. My feet led me to Adrian. When he saw me walking towards him, his lips curled into a smile.

"Hello, Mabel." said Daniel, breaking his conversation with Adrian as I approached them.

A smile formed on my face at them. Tomorrow is my birthday, does Adrian know?

"Is Miranda done cooking?" I found myself asking them question.

"Seems to be," Daniel nodded, turning his gaze away from me towards the villa's window. "You've been talking to Ashton for too long,"

I shrugged my shoulders, having no response to that. A moment later I gasped when someone wrapped his arm around my shoulder. "Don't forget tomorrow night,"

Ashton ran a hand through my hair before finally darting inside, leaving me under Daniel's curious eyes. "Wow," It was his comment that made the situation more uncomfortable, especially Adrian didn't budge. He was acting calm, but his eyes couldn't lie. It flared and sharpened as he gazed at Ashton, an indication he didn't like Ashton touching me just now.

"Let's have breakfast now," I told them, to shake off the awkwardness.

I thought I could escape the awkwardness afterwards, but I was wrong and put myself in a much worse place than the awkwardness. Breakfast together was the worst idea Miranda and I ever came up to. I gulped, not knowing how I could sit halfway between Ashton and Adrian. I intended to sit next to Miranda, but Daniel had already taken my place. They sat across from me, allowing Miranda and I to talk to each other through our coded glances at each other.

Next to Ashton was Rainy, and next to her was Anthonio. So the only ones sitting on the seater opposite us were Miranda and Daniel. I wanted to move there, but my legs were stiffed to just move.

No one opened their mouths to start a conversation, except for Rainy. She tried to make the atmosphere warmer, but seemed to fail. She was not deterred, and tried to talk by telling us what we were going to do afterwards, because after breakfast we would go for a walk exploring Kuta beach, Bali.

I didn't really pay attention to what Rainy was trying to talk about next. I was just minding my own business by enjoying my food until my right elbow accidentally nudged Ashton's orange juice- he happened to be sitting on my right.

I screamed in surprise as the juice hit Ashton's lap, completely soaking his pants. Reflexively, I rubbed it, trying to dry it even though I knew it was useless. "Gosh, sorry Ash."

I got up from where I was, about to get a towel to dry it when Adrian also stood up from his spot, only to storm out of the room. Everyone could only stare at him then stare at me and then at Ashton.

Seeing the situation, Daniel seemed to understand. He took action by going after Adrian.

I sighed, trying to calm myself then went to get a towel. But when I returned, Rainy had already helped Ashton clean his pants with a rag in her hand.

"Oh, Mabel?" Rainy smiled. "Thanks for the towel, but looks like Ashton is going to take a shower and change."

Ashton nodded with a reassuring smile. "It's okay to take a shower twice in the morning," He tried to lighten the mood by making jokes which still didn't help at all.

"Sorry," I mumbled and fell silent.

Miranda pressed her lips together, worried about what was going on. She stood close to me and gently stroked my shoulder. "It's all right, Mabel." She clearly knew that I was worried not only about spilling juice on Ashton, but also how Adrian stormed out of the room just like that. "Daniel is talking to him, calm down." She added in a whisper.

I sat back down after the others had left the dining room, except for Miranda. She put the dirty dishes in the sink. I saluted her, because even though she couldn't cook, didn't even have any skills at all, but she could help me well.

"I've never seen Adrian act so abruptly," Miranda said, and that made me even more overthinking.

"I'm sure I haven't done anything wrong to him, Miranda." I said, remembering to myself if I did anything wrong.

"Are you sure?" Miranda came over to me pressing her hands on the table with an eyebrow raised. "Then you need to talk to him directly. We'll be leaving in a minute, so you better talk, because you won't feel comfortable if you keep having this kind of confused feeling about what you're missing."

I lowered my head, then lifted my head only to look out the window. Adrian was standing on the other side with Daniel with his back to me.