L.A.: Lover. Achiever.

The next morning, Jamie slept in. She had been sleeping in all of this year, and she didn’t think it was possible anymore for her to wake up before 10a.m. even if she wanted to. “I miss Ashton!” were her first thoughts. She reached out for her cell phone and began dialing his number. She was hoping she could catch him before he got to work. Voicemail. “Crap!” she said, and went back under the sheets. She slept for another hour.

Ashton and Jamie had met in Chicago, around a year ago. Jamie was attending her cousin’s graduation at the University of Chicago. They had gone for every single party held at the campus, and at one of these parties Jamie had met Ashton. She saw him standing randomly in the middle of the room, looking somewhat lost. She smiled at him and said “Hi”. That’s how they got talking. Jamie was absolutely floored by Ashton. He came across as a very sensible, humble, grounded and extremely sweet guy. He was a bit shy then, and Jamie found that extremely adorable. The conversation ended after 3 long hours! Ashton had asked her for her number and Jamie was more than delighted to give it to him. But that was a year ago. A lot had changed since then. Ashton had changed since then, or so Jamie felt. However, Ashton felt otherwise. He argued that he was the same guy, just with different priorities. Jamie didn’t like his new priorities at all. She missed the ‘old Ashton’, the one who had time for her.

She called that his “Lover’ phase, when they spent hours together – talking, laughing, getting to know each other, going to coffee shops, dinners, lunches, long drives, bars/lounges, night clubs- they did it all, they did it all together. She had never felt so much love from a single person ever! She could hardly believe it half the time, and absolutely adored Ashton! But ever since, he had graduated from business school, Ashton was a changed man. Initially, Jamie had been unable to deal with the change and that had lead to many many arguments between the two of them. “Why do you constantly fail to understand that I can’t give you that kind of time anymore??” he has said to her on many an occasion. “It’s not that I don’t want to, I just can’t do it! I absolutely CANNOT!!!”

It’s not that Jamie didn’t get it, she didn’t want to. She wanted to be with her Ashton all the time, she hated that she couldn’t. He was in “Achiever” mode, and Jamie feared that he would probably be in it forever. He wanted to climb the corporate ladder, make lots of money, buy a swanky apartment in Manhattan, own at least 5 Audis… and none of that could be attained while in Lover mode for sure!

She also feared that he might be losing respect for her. Ashton liked intelligent women, and he believed Jamie was one. (She didn’t consider herself to be stupid, but she wasn’t quite sure ho intelligent she was either..). Over the past year though, Ashton had done a lot for himself, while she was pretty much sailing in the same boat. She often wondered if he still looked at her with the same eyes as he had in the past. She had her doubts.