A Love Trap

'Did she... Did she just hit my boss?' thought Josef.

He was dumbstruck for a moment. This clearly stunned Andrew too. He just sat there, rooted to the spot, staring unblinkingly at Ashley.

As for Ashley, she remained perfectly still, but in her mind, her thoughts were running wild. She regretted it the second she hit Andrew. 'Oh my god! What did I do? Why did I do this? Did I hurt him? It sounded bad. Ouch! My hand hurts. Yup! It definitely hurts. I used all of my strength to slap him. God! Why did I do this?'

Ashley was panicking. She couldn't figure out what to do next.

Her hand was already swelling up. Her beautiful, white fingers turned red.

'Calm down, Ashley. He asked for this. You just tried to protect yourself!' Ashley was trying to calm herself down.

'He brought this all on himself. No man would poke a girl's face like that! I was just trying to protect myself. If you really want to poke a face, poke yours!'

Although loud, the slap didn't hurt Andrew much. It really was not a big deal in comparison to what he had suffered in the past.

Andrew recovered from the shock and saw Ashley staring at him in embarrassment. He wasn't upset at all. Her cheeks were puffed out in anger. The only thing on Andrew's mind right now was how cute she looked. He just wanted to poke those cheeks.

But he didn't. He knew his limits. If he crossed the line, she would just slap him again.

"My apologies. I didn't mean to offend you but I just couldn't help it," said Andrew. He looked at Ashley earnestly.

Ashley had mentally prepared a whole bunch of excuses for her actions, but Andrew didn't give her a chance to say a word. She gulped uneasily.

Andrew had apologized in all sincerity, so she decided to let it go.

"Alright, just this once!" she said.

Andrew didn't respond. He loved teasing her. How could he promise it would be the last time?

She didn't say another word either.

what he

thought he was delusional.

guy in the backseat

kind to apologize to a girl, especially one who had just slapped him.

words. He had told him to be careful about what he saw in

seemed like Johnny had preempted

told him beforehand what he should do

and Johnny were not related. They just happened to have the

formal and exact but tactless too. He was a bit of slow compared to Johnny. Johnny was a smart man. He could be

want for dinner?" Andrew asked, moving

the dinner that she and Ellie had made. She didn't even get a chance to taste it. She just wanted to tear this

would not waste her energy

which was very popular and had really good

googled it on her phone

asked Josef to drive

got on the road to the restaurant.

There was a lot of traffic as it was the rush

restaurant was nearby, else it would have taken them hours to

restaurant had a beautiful name — The Time Shore. The decor was very nice and not too opulent. It was simple, but

When Andrew and Ashley walked in, no one came to

restaurant just for couples and she felt

saw couples sitting close, holding hands and sharing their

good at all! ! For her, this place had turned to a pink palace full of red hearts flying in the

She hadn't planned this. Andrew was really smart. Surely, he knew that she didn't mean to bring him here. Right? Ashley guessed and peeked at him to see