TWELVE- TWO TIMES FOR THE PAST

CHAPTER TWELVE (2 YEARS AGO)

My nervousness had reached an all-time high. Today would be my last day at Stetson Hotel if I was not offered a permanent job, and quite frankly the chances of that happening were zero to none. I had been unable to sleep and for the past week, I had been on the lookout for any listings of available jobs or cheaper apartments. Despite checking every single newspaper every morning and different pages on my phone, I had not seen any job that was particular to my expertise. Jobs were just that scarce, and the apartments were just as expensive.

I buttoned my shirt all the way and folded the collar before wearing my pants. I only owned two pantsuits and the navy blue one I wore today was my lucky one- well it was the best one and so I attributed it only to good things. Maybe if I wore something cute and flashed my ass around, my name would magically appear on the list of permanently employed contract workers.

When I walked out of my room, Lou was seated on the couch, eating cereal. She looked up at me and smiled. Over the past few days, she smiled more, greeted me and even tried to strike up a conversation which came across as weird to me because for so long she had ignored my existence. I smiled back at her despite my reservations.

“Good morning!” She greeted enthusiastically. “Looking good for that permanent position, I see.” She added and actually sounded excited. Was she really trying to be my friend?

“Well, I really hope it happens but my boss hates me,” I responded, got a cup from the cabinet and poured myself some juice.

“If you’re that negative, that outfit will be for nothing,” She said and I looked back at her with a look of disbelief. “You’re always being negative and miserable, perhaps that’s why terrible shit is always happening to you.”

“Is this your way of encouraging me and telling me to be optimistic?” I asked sarcastically and she turned back to the TV.

“Of course, but you have to be truly positive.” Her concentration was fully on the unrealistically beautiful men and women on the TV with their chests out for the world to see.

My attention shifted to some scones too and I sat down as I ate my cold breakfast. I had woken up extra early and even if I got on a train right now, I would have been half an hour early for work. If I kept chanting positive things in my head, maybe I would get the job. Lou was sort of right even though I hated to admit it, usually I was the one always putting myself down. No one gave me the credit I deserved so I thought I did not deserve it.

“Janelle,” I looked up and Lou was standing by the window. “You sly fox, I assume that’s your boss down there. How does someone who hates you come to pick you up every morning?”

I had been so caught up in my thoughts that I had not noticed when she had moved from the couch to the window. True to her words when I moved closer to the window and looked through it, Ashton’s car was parked on the other side of the road just like the last time he had given me a ride to the Hotel.

“It isn’t every morning,” I corrected her.

“How would I know that? I sleep in most of the time.” She looked through the window once again and gasped. “Oh my god, he’s looking in this direction.” I turned to the window and did not see anything, mainly because the windows of Ashton’s cars were all tinted.

“Lou, the windows are tinted.” I pointed out.

“Yeah, but he’s totally staring at us, I can feel it.”

The look on my face was between disbelief, shock and ‘Is this girl normal?’. “Come on, get away from the window.” I took out my phone and started texting Ashton. I had not seen him for days and all of a sudden, he was in front of my building without as much as a warning.

“Are you calling him?” Lou turned to me with huge eyes and everything made sense, why she was pretending to be friendly and all. She was only trying to fish out any information from me, to feed her gossip.

“No, I’m not,” I answered her while aggressively tapping at the screen of my phone. Thankfully Ashton replied almost immediately to my text, telling me that he was here to give me a ride to work once again. “Bye. I hope your positive energy works.” I said to Lou before grabbing my coat, and my bag and walking out of the apartment.

“Do you have work outside the city? Is that why you’re so early?” I asked as I got into the passenger seat of the car and put on my seatbelt.

Ashton was smiling when I looked up. “You look beautiful,” He said calmly, it knocked the breath out of me and I had to look away for a second or more.

“Where have you been? I haven’t seen you around the Hotel for like a week.” That was my best attempt to get over the compliment he had passed and just how flattered it made me feel.

“I had to be out of town for a little too long for work,” He replied and I vaguely remembered him saying he had to go to the next town for a new branch last week. “How have you been?”

“I’m—” I began but remembered that my roommate was a gossip mouth and somehow had the ability to see through tinted car windows. My eyes turned to the window of my apartment and she was still by the window.

“Let’s go or else we’ll be late,” I told Ashton but he looked at me, confused.

“We still have twenty minutes.” He looked down at his watch.

“Yeah, to be late.” He looked to where I was looking and rolled his eyes with a small chuckle.

“You do know that she can’t see us, right?” His tone made me turn to him and glare.

“I’m not mental. That evil bitch can somehow see through the tint.” I huffed and he laughed before starting the car.

“What is it with you and your roommate?”

“She’s passive-aggressive and now she’s pretending to be friendly. I think it’s because she thinks you are some old, rich corporate man who I am fucking, and that she can get to you through me…” I said and paused. “…or she just wants gossip.”

“Old? I am everything but old.”

I rolled my eyes at the only thing he had chosen to pick out from my words. “This is all your fault. If only you had not insisted to drop me off or pick me up in the morning, Lou and the damn nosy neighbours would not be gossiping about me and the old married man I am having sex with.”

“If I had not insisted to drop you off that day, then you wouldn’t have gotten acquainted with my amazing personality.” He said with a cocky attitude.

“I also would not be sneaking into work,” I added and he continued to argue about how he still did not understand why I insisted to sneak into the building or be dropped off two blocks before Stetson Hotel.

By the time we had gotten to the Hotel, I had explained for the umpteenth time what the circumstances of being seen being friendly with Ashton Stetson would be and even though he knew it too, he refused to accept it. I grabbed my purse and once he had parked the car and turned to him.

“Thanks,” I told him before kissing his cheek and getting out of the car.

When I closed the door behind me, I was met face-to-face with Ridley Stetson and just on cue, Ashton got out of the car. The hateful energy between them was overbearing, and even though I could see them in each other’s physical features, their gazes were that of enemies. Ridley looked at me once more, and the look he gave me was like one would have after having a bad taste in their mouth before he looked back to his brother.

“Your mother keeps calling me, asking where her precious son went only an hour after coming back and here you are,” He looked at me once more for barely a few seconds before looking back at Ashton. “You can’t take the role of playful son, that’s mine.”

“I am in no mood to entertain your shenanigans so early in the morning, Ridley.” Ashton looked irritated and infuriated, I had never seen him like that- well especially since I had only known him for a few weeks.

“I do not wish to see your stupid face so early in the morning too, but here we are.”

Ashton groaned before locking his car and walking over to the side we were at. Ashton and Ridley had a glare down of some sort before Ashton took my hand. “Come on, Janelle.”

Before I could say anything, Ashton was dragging me towards the elevator. “Ashton,” I called but he kept moving and his hold was tight. Was this what it was like to have siblings?

Only when we got into the elevator did he seem to relax, and when I winced because of his hold on my hand he looked down and started apologising incessantly.

“It’s okay. It isn’t broken.” I told him as he tried to massage my hand.

“I’m truly sorry. It’s just that every time I see Ridley, I get so mad.”

I shook my head. “It’s fine. But if you had listened to me, call your name at first then you wouldn’t have dragged me into the elevator and pressed for your floor.” I said and he looked at the button of the elevator and groaned.

“Oh fuck!” I laughed at his reaction and when he looked back at me, he looked less tense and had a small smile.

When the elevator stopped, he held me and kissed the top of my head before letting go and saying a low ‘see you soon’ just as the doors opened. When the doors closed and I pressed for my floor, I was still in a daze. The kiss on the top of my head and his hold on either side of my head had felt too intimate for friends…but perhaps I was reading too much into the situation. Either way, the butterflies in my stomach could not relax.

Even as the day dragged on, I could not forget about the kiss, my head was all fuzzy. I got over the fuzziness only when the day was nearing the end and I was waiting for the confirmation whether I got to have a job or not. Mason sat at his desk looking calm and collected and I could imagine that from his point of view, I looked uneasy and panicky.

My fingers were crossed under the desk and my email was open. Margaret walked by my desk and looked at the computer. “I remember when I was in your position, except I was not as nervous and knew I would get the job.” She commented and tsked before walking away.

A notification for a new email popped up and I clicked on it just as immediately. I had no reason to wait this out, it was better to know as quickly as possible. The letter started just as the one for the contract employment did, and I gasped out loud when I read that I was hired.

“Oh my god!” I covered my hands over my mouth in disbelief.

Everyone around me looked just as shocked as I did and from the triumphant smile on Mason’s face, he had also been employed.

“Relax, if it were up to me you wouldn’t be rejoicing.” Mr Samuels walked into the room with two envelopes and glared at me as he gave one to Mason and the other to me. “Why did Ashton Stetson specifically request for you to get a permanent job? Since when does he know of your existence?” Mr Samuels asked me with a suspicious face.

Of course, it was Ashton, Mr Samuels would have never let me be employed. Even though I knew that Ashton did this because we were friends, a part of me was still glad because I still deserved the job more than anyone.

“She must be sleeping with him,” Margaret chimed in. “No no no, that doesn’t make sense. It must be pity.” She contradicted herself. I looked over to her and glared, I had never said a word to the woman so I never understood why she was hostile.

“None of that matters, whatever she did she must be good at it because she got the job and has been transferred to Ashton Stetson’s department.”

The gasps that followed very clearly depicted my inner shock.