Catch or Fall

Chapter Twenty One

Harper

It's been three weeks since Ashton and I started with this arrangement.

Every Wednesdays and Fridays, he stays in my dorm and we have sex.

Every Thursdays and Saturdays, I go to the clubhouse and stay there overnight so we can have sex.

Sundays, Mondays and Tuesdays are our rest days, but Ashton sometimes still drops by our dorm to hangout because, as he always says, he's bored as fuck at home.

Case in point? Today.

Ashton called last night that he's coming over today to bring brunch, which kind of surprised me because it's his first time to offer such. He usually drops by to study with me or to join in binge-watching Skins, which he now loves. A brunch is something that we do not normally do.

But then again, today's a Sunday so there's nothing much to do. Maybe he's just dead bored.

I inform Judy and Katrina about Ashton's plan and they're so cool with it, even noting that he's been frequently dropping by our dorm to do non-fuckboy stuff. I warn them not to get their hopes up because it means nothing. Ashton and I already made it clear. We're just hanging out, that's all.

Settling in with our new arrangement has surprisingly been easy. People just kind of accepted that we're hanging out and never made an issue out of it. Or maybe Ashton is just keeping me busy in bed, so I have no time to pay attention to what others say.

As I'm checking the calendar to count the days until the deadline of our term paper for Riddel's class, my phone rings and Ashton's name flashes on the screen. I swipe to answer.

"Hey, babe." Ashton's husky voice makes me warm in between the legs. Dammit!

"Hey," I say. "Where are you now?"

"I'm here in the lobby on my way up there," he answers, his voice louder than the other voices in the background. "I brought food for everyone, by the way. Are Judy and Katrina there?"

"Yup. Is there a long line outside the elevator?" I can sense there is because of the noise.

"Kind of, but I'll survive it for you. See you, babe."

One thing about Ashton Price is he's good with words, which sometimes makes my head spin. It also doesn't help that my heart skips a beat every time he calls me babe. I still let him do it, though.

"See you in a bit," I tell him.

It takes Ashton five minutes to reach our floor, thanks to the long line outside the lone elevator. That gave us enough time to clear things off our dining table. Good thing that we did, because he has four paper bags of food in his hands.

"Hey Ashton Price," Judy greets him as he enters our door.

"Hey Jude and Kat," he tells them as he saunters towards me. He plants a kiss on my lips and whispers, "Hi."

"Hey," I answer back. Ashton plants another kiss, this time on my forehead, and I swear my heart has jumped off my chest.

That's another thing about Ashton Price. He sure as hell is a fan of PDA.

Without looking, I can tell that my friends are smiling. They're loving this for sure, especially Judy. To calm my nerves down, I take the paper bags from Ashton and say, "You brought a lot of food."

"I don't know what to get, so I decided to just buy everything."

"God. That's the typical thing rich people say," Katrina comments. "No offense, Ashton, though."