Chapter 43

"At this point, I'm just gonna call him out on it..." Juliette went on narrating what she planned to do to Nathan.

Ashley listened to Juliette talk about other stuff but she could not stop thinking about what Juliette said and Winston. If it was true, she needs to confront him or ask him about it. Should I confront him directly? If I do that, will it sound like I'm insecure, I mean, I didn't even know something of that nature was happening. What if he asks me how I came up with that kind of conclusion? Am I just imagining things or is what Juls saying really true. Let me analyze this shit; he goes away every Sunday to meet this person that I don't know. Following Juliette's analogy, if he were meeting with a make "buddy", he would have introduced me to this person. Or, am I not worth him introducing me to him buddy? Am I being crazy and letting Juliette's crazy talk get into my head. I can't blame her for talking crazy though, her boyfriend has put her through a lot and if she has a case of recurring PTSD with men and their behaviours, that's not on me. Let's say he was meeting with a guy buddy, will he be that religious with it? Do guys meet up their friends religious whether there is a rain or a scorching sun? Is it that serious that they have to keep up with a meeting for a long time? I need to ask a guy about this. But, who? Oh! I will ask Matt! He should know. If I ask him, wouldn't that just be me giving life to this thought that Juls has bred in my head? I'm fucked! Ashley thought.

"Are you okay? You literally zoned out on me." Juliette asked Ashley after she nudged her.

Ashley rubbed her temple and said, "Yeah, I'm good, I just be thinking about some stuff."

"I just be? When did you start speaking like that?"

"I'm all over the place with my words. Listen, is Matt in there?" She asked pointed at their door. It was obvious she was asking if he was in his room because the doors of the two rooms faced each other.

"I would like to think so, why?"

"He, um, I just need to ask him about something."

"What?"

"Life."

The words had gone out of her mouth when she realized how unplanned and ridiculous the lie sounded. Juliette shot her a look like she knew she just lied but she was expecting the truth.

"I just want to ask him about something, Juls, don't make me lie to you. I'll be right back though."

"Hmm, okay." Juliette replied and then just climbed on her bed to sleep. But she went off because she needed to close her window first. She closed her blinds to make the room look darker and went back to her bed and then closed her eyes.

Ashley was already out of the room and in front of Matt's room. She knocked on it and waited patiently for him to respond.

Matt heard the knock on his door and knew that it was either of the three ladies. He wondered what could be so important that they couldn't wait till he was awake to talk. Back at home, nobody dares disturbed him if he was going to bed or trying to go to bed. He waited for some seconds to be sure he actually heard a knock or if it was a dream because he had drifted off to sleep before the sudden knock on his door happened.

The knock came again and again and he knew the only way to stop whatever was going on was to meet the person. He knew it was not Juliette because she never came to his room and she certainly never disturbed him if he was in his room and had the door shut.

He went towards the door begrudgingly and the opened the door with a friend on his face. "Hey Matt, I'm so sorry- did I wake you up?"

"Can you guess?" He looked and sounded very grumpy and if Ashley did not go there for a specific purpose, she would have apologised and left, that's how unhappy and intimidating he looked.

"I'm sorry, I just, I, um, it's stupid but I wanted to confirm something from you."

"And it couldn't wait?"

"No, it's a matter of life and death." She began and then she looked down.

"Well, let's hear it." He said and leaned on the frame of the door. The way he leaned, it was obvious that he did not want anyone to come into the house and he also did not want anyone who was outside to see inside his room. However, Ashley took a sneak peek before he leaned on the door and it was not only arranged, it looked very clean in there.

As she slowly raised her eyes to meet his, she let her eyes slowly wander through his body, from his leg upwards. He was wearing the same jean he wore from the trip but he took off his shirt and he had this chain around his neck, it looked like an expensive silver chain, but that's not what caught her attention- Matt was standing in front of her, completely SHIRTLESS!

She couldn't help but look at his abdominal muscles, they were all in the right place, all six of them. His chest was broad and very firm. She could rest on them and feel very safe. He had a perfect body without even trying. She didn't know when a sign escaped from her throat. She was not attracted to him but she would have loved to watch him shirtless everyday for the rest of her life. He would find it rude and annoying if she proposed the idea, who wouldn't anyways. Luckily, she had Winston's body to stare at all the time and anytime she wanted.

Matt was over this. What the fuck? Did she fucking call me to fucking stare at me? What's with this behaviour? Juliette does the same, although, it's cute when she does it because I want her to do it. Not Everytime but a good amount of time. She can do it anytime she wants. What was I thinking again? Oh yeah, this one cannot do this. The little girl cannot be this either. If she does, I might have a word with Juliette or move out entirely. But, this bullshit move has to end. I know she did not call me out of my room to stare t my body! Ugh! I gotta put an end to this, I need to sleep before I get an eyebag before the meeting, Matt thought.

He shook his head, looked at Ashley and snapped his thumb and his index finger together, making at snapping sound as he said "Ashley!"

She jumped and then became embarrassed. If Matt was not upset about being woken up the way he was, he might have handled it better but being a shirtless model was not what he wanted to be doing at this time.

"What did you want to tell me, Ashley?"

"Right, I need your expertise on something."

"My expertise." Matt repeated. He wanted to be sure he heard it right the first time.

"Yeah. So, my boyfriend-"

"Ashley, I don't know I should be the one you should be asking about your boyfriend."

"Just hear me out."

"So, my boyfriend, you don't know him, he has been doing something that I discussed with Juliette and she thought was weird. Now, here's the thing, I personally don't think there's anything to what he's doing but I just need a third opinion."

"Interesting" Matt had hoped that he would never be the guy they would run to to ask about other guys. He did not think of himself friendly enough to talk about those type of things.

I mean, what's next? Tea parties and shopping sprees? But, let me hear what this is about, he thought.

"So, he goes out of town every Sunday. Today, before I came to pick y'all up, we spoke and he was on his way on the trip. It's about one hour to the place and another hour back or so. This is excluding the time he spends there. I asked him who he's going to see and he said it was his buddy and we have had this conversation before. Mind you, we have never had it. Anyways, when I probed him further to try to get more information, he said he was going to see his "buddy", that's all he said."

"Have you ever been introduced to the buddy?"

"No"

"Do you know any of his buddies within the city?"

"He doesn't really have a buddy within the city. I mean, he has a few work friends and all but they're not so close that they go over to his place."

"Work friends are work friends, that's a different relationship. So, he does not have any friends over, or is it that you have never seen any of his friends.?

"Look, we've been together for two months and counting. Half of the time, he's at my place. If he had friends outside work, don't you think I'd know?"

"What if his friends are married and their wives are not friendly enough and so he stopped hanging out with them."

"If that were true, I'd know."

"I'm not disputing that, but you might just be overanalyzing things and they may not be as it seems. I mean, you just said he does not really have friends in the city. Assuming this was correct, if he has a friend outside the city, it's not suspicious if he decides yo go see that friend every now and then. Does this friend come to see him?"

"That's the problem. This "buddy" of his has never come over, he got over every other Sunday. He's so religious at it that it's suspicious. Last two Sundays, we were supposed to hang out at noon the previous day but something happened and I cancelled it, so I called him to set up our outing the next day that was on Sunday afternoon because I knew that I would be less busy and I would have more time to hang out with him. He literally declined and told me that he had something he could not cancel."

"Well, that does not still mean anything. But, if I want to be over-analytical like you right now, it looks like he has another family or probably visiting someone in prison or in a facility. It could be that his buddy is in prison or something, don't sweat it."

"If he has a buddy in prison, why wouldn't he tell me?"

"Well, men usually don't tell very embarrassing things and things that could be misunderstood or used against them to the people they're dating. It might be a harmless thing on his part but maybe he does not trust you with that kind of information or that part of his life. My advice is that you should not probe him. He's hiding that from you because that's his vulnerable side and maybe work on making him trust you?"

"Why doesn't he trust me?"

"I don't know. Why didn't you trust him?"

"Because I thought he was cheating on me."

"He might, it he might not. Look, I don't know your boyfriend but what I do know is, dating a person for less than three months does not give you monopoly over every single aspect of their lives. If they decide to keep some information away from you, respect it and learn not to interfere with that process. If they trust you, they will let you know."

"So you're saying I should let it go, right?"

Matt shrugged and said, "I would. This is not as big as you think it is. And let's assume he is really cheating on you, what would you do besides dumping his ass?"

"I will dump his ass"

"Exactly. If he's cheating, you'll know. You girls always know."

"Yeah. Thanks Matt."

"You're welcome."

Then she turned and was about to leave when Matt said, "Um, Ashley"

"Yeah?"

"Don't wake me up when I'm trying to rest unless there's an emergency. By emergency, I mean, there is a fire, it's raining fire or DC Universe headquarters is on fire. Other than those three, do not wake me up."

"DC Universe headquarters?"

"You have your girl stuff going on with you, I have the DC superheroes

"I would never have guessed that you're a nerd! Who is your favorite superhero?"

"Batman, duh! Like, how are you clueless about that. He's the smartest, richest, only normal person who managed to take down bad guys and Gillian's who superpowers, what's cooler than that?"

"He also kidnaps kids"

"That's blasphemy and I will be damned if I stand here and listen to that crap you're spewing right now."

"Wonderwoman is the best superhero."

"I'm not doubting her strength, bracelets, shield, lasso of truth, and great sword-game, but she's also not without super powers. I mean, she's an Amazon princess."

"And she can defeat you Batman."

Matt looked at Ashley, completely stunned that she would say that about his favorite superhero. He understoid that Ashley may have her reservation about wonderwoman because she's a girl superhero but it was Batman that Ashley was comparing to Wonderwoman. They were in the same side but if they weren't, Wonderwoman did not stand a chance against Batman. Maybe against Bruce Wayne, but definitely not against Batman.

"Don't be stupid, Ashley. Diana could never."

He didn't wait to have more arguments about how things were, he just walked out of the door to get some water. All that argument and talking suddenly made him thirsty.

Ashley had a great time laughing and arguing with Matt. She could not believe he had the same favorite superhero in common with her boyfriend. Winston liked Batman so much that on their send date, he begged her to see the Batman movie that was showing in the cinema. She had been intrigued by the innocence he displayed in the way his eyes lit up at the sighting of the movies showing that weekend.

She did not want to see the movie but after he convinced she saw it and he would not stop trying to analyze and tell her about some thing she missed out in the movie. She watched him go on and on about him on their way home and she could not believe this was the same guy that puts on an official CEO persona when he was at work. The side of him she had unraveled was just so pleasing to her which was why she was confused as to why he would hide this new secret from her. She thought they had gotten to the point in their relationship that they were completely open and honest with each other.

She decided to heed to Matt's advice but hoped that things would change soon.