CHAPTER 3
1061 Words
Ashley's POV
I throw off my heels the second I get home and I am, like always, hounded at the door with
Christina's hug.
“Mummy, look what Granny got me.” She says holding out her hand to me with a plastic ring
on her finger.
I glance at it briefly but it's her face that has most of my attention. I love seeing her so happy
like this, it almost makes me feel less guilty for being at work so much.
“Oh, that is very pretty.”
Her smile widened. With a mischievous glint in her eyes, she takes my hand as she slides
the ring off her finger and put it on my pinkie.
“There, now you are a bride too.” she grabs my bag and scurries off before I can ask her
about the ring.
“Hello, Grandma.” I greet her by placing a light peck on her cheeks while she sits on her
favorite chair in the living room.
“My baby. How was work?”
I had given up on explaining how I was no longer a baby and that she should drop the nickname. It had stuck, and it wasn't coming off.
“Same,” I say as I open the fridge to get an apple. “How was Christina today?”
“Energetic. I swear she never actually pauses to breathe.”
I like knowing that Christina had the same closeness I had with my grandmother growing up.
Granny had raised me and she took care of Christina when I couldn't.
It also meant she constantly sent pictures to me at work because she knew I didn't like not
being a part of my daughter’s life all the time.
So, I knew everything that happened almost like I spent the entire day with them. I was
grateful for her.
“What was that about?”
“She kept asking about how to be a bride all day long and I told her a bride has to get a ring.
I just didn't mention that it had to be from a man.” Granny responds and sends me a wink
from across the room
I proceed to ignore her and stare at the ring instead. Christina wants me to be a bride? Dear
God.
“If you are hungry, open the pot and eat something. All the fruits you keep stuffing down your
throat only does so much.”
I roll my eyes and keep biting on my apple.
“You work hard, Ashley. We see that and we'll always love you. So please take my advice
and dress up for once. You don't have to keep hiding.”
“I'm not hiding, Granny.”
She sends me a pointed look from beneath her glasses.
I can tell she wants to continue trying to get me to dress more feminine and like my age, but
Christina chose the perfect time to reappear.
“I am off to bed,” she says instead. “Good night, babies.”
“Good night, Granny.” My daughter and I say together.
After reading Christina a bedtime story, I put her to bed.
“Mummy.”
“Yes, darling.”
“Do you know I love you?
”
“Of course, why would you ask that?”
"Miss Clara has a ring, and Granny says rings mean people love you. You should have one
too, Mummy."
“Hmmm.” Mrs. Clara is also married but I don't point that out.
“I love you, mummy.”
“I love you too, princess.” I place a light kiss on her forehead.
Then, she's out like a light. Unable to resist, I stay watching my daughter a little longer.
I slide on one of my smaller rings on her finger and admire how well it fits her.
I doze off watching her only to jolt back to reality minutes later.
In my sleep-clouded mind, it reoccurs to me that I need to finish up with Dante’s possible
girlfriend list.
I head for my room, pull out my laptop, and stare at the shortlist I have managed to come up
with.
“This man really needs to extend the kind of women surrounds himself with.”
I started the list with every single woman he had personally interacted with since I started
working with him.
It was a very short list.
Then, filtered as best I could down to three possible candidates. They all had their flaws but
Dante was going to have to choose one that he could bear being around.
Yet the names on that list don’t seem right. None of them fit Dante.
Dante may be frustrating, but even he deserves someone genuine. Someone who could
match him.
My finger hovers over the send button and I wonder if I should just tell him I didn’t have any
candidates for him.
This shouldn’t feel so personal. It’s just a job. And why is it bothering me so much?
I shake my head. Irrational. Completely irrational.
“Mind your business, Ashley,” I murmur and send the list to Dante's inbox before I start to
overthink it.
A response comes almost immediately.
“Sienna Caldwell is too active on social media. I doubt she'd know how to keep anything
private.
Vanessa Laurent has a terrible personality. I'm sorry for my choice of words, but she's a
bitch.
Jasmine Reed, I think the last time I saw her was two years ago? Not going to work.
We'd find someone else. Let's talk about it in the office tomorrow.”
A small smile plays on my lips as I read through.
One of the reasons Dante and I worked so well together was that we learned a lot about
each other when I first started working with him.
It was nice to know that I was a good enough assistant to predict Dante’s line of thought.
I emailed an agreement, relieved to finally be over with it.
My gaze drifts to the dresses and skirts I bought a while back when I thought about changing
my wardrobe earlier in the year.
Nope, not happening.
I adjust my position in my bed to be more comfortable and I drift off to sleep.
But not before I wonder if tomorrow will be a nice time to dress up.
- Writer
