Cupid's Incorporated {Completed}

Cupid's Incorporated - Chapter Six

“Can you ask him to cancel it?” I asked quickly, my eyes darting around the room as I searched desperately for a plan. “Ask him to do something on Friday night?”

“You don’t know my dad, Mia. He’d rather cut off his own hand than spend time with me. I’m the disappointment of the family. There was nothing I could do.”

My heart constricted for Ashton. I knew that my mother would be there in a heartbeat if I ever needed her. I couldn’t imagine having that kind of relationship with her. I pushed those thoughts to the back of my mind, because I knew that Ashton didn’t want my sympathy, so I just said, “Tomorrow I’ll make a plan with her for Friday night. Ask for a girls’ night in with her, or something.”

“Sounds good,” Ashton affirmed, sounding proud of my quick thinking. “Thanks for doing this.”

“Of course,” I replied, smiling a little. For some reason I was happy that he had liked my plan, though explanation avoided me. “I mean, I want them apart as much as you. So we begin Phase One tomorrow?”

Ashton chuckled amusedly as he asked, “Phase One?”

“Yeah. I mean, we might as well have awesome names for this, right? Make it sound cooler?”

“You make it sound like we’re on some kind of spy mission,” he told me.

“Well, we kind of are, aren’t we? I mean, we’re sneaking around, trying to keep our parents apart?”

“You’re something else, you know that, Mia Starr?”

I smiled a little at the way he said my name. He made it sound so sweet and pretty. I frowned and shook my head. Bad Mia! What was I thinking?

“Yeah, I know,” I replied breezily. “So, Phase One begins tomorrow?”

He gave a throaty laugh. “Yeah. Phase One begins tomorrow.”

I snapped my phone shut and sighed. Even though I hated admitting it, a part of me knew…

I was kind of beginning to enjoy this.

    ~          *           ~           

         Unfortunately, I didn’t get to see my mother all day. She had left before I woke up, and for some reason I couldn’t get her on her cell. I just had to hope that Mr. Williams was one of those guys who abided by that stupid guy rule of not being able to call a girl forty-eight hours prior to the first date.

         Guys still did that, right?

         I flopped out of bed and showered, before pulling on a pair of grey shorts and a pink t-shirt. I pulled my wet hair into a messy bun and went downstairs to make myself some breakfast.

         As I poured myself some orange juice, I noticed the answering machine blinking. I yawned as I turned it on and waited for the automated voice to come on.

         “You have one new message,” the woman’s automated voice told me, before there was a high pitched beep and the message was patched through.

         “Hey, Melanie. It’s Henry. I had a really good time last night, and I was wondering if maybe you wanted to do it again? Uh, just give me a call back when you get this. Bye.”

         The beep sounded again, before the automated voice went on to tell me the time the call came through. Forty-five minutes ago. Curse my sleeping in! Maybe if I had’ve heard it, I could’ve somehow told him she was busy and couldn’t make it.

         I sighed and made myself a bowl of yoghurt and berries, before sitting down at the table and deciding what to do. I just had to hope Henry was patient and wouldn’t try to reach mom on her cell.