"You're such a dork," Ashley said, rolling around in the grass and laughing. She looked at Taylor, who was sitting on a bench. "When did you get to be so dorky?"
"I've always been a dork," Taylor admitted with a laugh, enjoying watching her roll on the ground. "But what about you? At least I'm not rolling around in the grass of a public PARK. There're little kids staring."
Ashley sighed, and sat up. "Do I embarrass you?"
"Nope," Taylor said. He moved from the bench to the grass beside her. He began to pick pieces of grass out of her hair. "But you've got grass in your hair. You look like a crow!"
"Oh, thank you," she said, slapping his hands away and pushing herself to her feet. She ran her hands through her hair for herself, and shook out all of the grass. "I don't look like a crow."
"With all that black hair and those mean old eyes, you do!" Taylor cackled. Ashley stuck out her tongue.
"Well at least I'm not blond like you," she said.
"What's so bad about being blond?" he asked, getting up and standing beside her.
"For one thing, it causes you to only have half as many brain cells as any other normal human being," Ashley said.
"Is that so?" he asked, grinning.
"Yes," Ashley said, as she began to walk back up to the trail. She turned back to face him abruptly. "And what are you grinning about?"
Taylor just shrugged, the idiotic grin still not gone from his face. "Dunno."
"Don't know, don't care," Ashley said in a singsong voice. Taylor nodded.
"Yup, yup," he said. They began to head back to Taylor's car.
"I wish I lived here," she said, looking up at the trees.
"Here? In the park?" he asked.
"NO!" she laughed. "Here. In Tulsa."
"Oh," he said. "Well, then, why not? Move here."
"Yeah, right," Ashley said. "I'm not coming to Tulsa!"
"Why not?" he asked again.
"Because," she told him.
"You've got everything you could ever want right here," he said.
"I know," Ashley said quietly. "That's the problem."
He looked at her, his eyes sad. "What if I left Tulsa? Would you come here then?"
"Nope," she said, her eyes meeting his. "There wouldn't be anything left that would draw me out here."
He gave her a confused look. "Isn't that a bit paradoxical?"
She shrugged, and they began to walk again. "Maybe so. I don't care. I'm just being honest."
"What's in France that is so important? Your mother-in-law?" he asked with a wry grin. She cracked a smile.
"No, stupid. My job," she said. "My house."
"Friends?" he asked.
"Ain't got any," she replied.
"Ashley, that was just THE Oklahoman response," he snickered.
"Shut up!" she said, grinning. "You make even my attempts at being morose seem humoring."
"Morose?" he asked. "You? Never! There's never a dull moment when you're around Ashley Phillips!! Never a dull moment in her presence!!" he shouted, flailing his hands about. He looked at her suddenly, eyebrows waggling. "I suddenly felt like someone out of Mary Poppins."
"I'm not calling you Bert," Ashley told him. They burst out laughing at their stupid little joke that really wasn't even that funny. Taylor poked her side.
"You used to be fun like this all the time," he said. "Old age getting to you?"
She ignored the question and looked at her watch. "Half an hour. Well, shoot. Taylor, I need to get back to my car."
"You're CAR?!" he exclaimed. He was overcome again with laughter.
Ashley rolled her eyes. "C'mon. I'm being serious. I've got to go to work."
Taylor sighed. "Even you are a workaholic."
"Yup," Ashley said. "Gimme the keys."
Taylor handed over the keys, knowing better than to argue with her. It would only be a waste of his time. She noticed that his shoulders had slumped a bit, and he seemed a bit crestfallen. She gave him a shove.
"Cheer up," she said. "It's not that bad."
"I know," he said. "I just thought there for a moment we would just never go back or something."
"Never go back?" Ashley asked. "What are you? Crazy? Where would we go?"
"To Acapulco," he said, his eyes lingering on her for a moment longer than they should have.
"What would we do in Acapulco?" she asked, a small bounce in her step. She still thought he was joking. He knew she thought he was joking. He knew, however, that he wasn't.
"We'd elope," he said quickly.
She stopped walking again. Her eyes searched him for some vestige of a joke. "Please say you're kidding me." Her heart felt as though it might pound right out of her chest.
He slowly shook his head. "I'm not kidding, Ashley."
She put her hands on his shoulders and shook him slightly. "Don't say stupid stuff like that. DON'T. Think Chloe. Think Josh, Marie, and Andy. Don't think Ashley. Ashley is a bad thought."
Taylor looked at her, his blue eyes full of tears. "I'm thinking."
"Good," Ashley said, pulling on his arm. "Now let's go. I've got to go to work."
The car trip seemed endless and silent. Ashley gripped the steering wheel so hard her knuckles were white. She couldn't take this. One day with Taylor and she'd nearly given in to him TWICE. One day. This wasn't fair. Why couldn't they just keep away from each other?
After she pulled into his driveway, they both got out. Ashley sprinted from Taylor's car to her own and got in. Taylor came to the passenger side before she could pull out and knocked on the window. With an exasperated look, she rolled it down. "What?" she called out of it.
"Will you be back tomorrow?" he asked.
She smiled in spite of herself. "If you want me to."
"I do," he said.
She shrugged and waved. "Bye, Taylor."
"Bye, Ash," he said. With that, she turned the key in the ignition and drove off, waving to him through the window. He watched her drive off, feeling content. He knew she'd be back.
