Arranged •{ONC 2020}•

《 Chapter Nine 》

She caught him staring and rolled her eyes, brushing past him on the way to the bathroom. A few minutes later, she walked out timidly, her eyes bouncing between him and the bed. "So...left or right?"

"Left."

Ashlynn nodded and took the right side of the bed, placing one of the extra pillows in the middle. At Wesley's raised eyebrow, she stuttered out, "I-I grab stuff in my sleep."

Wesley internally breathed a sigh of relief. The only thing that could possibly make this more awkward was if they woke up clinging to each other. Hopefully, the pillow would prevent that.

Once she made herself comfortable, he turned off the lights and climbed into his side of the bed. There was a moment of silence before he murmured, "Goodnight, Ash."

He heard the sheets rustle as she turned on her side, her outline highlighted by the moonlight seeping in through the window. "Goodnight..." she mumbled shakily, and added, "...Wes."

How was he supposed to sleep now? Resisting the urge to smack himself, he turned on his side with his back to Ashlynn.

She may not beat him up, but she was still going to be the death of him.

Ashlynn lay still for several minutes until she could hear Wesley snoring softly behind her. She did something stupid. Again. But if they were going to pull this off, she had to pull out all the stoppers, and that included using pet names. And gosh, if she didn't feel embarrassed by that. What was I thinking?!

She rubbed her face frantically on the pillow and tried not to scream. Surviving this week was going to be a lot harder than she thought. At the rate her heart was pumping, it felt like she was running a marathon.

Eventually, her nerves calmed down and her eyelids grew heavy. She inhaled deeply—the sheets smelled faintly of Calvin Klein—and slipped into a deep sleep.

《♡》

Ashlynn felt colder than usual on one side of her body. Seeking warmth, she snuggled closer to the pillow. That's better.

Her pillow felt a lot smaller than usual. And firmer.

She frowned, and opened her eyes, a bit disoriented by the dark walls. Confused she blinked a few times. This wasn't her room. It was Wesley's.

And this wasn't her pillow.

It was Wesley.

Oh thin mint oh thin mint oh thin mint—she was snuggling with his arm. Please don't let him be awake!

She carefully shifted her head to see if his eyes were open. When she saw that they weren't, she released a breath she had been holding. Okay, I'll just carefully let go and roll over, and pretend this never happened.

And that's what she did. With the utmost care and patience, she untangled her hands from his shirt and slid out from under his arm. His eyes fluttered once and she had a mini heart attack—although it didn't feel 'mini' to her—but he didn't wake up. Slowly, she turned and put her back to him, wincing every time the bed creaked beneath her.

Mission complete! She smiled to herself and pumped her fist. Thank God he didn't wake up.

Behind her, Wesley cracked his eye open. He'd been awake for the past hour, which he'd spent carefully extracting the rest of his body from her grasp. She hadn't been kidding when she said she 'grabbed' things in her sleep; she had the grip of a python and he had been one arm away from being her next victim.

The clock on his nightstand read 5:58 am. He had two more minutes of sleep. Sweet, blissful, peaceful sl—

The alarm went off. He felt the bed shake as Ashlynn started next to him. Keeping up the act that he had been asleep, he rolled over slowly and groped around for the button to turn it off. When the annoying beeping stopped, he let out a yawn.

Ashlynn stirred, making a big show of rubbing her eyes and stretching, trying to act like she hadn't been clinging to Wesley five minutes ago.

They sat in silence for a few minutes, wondering if they should say anything to each other. It was early enough that the room was still dark, and Wesley could just barely make out Ashlynn's form in the shadows.

He wanted to tell her that was the best sleep he had in years. His recurring nightmare hadn't even reared its ugly head, which was significant because he forgot to take his meds last night. Instead, he said, "'Morning, Ash."

"...Morning."

"Do you want the bathroom first...?" he asked, his voiced still raspy from sleep.

She grumbled out a no and rolled onto her back, her eyes fixed on the ceiling. Her face was burning, and she was incredibly grateful that she could hide it in the dark room.

The bed creaked and the covers rustled as Wesley climbed out of bed, turning on a lamp as he went, bathing the room in light. He dug around in one of his drawers before disappearing into the bathroom. A few minutes later, the shower turned on.

Ashlynn forced herself to sit up. It was too early to get up, but if she went back to sleep, she'd definitely sleep until noon. She checked her messages while Wesley finished using the bathroom.

There were four new messages from Hana and Cassidy: something about a party coming up at the club. Dylan had texted her goodnight and sent a picture of a sloth in pajamas. She snickered at that. Weirdo.

She was about to reply when Wesley walked out of the bathroom. His towel was draped around his shoulders and he was running one hand through his hair. "All yours."

His voice sounded weird when he said it. Ashlynn wrote it off as him being groggy. She grabbed her clothes and disappeared into the steamy bathroom. A hot shower was just what she needed, even if the whole room smelled strongly of Calvin Klein.

When Ashlynn came out of the bathroom, Wesley was buttoning up his shirt. They froze for a few moments as they looked one another over. "You missed a button."

"What?" He looked down at the spot where she was pointing. "No, I di—hey!"

She flicked his forehead and fled the room. Wesley huffed. "And she thinks I act like a kid..."

Breakfast was uneventful; it was too early for Aunt Leah to be up and causing drama. They finished getting ready and Arnold drove them to the office.

Wesley was pouring himself a cup of coffee in the workers' lounge when one of the managers walked up to him. They exchanged greetings and the woman timidly asked, "Did something good happen over the weekend, sir?"

"Not really," Wesley replied shortly, sipping his too-hot coffee. "Why?"

"I don't know. You look happier than usual." The woman—Caitlyn, if memory served—dumped half a dozen sugar packets into her mug. "You seem less tense."

He cast a glance towards the office he shared with Ashlynn. Through the glass, he could see her leaning over a stack of paperwork. "Is that so..."

The woman followed his gaze and grinned slyly. "I see." Wesley looked at her curiously, and she continued. "Most of us knew Ashlynn when she was just a baby, so I guess we feel protective of her. We were all a bit worried when we heard she was getting married. She's had bad luck with guys in the past, but I'm glad she found you. You're good for each other. She's mellowed out since you got married."

Wesley felt his ears burn and he took a sip of coffee. Now his throat was burning too.

Caitlyn mistook the tears in his eyes as emotional ones. She patted him on the arm and left him standing there with a burnt tongue and conflicted feelings.

Well, if anything, they had the employees fooled. Although, he was starting to wonder if they weren't the ones being fooled.

He adamantly told himself it was the former.

But just because you want to believe something doesn't make it true, and that's a much harder truth to believe.

He swallowed another scorching sip of coffee and walked back into their office. The paperwork wasn't going to do itself, and the look on Ashlynn's face told him she wasn't going to do it either.