Life After That

by Barbara Kevin

  When the meeting was officially over and everybody was getting up to say their goodbyes, Ashley spoke up:

  "Kirstin, can I talk to you for a second?" a sudden silence fell over the room after that question.

  "Hm, I don't know... Andrew and I must go back to the hotel and we're leaving tomorrow morning and…"

  "Please?" he pleaded.

  She didn't know what to say so Andrew said something:

  "Kirstin, can I talk to you first? Over here?"

  "Yes!" she said without even thinking. That way she would get away from there.

  When Andrew and Kirstin got to a private place at the house, Andrew started:

  "What does he want with you?"

  "I don't know!"

  "Well, you have to talk to him, I don't care about what. If he wants to talk to you, you go and talk to him. We can't get these people mad. By the way the meeting was, I can see that this job is gonna be a lot tougher than I thought it would be, so we gotta give these guys everything they want so they can leave us alone and we can have our job done our way. So, please, talk to him. Do you think it would take too long?"

  "I don't know!"

  "Do you know him?"

  "Hm…" she didn't know what to say to her boss "We had 2 years of high school together."

  "Really?" Kirstin just shook her head "Well, so talk to him. That's good! You know him! That's a plus to us! Maybe they will get easier on us. So go, talk to him. I'll be on my way to the hotel. When you are done, call a cab. Ok?"

  She couldn't say no to her boss. Especially because he thought the conversation would be about the job. And she couldn't tell the whole story to him either.

  "Ok…"

  "Great. Let's go. I'll go back there say the proper goodbye and then I'll leave you there, alright?"

  "Yeah, ok."

  They got back to the dinning room and Andrew spoke for Kirstin, facing Ashley:

  "She's staying. I'm going back to the hotel. It was a pleasure meeting you guys, if you need anything, please, just call me." he then shook everyone's hand and the Mikes went to open the door to him.

  Kirstin was left there, totally uncomfortable with the 5 band members there, in silence. Dan talked first:

  "Hey, so you are the girl that went to high school with Ashley?" he didn't find anything better to say. He just wanted to break the ice.

  "Yes, that would be me." she grinned at him.

  "Cool. He told us a lot about you." Trevor remarked.

  "Oh, I bet he did." she still had that grin on her face when she turned to look at Ashley. He had his eyes glued on her and a serious look on his face.

  "Yes, how ironic this is, isn't it? You, a girl Ashley knows for a long time, is back and working on our TV show!" Erik wanted to make the conversation a bit more interested but failed that mission.

  "Yes. Well, everything happens for a reason. Maybe we were suppose to meet again, I guess." she had her eyes locked on Ashley's. The other guys got the hint and excused themselves.

  Ashley came closer to her. Both their hearts were beating so rapidly.

  "So, now can we talk ?" he had this sweet look on his face when he asked her that.

  "Yes…" she replied in a sweet tone.

  Ashley led them out to the pool area. Kirstin sat in a chair near the pool. Ashley got another one and placed it right in front of Kirstin's. He hold his head down, took a deep breath. Then looked up to stare at her eyes, took her hands in his, closed his eyes for a second and was about to start talking when he felt Kirstin's warm lips on his.

  Chapter 13

  Ashley couldn't believe he was feeling Kirstin's lips on his own. He had wanted so badly to feel them again every since their first and last kiss.

  And Kirstin couldn't believe she had made the first move, kissing him, again. But she wouldn't stop it now. She didn't want to stop it now. And this time, she promised herself she wouldn't run away. She stopped thinking about it when she felt Ashley's tongue break her lips apart. It was so good she moaned.

  Ashley wasn't thinking about anything but the kiss. He would enjoy the most out of it. He didn't know if this time would be like the last. So he would enjoy it 'til it lasted. He explored Kirstin's mouth with his tongue. He could hear she moan every time their tongues touched.

  None of them wanted to break the kiss but Ashley did it cause he was getting breathless. He opened his eyes and saw Kirstin licking her lips with her eyes shut. He smiled. He could see the pleasure on her face. Just by that one kiss she was that satisfied. She put a huge smile on her face, ran her hand over her long hair and opened her eyes to meet Ashley's. They kept staring at each other 'til Ashley asked:

  "Why did you do that? Not that I'm complaining or anything." He smirked.

  "'Cause I felt like it."

  "You felt like it?"

  "Yeah, it felt like the right thing to do." She frowned and continued. "Why do I have to explain every single thing to you Ashley?"

  "Because, Kirstin. You don't talk to me, you don't call, nothing. And then you just appear here at my house and kiss me."

  "You know why I did that Ashley?" He nodded. "I was thinking about this whole situation on my way here to Florida. I ran away from you 2 years ago, almost 3 now, and then that day, you found me in NY. That whole thing happened, we spent these months not talking to each other. And I think what we had is all over, again. Then I get this incredible job on the editing department and it happens to be your show that I'll be editing. And not only that, but you guys call in a meeting and I end up here, in Florida, back to you again. This can't just be coincidence. I seriously think it's fate doing its job."

  "Me too! The minute I saw you there, sitting in that chair, I knew it couldn't be just coincidence. Then I spent the entire meeting not listening to a word people were saying at that table, just looking at you. Making sure that was really you. Making sure you were back in my life, again. 'Cause if you were, you would be back in my life for good this time. I wouldn't let you go."

  Kirstin smiled and gave him a peck on the lips. Ashley didn't wanna ruin things, but he had to ask, with his head down:

  "What about Tom, your boyfriend?"

  Kirstin also glanced down, she had lied to Ashley:

  "He was never my boyfriend."

  "But…" Ashley was confused. "You were all over him at that bar and…"

  "I know. But I just used him to get you out of my head. I saw you when you got to Inferno, you passed right by me. And I saw you with that Jen girl. So I used Tom to forget you. And when I noticed you had seen me with him, I used him once again to make you feel bad, just like I felt when I saw you with that girl. I thought that by making you feel bad I would make myself feel better, but it didn't work. And poor Tom…" she held her head down, she was embarrassed by the way she treated Tom. "I treated him like a doormat. I never talked to him again after that night at my place."

  "YOU took him to YOUR place?"

  Kirstin had said too much.

  "Well… Yeah, but… nothing happened. I mean… I didn't let anything happen. I realized soon enough I was doing something for all the wrong reasons, so I asked him to leave. Thank God he did."

  There was silence. Kirstin, not wanting to continue that conversation, changed the subject by asking Ashley:

  "Ash, why did you break up with Jen?"

  She could still tell Ashley was not happy with what she had informed him about: "It never felt right," he told her.

  "Why?"

  "'Cause I didn't love her. 'Cause you were the one constantly on my mind. It never felt right. We were never meant to be together."

  "And you think we are?" Kirstin asked him seriously while looking at him carefully.

  "Yes, don't you?" Ashley frowned.

  "I don't know…"

  "What do you mean you don't know? You just gave that whole speech about fate and you don't think we are suppose to be together?" Ashley was mad.

  "Don't be mad at me Ashley. It has to do with things that happened to me bef
ore I even met you. You remember I joined our high-school when I was a junior, right?"

  "Yes…" Ashley didn't know what she was getting at.

  "Well, I didn't have a good life before that, when I was in this other high-school. I had to get away from that school. Bad things happened."

  "What kind of things?"

  "I really don't wanna talk about the details now. I don't think I'll even wanna talk about them…" she glanced down and Ashley could see that there were tears forming in her eyes. Kirstin didn't let them fall though. She took a deep breath and continued "Anyway, things that happened to me while I was there got me hurt pretty badly. I told you a little bit about it that day at the coffee shop." Ashley nodded. He wanted to help her but she wouldn't open up to him "It had to do with these 2 boyfriends I had and I never told anyone this, but when I broke up with Taylor, the last one, I promised myself that I would never let another boy hurt me that much. That's why I ran away after our first kiss. And that's why I never hooked up with the same guy more than once since I moved to New York. I built this wall around me and no man would ever climb it more than once. When you are with a person just one time, it's always fun, it doesn't have feelings involved."

  "But 'til today, we had only kissed one time. Does that mean that you didn't have feelings for me back then?"

  "No Ash. That was different. We were friends first. We had a history together before that kiss. I don't have a history with any of those "Thursday Guys"!"

  "Thursday Guys?"

  "I'll explain that some other time. But of course I had feelings for you Ash, that is why I ran away! I couldn't get hurt again. And I sweared that if in NY I'd find someone who I'd kiss once and felt something like I did for you, I'd run away too. But that never happened. No one ever felt like you." she bit her bottom lip. She had opened up too much. Ashley smiled after hearing that. She had just confessed she felt something strong for him.

  "So, what does that all mean?" Ashley was about to ask her one question which the answer would change his life for better. He took her hands in his once again "Are you gonna be my girlfriend?"

  It took a moment for Kirstin to answer.

  "No, I'm not."

  Chapter 14

  Kirstin's answer felt like a punch to Ashley's stomach.

  "What? You come here, you kiss me, you say all those things about fate bringing us together and you are not gonna be my girlfriend?"

  "Ashley, calm down. I wanna be with you. I really do. I just don't wanna be labeled as your girlfriend. Not just yet anyway."

  "Why not? I don't get it!"

  "I was never happy being someone's girlfriend."

  Ashley was a bit lost now.

  "But are we gonna be together?" that was all he wanted. He wanted to be able to feel Kirstin's lips again on his own.

  "Yes. I just don't want label what we have. Maybe that way it will work for me. Not being your girlfriend, I mean… But yes, I wanna be with you."

  "Are you sure? Is that what you really want?" Ashley wanted to be with her but he also needed her to wanna be with him.

  "More than anything else in this world, I want to be with you Ashley Ward Parker Angel." she answered with a big smile on her face.

  Ashley was so happy he felt like crying. But all he did was stand up, take Kirstin's hand to help her up so he could hold her in his arms. He just wanted to feel her wrapped in his arms, that way he would be certain she wasn't gonna escape from him again. That after all he went through, he got what he wanted. The girl he loved. They just stayed there, with their eyes shut. Kirstin had her head on his shoulder and Ashley had his hand in her hair. They just stayed there. And it felt right; for both of them.

  It felt like hours had gone by when Kirstin spoke up:

  "I don't know if this really feels right."

  Ashley felt nervous. Was she backing off already?

  "What? You think that you and me don't feel right?"

  "Yeah… I don't know…"

  "Kirstin, you can not be serious! Please don't do this, not now, not when everything is just perfect, please."

  "Well, I don't know. I think I should be with someone a little bit…" – she looked at Ashley and noticed this nervous look on his face – "taller." She tried not to smile as her face formed a serious look.

  "What?" Ashley didn't get she was messing with him.

  "Well, this picture is messed up. The right thing is when a girl has her head on the guy's chest. But you are just too short for me. My head has to be on your shoulder. That's not comfortable at all. I should be with someone taller…" – she saw his nervous look give way to a beautiful big smile.

  "Oh, you should, shouldn't you?" – he grabbed her and started to tickle her waist, where he knew she was most ticklish.

  "Stop Ashley, please, stop it!" – she said through laughter and finally was able to get off of his arms and run around the pool.

  "Oh, you come here K!" – he was running after her.

  "No Ash, please don't!" – she begged when he was getting closer.

  "Gotcha!" – he grabbed her from behind and started tickling her again. She was laughing really hard. Ashley was loving it. She fought back but it was not working. When she realized she couldn't get rid of him, she just started tickling him too, on his stomach, where he was most ticklish.

  "If you can't beat them, join them! I know your spot too Ashley."

  They were both laughing pretty hard. Kirstin lay on the floor, but Ashley didn't stop tickling her. He suddenly stopped tickling her, his breath catching in his throat. He just stared Kirstin's figure laying there, still giggling while trying to catch her breath from laughing so hard. She noticed his serious look staring at her. He brushed a lock of hair away from her face.

  "What?" – Kirstin asked.

  "Nothing." – he wouldn't stop staring at her so she asked again.

  "What? Ashley! Stop it! You know how much I hate when people stare!"

  "Yes, but I can't help it. You are just so beautiful."

  "Oh, stop it!"

  "But you are!" he ran his hand through her hair "Can I kiss you?"

  "No…" Ashley frowned "'Cause I'm gonna kiss you first." – she placed her hand on the back of his neck and pulled him to her. They lay there, kissing. She moaned when she felt Ashley's tongue on hers. Things were starting to heat up. Ashley made his way to her neck, kissing, licking and sucking it lightly. His right hand was rubbing her stomach. She was enjoying that, maybe too much, but she didn't wanna go too far, so she gently pushed him away.

  "Hm, Ashley, you know what? I haven't seen your room yet."

  Ashley got the hint. She didn't wanna go too fast. He smiled. He was cool with that. Now that he had her, he'd wait how ever long she wanted to. He smiled, got up, gave his hand out to her so she would get up too and said:

  "You are gonna love it! Come on!"

  He held her hand and running, lead her to his room. When they were at his bedroom's door, which was closed, he informed:

  "Don't mind this sign here. You're with me so that's ok." – he smirked pointing to the sign on his door that read NO TRESPASSING – "You are about to enter the coolest room ever! You have never seen anything so cool in your entire life. So be prepared!"

  Kirstin grinned and shook her head. She forgot how silly Ashley could be.

  "Ok, give me one second to prepare." she joked taking a breath "Ok, ready. Let's do it!"

  Ashley grinned too and opened the door. When Kirstin entered it, she couldn't believe her eyes. She was in this red and blue room, with a lot of Superman symbols all around the room. Looking around she said:

  "Oh my God! It's exactly how you wanted your room to be! It's just like that drawing you did in my bedroom once."

  "You remember that? That was a long, long time ago! We had just started being friends I guess."

  "Yeah, I know that, but of course I remember it. I always thought it would be ridiculous to have a big, metal Superman symbol over your bed. I remember I thought you'd never find
one, but I see that you have!"

  "Yes! I got that custom made!"

  "Oh, all the good things that come with fame!"

  "Isn't that cool?"

  "I stick to my former statement. It's ridiculous!"

  "Shut up! It is not!" – Ashley was giggling.

  "It is too!" – she was still looking around the room incredulous – "But I guess it fits you."

  "What is that suppose to mean?"