EPILOGUE (Not even proofread)

LOVE IS... LIFE

'In the end, you will see who is fake, who is true and who would risk it all for you.'

No matter how positively I had left the country a year ago, somewhere in my mind, I was always scared; scared of what might become of Ashton and me; scared of a change of feelings that he might undergo due to the thousands of miles distance between us. There was always a possibility, according to the pessimist in me. But Ashton killed that pessimist with his faith, love, and trust. The killing process included him visiting me about four times in the last one year and me visiting him three times along with the regular phone calls despite of the time differences; and the cute mails we sent to each other once in a while with little notes and pictures.

The pressure of his three exhibitions during the year and me travelling for work had taken a toll on us sometimes. It wasn't all a bed of rose petals as we had our share of fights, the reason of which was mainly the distance between us and the lack of any physical contact between us. It wasn't just the need to make love that we felt and fought upon, it was the frustration of not being able to hold hands, or hug, or just a simple touch that both of us needed pretty badly from time to time. But we overcame it all. We counted months, weeks, and days till I finally came back today at the end of the hectic but enlightening assignment.

The voice of the doorbell ringing broke the train of my thoughts. Knowing well enough about who was on the other side of the door, a smile broke its way to my face and I checked my reflection in the mirror for the final time. And within those few seconds, the doorbell was rung a few more times. Rolling my eyes at his expected impatience, I rushed towards the door and opened it to find Ashton standing at the other side with his hand resting on the door bell.

"Stop it, Ashton." I rolled my eyes at him, though my lips stretched into a huge smile.

He grinned at me, stepped inside the apartment, and shut the door behind him. In an instant, I found his arms wrapped around my waist in a tight grip. Ignoring what I had just said, he said, "You look-"

"Like a zombie?" I finished his sentence for him, raising my eyebrows with a little teasing smirk on my face.

He shook his head with a scoff, and continued, "...like a beautiful zombie."

I swatted his chest playfully while chuckling, but he was quick to stop my chuckles with a kiss. Smiling into the kiss, I grazed his well trimmed beard with my hands and slowly moved my hands towards his hair while he was busy exploring all my perfect and imperfect curves. He looked at me with his intense grey gaze after pulling away from the kiss, and said, "We better stop, or I'll ruin your dress, hair and make-up right now."

Laughing lightly, I snaked my arms around his neck and leaned a bit into him. "I don't mind."

He groaned in frustration, and I rejoiced the satisfaction of having such an effect on him. "No!" He exclaimed, taking a sudden step away from me. "I'm taking you out on a date and that's final."

Smiling at him, I straightened my cream colored knee length dress and asked him with plain curiosity, "Why do you suddenly want to take me on a date?"

He answered with a grimace, "I realized that I have been a terrible boyfriend to you." My shoulders slumped a little as I shook my head, but before I could scold him, he shushed me and continued, "Do you realize that I haven't taken you out on a proper date in our relationship till now?"

Frowning, I pondered over his question. He smiled and took a step towards me. "In the beginning, we went out with those girls on those supposed dates, then when you were about to go away, we went out for quick dinners hardly two times and the rest of the time, we just ate at either of ours apartments. What I mean is that, I have not taken you out on a proper date till now and I owe it to you."

The frown from my face had slowly converted into a grin and I asked him, "So you just ordered me to get ready?"

"Yup." He grinned back.

I shook my head in mock disappointment. "The first step of taking a girl out on a date is to ask the girl 'nicely' whether she would like to go on a date with you or not. And then decide the time, and pick her up. It does not involve ordering the girl to get ready in an hour as we have to go somewhere."

He visibly shuddered and made a disgusted face. "That is way too gentlemanly for my taste."

"Of course," I mumbled with a chuckle.

"And 'nicely'? What the hell does that word even mean?" he asked in fake curiosity.

I rolled my eyes at him, trying to hide the betraying smile. Only I knew how much I had missed him in the last two months. I had arrived from Bali after a wonderful one month, as the last slot of my assignment, this morning only. Obviously, he was there at the airport to receive me, hug me, kiss me, and to tell me by his actions that he had missed me as terribly as I had missed him. We went for a quick breakfast in a little café as I had missed the typical American breakfast a lot. After that, he had dropped me at Stephanie's place as I had sublet my own apartment after moving out a year ago. Stephanie was not in town as she had gone to Los Angeles for an assignment and she handed over the keys to Ashton before leaving.

Ashton had ordered me to rest and sleep for the entire day and I easily complied. Jet lag was not a pretty thing. I woke up only after his call about two hours ago with him asking me to get ready and wear something nice and stylish as we were going out.

Yes, he definitely didn't know the word 'nice', but he knew 'amazing', and that's what he was.

He, successfully, brought me back from the flashback when he enveloped me in his grasp, resting his hands on my hips, making me inhale his addicting musk and mint fragrance. I looked up in his eyes that were filled with affection for me, and I chose to get lost in them for a while. There were times, a year back, when I used to search for opportunities to look into his eyes, to see the mysterious grays, to understand his emotions, or just to stare into them as it was his eyes that I had fallen in love with at first.

There were times in this one year, when I yearned to look at him, to look into his eyes to get some sort of comfort and satisfaction, to see his emotions in his eyes with equal passion as his voice held whenever we made video calls to each other. Seeing him on video calls was momentarily satisfying as we didn't have any other option and we got used to it eventually.

But now was the time to cherish him, to look at him, to hear him laugh, and to see the twinkle in his eyes when he smiled at me. And this time, neither did I need an excuse like I did a year ago nor did I need the help of technology to look at him as I did during the past one year, because now, he was right in front of me, looking at me with those beautiful eyes with the same intensity and love that I had yearned to see.

And in that moment, I felt pretty thankful to the distance that had prevailed between us in the last one year. Had our emotions been equally overwhelming had we not faced the sweet and bitter wrath of a long distance relationship? Maybe yes... maybe no. All I knew was that in that moment, my overwhelming emotions made me thankful of everything I had lost and gained, and everything I had in life.

"So, just for your sake..." Ashton's voice brought me back and I raised my eyebrows as he trailed off. "... will you go on a date with me?" I pressed my lips together to stop the smile that was threatening to get wider with each passing moment. Letting out a deep breath, I pretended to be in deep thoughts as I bit my lips and made him wait for my obvious answer. "C'mon!" He groaned, upon realizing that I was teasing him.

"Well, you've beautiful eyes," I said, repeating the line I had told him at that bar over a year ago. His eyes twinkled, showing that the line reminded him of that night, too.

He chuckled when I didn't continue my sentence, telling him that how could I say no to him when he was looking at me like this? "I'll take that as a 'yes'."

I laughed lightly at him, but he kissed my laughter away. I obliged by kissing him back. Before we could get lost in our emotions, we were disturbed by the doorbell.

"Who is it?" Ashton, as expected, groaned while pulling away slightly.

Frowning, I told him, "I have no idea.

"Then it's better to ignore them," he replied, leaning for yet another kiss after defining his logic.

I ducked just as the person rang the doorbell again. "Ashton!" I hissed, laughing lightly.

"Ms. Uptight," he grumbled, clearly unhappy. "I hate doorbells. Who invented them anyway?"

Clearly, nothing about Ashton had changed in one year.

"Joseph Henry," I answered with a proud grin.

He raised his eyebrows with amusement. "For how long did you wait to use this one against me?"

I laughed at how right he was and shot a cheeky grin in his direction just when the doorbell rang again. Leaving him unanswered, I rushed towards the door and before the intruder could continue the assault on my doorbell, I opened the door.

"Harry!" I exclaimed the moment my eyes fell on his grinning face.

His grin immediately faded as he scrunched up his face in disgust. "The name is Wayne. Bruce Wayne."

I frowned at him. "Batman is way too awesome to use anyone's style."

He grinned again and pulled me in a hug. "My dear Selena, I knew you would never mind my secret identity like Rachel did. You're my Catwoman!"

I laughed in his embrace as I really had missed him and his hugs. "How are you?"

Before he could answer me, he was pulled away from me by Ashton, who was looking at his friend with an irritated scowl on his face. "When would you stop hitting on my girlfriend?"

Harry's eyes widened dramatically as he looked at me and gasped. "Zacchaeus, what are you doing here?" he asked Ashton, using his artist name, which made Ashton roll his eyes at him. Not getting an answer from Ashton didn't bother Harry as he diverted his attention towards me and asked, "You already have a boyfriend, Selena?"

"Shut the f*ck up, Harry!" Ashton grumbled, grabbing my hand in the process and pulling me inside the apartment while I continued laughing much to Ashton's dismay.

"It's not Harry!" We heard Harry grumble from behind us as he followed us inside.

Ashton rolled his eyes and asked, "So why the hell are you here?"

"Ouch!" Harry kept his hand over his heart in mock hurt.

"Ashton!" I hissed in complete vain.

Seeing my concern towards him, Harry's smile returned and he answered, "I came here to meet Selena. She is back, finally. We should go and party." His enthusiastic expressions and grin was proof enough that he was over the moon regarding the idea of partying together, while the frown on Ashton and my face clearly showed our displeasure at the prospects of cancelling our first proper date.

Again, before we could suggest partying some other day as we had a date planned tonight, the doorbell rang. "Who is it now?" No points for guessing, it was Ashton who grumbled yet again.

"I'll see," Harry, thankfully, volunteered and stepped towards the door.

The moment he was out of our zone – three steps away – Ashton mumbled, "The only people partying today will be you and I. He can go and party alone, but I won't let him ruin our date." I grinned at him and agreed silently.

After such a long test of our patience, we definitely deserved at least a date!

"Look, who's here, people!" Harry's voice brought us back from the little trance we had gone into while looking into each other's eyes. Our heads snapped towards the door to reveal Dylan, Ashton's elder brother.

"Ah! Liana, how are you?" he asked, walking towards us.

Ashton didn't let me answer and asked back, "What the hell are you doing here?"

Dylan frowned a bit. "That's no way to greet your elder brother now, is it, little bro?"

I pressed my lips together to stop myself from smiling at Ashton's expense, but Harry had no such qualms as he laughed heartily and repeated, "Little bro? You have a rather cranky little brother, Dylan."

"Tell me about it." Dylan immediately agreed with a smirk.

"Why don't you both just take my golden advice and get lost?" Ashton asked, but didn't let them answer as he turned towards me. "Liana, let's leave. Shall we?"

"What? Where are you going? I came to meet Liana. You can't just take her away," Harry complained.

"True, man! I thought I would catch with Liana about her trip and see if she is alright. I even booked a table at The Leaf for all of us. Let's go and have dinner there," Dylan suggested, happy with his plan.

Ashton and I looked between the two of them and then we looked at each other, helplessly and silently asking the other to tell them to go away. No, I wasn't sad or disappointed that they came to meet me. In fact, I was happy and overwhelmed at their gesture, but I doubted when Ashton would again ask me out for a date. It was such a rare moment that needed to be treasured and taken advantage of.

Pressing my lips together, I faced them as they looked back at me smiles on their faces. "Guys, I can't thank you enough for coming here to meet me. Seriously! But, you see... uhm... the thing is-"

Much to my annoyance, I was cut off by the sound of the doorbell. "What? Who is it now?" Hundred points for guessing, it was me who grumbled this time while Ashton let out an amused chuckle at my sudden impatience.

"Woah there, Tiger!" Dylan stepped back with a chuckle, raising his hands in attempt to silent my sudden outrage.

"Sorry," I mumbled, scratching the back of my neck.

"I'll see who it is." He laughed and went to open the door.

With slumped shoulders and a defeated look, I faced Ashton who was already looking at me with raised eyebrows, expecting me to answer the golden question 'who is it now?'. I shrugged my shoulders in response and we waited for Dylan to announce it now.

"Selena, are you okay? You didn't rest properly, did you? You seem to have jet lag, darling. You need to sleep. The first thing you'll do once we come back from out dinner is go straight to your bed and sleep the night away. Do you get me?" Harry asked and ordered at the same time with complete concern, which I couldn't help but find adorable. So, I grinned at him and nodded my head.

"Stop calling her Selena." Ashton chuckled.

"Mr. and Mrs. Moore, please welcome. I'm Dylan, Ashton's elder and more behaved brother." We heard Dylan introduce himself.

"Mom, Dad?" I gasped in surprise, looking at Ashton who had similar expression of surprise on his face.

Within a few seconds, Mom and Dad entered the apartment with huge smiles on their faces; the smiles that only got wider when their eyes landed on me. In the next few seconds, I was enveloped in a hug between both of them as we told one another how much we had missed each other. The little reunion was followed by my parents hugging my boyfriend. Their relationship had wonderfully developed in the last one year when I had been away. They had met randomly and had dinners behind my back where Mom and Dad had successfully fulfilled the prime purpose of those dinners – sharing all my embarrassing stories with Ashton – who in turn had not left a stone unturned to tease me.

After everything that happened a year ago, Dad had become more vocal about his feelings with us and had become more understanding of our feelings. The change was a very positive one and I could never thank Ashton for the same. No wonder, they loved him as my boyfriend.

We settled in the living room, our date forgotten for a little while as I asked them frantic questions about their health and they asked me about my flight.

"We really needed to see you. It has been so long since you had something cooked by me. So, I cooked some of your favorite dishes and brought them. We'll just heat them a bit and we all can have dinner together." Mom smiled, looking at us with adoring eyes.

"That's so thoughtful of you, Mrs. Moore." Ashton smiled at her, making her smile widen.

Our eyes found each other's eyes and we smiled, without saying anything we mutually decided to postpone our date for my parents and to spend time with them.

"Sounds perfect to me, Mrs. Cat." Harry grinned from ear to ear, looking more than eager at the prospect of having home cooked food.

The smile from Mom's face wiped away as she looked at Harry with a confused face. Dylan asked the question on her behalf, "Mrs. Cat?"

Harry looked at him as if he had been asked the most stupid question ever, and said, "I don't know Catwoman's parents' names."

Ashton and I laughed at that, while my parents and Dylan still looked perfectly confused.

Choosing to ignore Harry, Dylan said, "I'll cancel the table I had booked. Having dinner here seems like a better plan anyway."

And just like that, we fell into conversations, smiles and laughter for the next few hours.

********

"Seems like going on a date wasn't in our destiny today." Ashton chuckled as he rubbed my knuckles with his thumb.

I looked up at his face after detaching myself from his arm that I had been clinging to since the last few minutes. After the noisy, joyful, and utterly delicious dinner cooked by Mom, my parents had left for the Hotel where they were staying for the night, while Dylan and Harry had happily promised me a dinner in the coming few days. Once they left, Ashton suggested that we should have a stroll in the nearby area. So, here we were, hand in hand, letting the City's light breeze do the talking as we just held each other with smiles on our faces.

Licking the ice cream that I was holding in my free hand, I told him with a grin, "Who said so? We are on our ice cream date."

He chuckled at my response and pecked my forehead. "But that doesn't mean that I won't take you out on a date. I will and that will be the best date of your life, Liana Moore," he stated with determination.

"Ooh! I can't wait." I laughed, already content to be with him and not having to worry about going away after a few days or the time difference.

"You know, when I think about how things turned out to be, I can't help but feel grateful to Mr. Ryan Parker for one thing he did to me," he said after a few moments of silence.

My eyebrows rose at his unexpected confession. Nothing about his relation with his father had changed in the last one year, though Priscilla was a different story. When she came to know about our relationship, she had shown her happiness and acceptance quite clearly. And when Ashton saw how happy she was that it was me with whom Ashton ended up falling in love with, and not one of those twenty candidates, he decided to cut some slack and be cordial with her. Both Priscilla and I were more than happy about it, though he still couldn't call her 'Mom' and met her rarely. "What is it?" I asked.

He smiled his beautiful smile with that twinkle in his eyes and answered me, "I'm grateful that he humiliated me at that party months ago because if he hadn't done that I wouldn't have fought with him, and I definitely wouldn't have ended in that bar; and if I wouldn't have ended up in that bar, I wouldn't have met you in your completely drunken state. So, yup, I'm pretty grateful to him that he humiliated me that night."

Grinning at his reply, I stood on my toes and kissed him on his lips. "Who are you and what have you done to the Ashton I used to know?" He rolled his eyes at me and I told him, "It'll be terrible on my part if I say that even I'm grateful that he humiliated you, but the way you put it... yup, me too."

"Who would have thought that I would actually fall in bullsh*t?" he wondered out loud.

With a smirk, I told him, "I knew! I was your cupid, after all."

"The worst cupid, Liana. It was like you wanted me since the beginning that's why you were so pathetic at your job." He chuckled.

"No!" I exclaimed, stepping away from me and immediately missing the warmth his body had been providing me. "I was marvelous at my job. I made you fall in love."

"With yourself." He completed my sentence. "That is so not how a cupid is supposed to work." A sheepish grin came over my face before I could protest. He chuckled at my expressions and pulled me closer to him, holding my hands in his big, warmer ones, and mumbled, "Idiot." And then he kissed me, forgetting that we were in a busy New Your City street with people walking past us from all sides. We laughed, finished our ice creams, and walked the streets hand in hand.

Sure, the night didn't turn out as we wanted, but it turned out to be better.

We were so lost in our talks and in each other that we didn't notice that I had somehow dropped my phone on the street a few steps back. "Hey!" someone called, making us turn around in an instant. My eyes widened when I saw it was the person I least expected to see. Nolan had the same expressions on his face as his eyes went from Ashton to me. "Liana," he mumbled. It took him a few seconds to collect his thoughts and then he continued, "You - you dropped your phone."

My eyes went to his hand and sure enough, the device looked like my phone. I checked my pockets and realized that they were indeed empty.

I looked to his left and saw Kelly, looking between us with concern. But what caught my attention was the little baby girl in her arms who looked just a few months old and who had Nolan's exact eyes. A smile made its way to my face as I looked at them and then at Ashton, who was already looking at me, watching my expressions.

It looked like he liked what he saw as he smiled proudly at me and grinned at Nolan. "Thanks, man." He gave a friendly pat on his shoulder, taking both Kelly and Nolan by surprise.

With a little smile on my face, I watched as he took a few steps away and turned to look at me, waiting for me to follow him. My eyes drifted towards Nolan and Kelly, and I took in the picture of the family that they had become. I tried hard to find any bitter feelings, somewhere deep in my heart, but to my satisfaction, there weren't any. Would I have been able to grab the opportunity of travelling the world had I still been in a relationship with Nolan? Would I have met Ashton if it wasn't for him? Would he have been as understanding and supportive as Ashton was? The answers to all my inner questions were pretty obvious, and upon realizing that all I felt for him was nothing but gratitude.

And to show that gratitude, I took the phone from him and smiled wholeheartedly. "Thank you."

It wasn't a thank you for picking up my phone and handing it over to me. It was a thank you to Kelly because if she hadn't shown up at Nolan's apartment that night, I wouldn't have come to know about his betrayal and left from there to go to a local bar; I wouldn't have met Ashton. It was a thank you to Nolan for coming in my life years ago and going away at the perfect time.

Both Kelly and he looked relieved as they smiled back at us. Nolan nodded his head slightly, saying 'sorry' in his own way. My smile widened and I turned away from them to face Ashton, who held my hand happily.

"The screen didn't break, did it? Is everything alright?" Ashton asked as we walked away from Nolan and his new family.

I smiled up at him and told him, "Nothing broke. Everything is pretty perfect."

Sure, life didn't turn out as I wanted it, but it turned out to be better.

~THE END~

*********************

A/N

Finally!  Time to mark this story as 'COMPLETED'. This is the end of Liana and Ashton's story, and yes, NO SEQUALS.  I don't like dragging my stories. :') 

I tried to write the article that Liana must have written, but apparently, I don't have writing skills of a reporter. Lol. That's why it took me 1.5 months to upload this chapter. For majority of time, I was trying to write the article which was not turning nice at all, so I just dropped it & concentrated on the epilogue. Hope, you all are happy with this end. :')

I wanted to keep this story practical and tell you all that life is weird and nice, so just enjoy it. Things might be happening in your life with which you might not be happy, but don't lose heart. Stay positive and look forward to the future, because going forward, you'll appreciate everything that has happened in life, just like Liana & Ashton. <3 So, that's the moral of this story. :')

I'm emotional and super happy with the way this story has turned out to be. Super happy with the support that you all have provided. I can't thank you all enough for all the love and support you have given me in the form of votes, comments & messages. You guys, yes, you all, are AMAZING!

ANNOUNCEMENTS –

1. Ashton's story would follow soon. It won't be a different story, just Ashton's POV of this story and a lot more side of his story that we, readers, have been unaware of.

2. A new story follows soon and I promise, it'll have faster updates. Stay tuned, FOLLOW ME, for updates. I'll post the description and prologue in a day or two. It's gonna be a surprise. <3 :) Hint – The story is about a character you all know from either AWMA or Love Is... Any guesses? ;)

Till then, bye, beautiful peoples!

Signing off...

Richa <3