Through the crowd

Lily made her way back to the guest hall, face tightened and fuming with anger. She frantically ran her eyes across the room, searching for her friends that she came with. Her eyes widened in relief when she found one of them.

Pushing through the crowd, she walked up to Joan, who was visibly flirting with a slightly handsome looking stranger. She yanked on her arm, ignoring the man her friend was talking to. She noticed the unsatisfied look on his face, but caring wasn't even on her list.

"Whoa," Joan turned to her, also disregarding the man she was just speaking to. He furiously walked away.

"Why do you look like you're about to beat the crap out of someone?" Joan laughed out loud, attracting the attention of guests around them.

Lily's anger suddenly disappeared, replaced with embarrassment. There was no doubt that Joan was a little drunk.

"Keep it down Joan." she hissed as she rolled her eyes.

Joan was a typical example of the loud friend you wouldn't want to be around when they're drunk. However, she was a sweet soul and Lily's best friend.

"Where's Neo? We should get out of here." Lily began to search the crowd with her eyes once again.

"Leave? Why? I still haven't gotten that picture with Asher."

Lily rolled her eyes at Joan's sentence. Joan was obsessed with Asher. She once mentioned having a dream where she and him got married. Lily and the others mocked her for it, but that didn't stop Joan from obsessing over him.

"Trust me, he's a bigger dick than you think."

"Well, I hope so." Joan smirked, with a wink of her left eye.

Lily was about to say something to express her disgust at what Joan just implied when Joan suddenly shook her violently.

"He's here!" Joan yelled in a whisper.

"Who's here?" Lily shoved her off, bending down to pick her purse that had fallen to the floor when Joan shook her.

"Asher."

She heard Joan say as she stood upright. Her eyes followed Joan's gaze to the man coming down the stairs. She was not able to see his face properly in the dimly lit art gallery from minutes before, but now she noticed how insanely attractive he was.

"Why is he wearing a different shirt?" she heard Joan ask. Immediately, her mind flashed back to the incident that happened minutes ago.

Her eyes widened in horror. "We have to go." She tried to drag Joan, but she proved adamant.

"Fine then," she let go of Joan's arm. "Meet me at home." Lily sighed out in frustration, ducking to hastily make her way out of the crowd.

Unknown to Lily, Asher spotted a strange looking girl, waving at him with a wide grin from among the crowd. He was used to this type of attention and was about to ignore her when a familiar figure caught his eye.

On closer observation, he realized who it was. Lily. His anger returned and his fiery eyes watched as she made her way through the crowd and towards the exit. He hurriedly gestured towards one of the security guards, who rushed to his side.

"You see that girl?" he pointed in Lily's direction. He noticed the other girl's smile grew bigger.

"Not the weird one," he said quickly. "The one with the orange scarf, heading for the exit." he mumbled, impatiently waiting for the guard to pick up on his description.

"The one with the dark hair?" Asher let out a sigh of relief when the guard finally spotted her.

"Yes, that one," he nodded. "Make sure she doesn't leave this building." he demanded, pushing the guard from behind, sending him on his way.

His hungry eyes watched Lily until she was out of his sight before resting them on the guard he sent after her.

"Mr Asher." Asher's attentioned was dragged away from the guard by a strange voice. He turned to see the weird smiley girl that was waving at him minutes ago.

"Mr Asher, my name is Joan," she continued even when he didn't respond. "I am a huge fan of you and your work." she maintained her wide grin, excited that she was finally talking to the man of her dreams.

"Thank you." he replied blatantly. Once again, he didn't care for who she was or to make her acquaintance, he wanted to make sure Lily didn't escape.

"If it's okay with you, I would love a picture with you." Joan was going to make sure she would get a picture with Asher, even if it was at his expense.

From the corner of his eye, he noticed the guard he sent after Lily, standing at the entrance on the other side of the room. Directly opposite the exit, where she walked out through. He was immediately disturbed by the fact that the guard stood in a corner, instead of bringing the girl to him.

"Maybe next time," he hissed. "Excuse me." he didn't wait for a response from Joan before hurriedly making his way through the crowd.

"What a jerk." Joan cursed under her breath as she made her way towards the exit in search of her best friend.

Asher was barely able to make it across the room without attracting handshakes and congratulatory gestures from everyone he walked past. He loved being rich and powerful, but he hated the butt kissing that came with it.

"Did you find her?" he asked when he was finally close enough to the guard.

"I'm sorry sir, I think she was gone before I made it across the crowd." the guard mumbled with a hint of disappointment, obviously in himself.

Asher's anger kicked in once again. She had slipped out of his hands for the second time tonight. With a silent promise to himself that he wasn't going to let her slip away one more time, he tightened his fist and made his way through the crowd. He wasn't going to let a random rude girl spoil his celebration.