Chapter 20: Delicious hangover soup

Harley

My head felt like it was splitting into two. I hadn't felt such pounding headache in, well, forever.

I tried to open eyes but my eyelid felt too heavy. But I kept trying anyway. I flung my eyes opened and immediately shut it back as the ray of sunlight hit me. I opened them again, slowly adjusting to the brightness around me.

The first thing I noticed was the picture of a football on the wall. I didn't have that in my room, not at my father's house and definitely not at the Henderson's.

My eyes widened as the realization dawned on me and I immediately jumped up. The sudden movement caused pain to slice through my head, but I fought against the pain.

I looked down on the shirt I was wearing, not mine. I dragged my gaze across the room, also not mine.

Oh my God! Oh my God!! Nonononono!!!

“Good morning.” I glanced at the direction of the voice to see Asher walk into the bedroom. His bedroom.

“What am I doing here? Why am I in your bedroom? We didn't do anything, right? I was so drunk last night, I don't remember anything. But I… did we…”

“Woah! Slow down. Nothing happened, okay? I'm not going to take advantage of you like that.” He chuckled. “You got drunk and threw up all over your dress. I brought you up here to help you change out of your dress.”

“Oh, right. Uhm… thank you, I guess.” I looked down on the shirt I was wearing that had his scent wrapped all over me.

“I'm guessing this means you saw me in my underwear.” I muttered to myself but he seem to hear it anyway.

“Yeah.” He nodded.

“Uhm, wow. Okie dokie. I think I'm gonna just head out and get changed into normal clothes.”

I ran my fingers through my hair. The shirt inched up revealing my lacy underwear.

“Oh my god,” I dropped my hand immediately and dragged the shirt down to cover my ass cheeks.

Asher tipped his head back and laughed.

“It's really not funny.” I scoffed.

“But it is. Seeing you look so flustered is hilarious.” He burst into another round of laughter.

I rolled my eyes at him but kept dragging the shirt to cover my ass. “Can you at least be a gentleman and turn around while I pass?”

He shook his head, a smirk tilted his lips slightly.

“Please? This shirt keeps riding up and it's showing my lady bumps. I don't understand why you didn't just grab my PJs from my room.” I scoffed.

“Because I wanted to see you in my shirt.” He said casually, like he didn't just make my heart stop with that single sentence.

I opened my mouth to throw a snarky response, but nothing came to my mind. What should I possibly say to that anyway?

“Also, I didn't want to go through your stuff. Since you were already here, I thought lending you my shirt would be the smart choice.” He added.

I nodded and averted my gaze from him. “I'm gonna go change. I'll meet you downstairs.”

As I made to walk past him, I suddenly tripped and was falling, but Asher caught me before I could hit the floor. My eyes collided with a pair of sparkly blue eyes. I found myself holding my breath. I didn't know what was happening, or what was going to happen, but I didn't want to look away.

The shrill sound of an alarm clock pierced the thick atmosphere. The both of us seem to jolt out of the trance. Asher removed his hand from my back and I landed on my butt.

“Ouch,” I winced. “Asshole.”

I glared at him. He simply smirked at me and went to shut the alarm. I took advantage of his momentary distraction and rushed out of the room.

I went straight to the bathroom as soon as I entered my room and took a long, much needed shower to wash just the lingering stench of alcohol.

When I stepped out, the headache had reduced a little bit. As I got dressed, my mind wandered back to what happened few minutes ago, or what would have happened. I didn't know whether I wanted it to or not.

“... because I wanted to see you in my shirt…”

Remembering those words brought a stupid smile to my face. I threw on a loose gown and flip flops. Today was a Sunday, I didn't plan on going anywhere.

I gtabbbed my phone on the nightstand and padded out of the room. It was a good thing I hadn't took my phone to the party last night. I definitely would have lost it.

I saw messages from Henry and Ryan. I clicked on Ryan's first.

RYAN: I'm sorry I had to rush off yesterday. Something urgent came up. But I would love to still take you out for coffee though.

I had completely blacked out yesterday, I didn't even remember Ryan leaving. I wondered what other things I didn't remember doing.

I was going to ask Asher everything later. But what I needed now was to eat and get rid of this hangover. Besides, I wasn't eager to speak to him after whatever happened in his room earlier.

But I should have known the universe didn't like me that much. I stepped into the kitchen to see Asher with an apron tied around his waist, cooking.

“This is a scene I never expect to walk into.” I chuckled and sat by the kitchen island. A delicious scent wafted through my nostrils.

“Make fun of me one more time and you're not going to taste this delicious hangover soup I'm making.” He said.

“Seriously? I'm starving. And you look hilarious in that apron.” I laughed.

He pinned me with a glare.

“I apologize, mister. What I meant was that you look so hot in that apron. Hotter than the soup on the stove.” I said with a wide smile and my puppy eyes.

His eyes glimmered with mischief. “I look hot, huh?”

“Hey, you asked me to say something that wasn't making fun of you and I did.” I cried. There was no way in hell that I would admit that he was hot, delicious soup or not. I decided to change the subject instead.

“Why are you making me soup anyway? Are you planning on poisoning me?” I narrowed my gaze in suspicion.

“Please, poisoning takes too much time. I'd have to hide your body, hide the evidence, clean this whole place up. It's too much work for a Sunday.” He sighed and dished out the soup.

“Okay if you're not poisoning me, why are you making me soup?”

“Aside from the very obvious fact that you need it? I need help with that.” He gestured outside the kitchen.

“What's that?”

“Cleaning. There's a lot to clean up and my parents are going to be home in a few hours, shorter if they decided to come early.”

“I'm not helping you clean up. It was your party, your should deal with the aftermath. “ I shook my head. I took a spoonful of the soup and almost moaned at the delicious taste.

“Come on, Red. You have to help me.”

“Nope, not my problem.”

He stayed quiet for a while. And just when I thought he had given up, he said, “My parents won't ask who hosted the party. The both of us were around during the party so we will both be punished.”

I took another spoonful to my mouth. “So you just went from asking for my forgiveness to blackmailing me. That's a crime in this part of the country, you know.”

“Come on, help me out here.”

Before I could respond, my phone vibrated and the screen lit up. I froze when I saw who the number.

“Who's that?” Asher asked, he must have noticed the change in my mood.

“It's my father.” I responded.