*Edward*
“I look ridiculous.”
She snorted, leaning forward to rest her chin on the top of the steering wheel.
“I do!”
“Yes,” she laughed, nodding as she sat up straight again. “You do.”
“Are you sure this will work?”
“You aren’t recognizable. You’re ridiculous, remember?”
I pursed my lips at her, turning to look in the side mirror to admire her handiwork. My hair was completely hidden underneath the black bandana, the hat was big enough to hide an entire person on the top of my head and my coat was pulled up around my chin, leaving only my nose visible to everyone else.
“Ridiculous,” I mumbled again, sitting back on the uncomfortable bench seat and stealing a glance over at her.
She had her lips pressed together in a very sad attempt at not laughing at me like she’d been doing since putting the stupid hat on my head about ten minutes ago.
But it was a hell of a lot better seeing her hold in laughter than those tears I’d seen in her eyes earlier.
Those had been like a very swift jab to my stomach. Especially knowing that I’d been the one to put them there. I was causing her pain, she was crying because of me. I never wanted to be the cause for any of that when it came to her.
And I’d been so damn anxious to see her, too. I wanted to talk to her, ask her everything I’d been thinking about since the night before.
I’d been wired – too busy thinking about what had just happened to get any real sleep. My mind was in overdrive, wondering about how she really felt about me, why she kissed me and how we’d deal with all of this when
I didn’t want her to regret it or be too embarrassed to come back to me. I didn’t want her to avoid me at all costs or be scared of me or her actions because God knows that I wasn’t.
And when the entire scene from last night ran through my head with those thoughts, I decided that I wasn’t going to let her. When
I wasn’t entirely sure when I’d decided that I wasn’t going to let her get away, but I’d made up my mind that I wasn’t going to let her pass me by. She was the one person that had never treated me differently even when she knew who I was. She was the one person I could spend hours with and never get tired of.
Not only was I anxious to talk to her, but I was terrified. What if she wasn’t really over Jacob and I was going to end up being her rebound? They’d only broken up a few days ago and already she was moving on to me? I didn’t want to be the guy she used to get over him; I wanted to be the guy she wanted to be with.
And if she truly was over him, would she be able to handle all that my lifestyle would throw at her? The constant hounding, the speculation, the non-stop barrage of photographers surrounding our every move? She didn’t have to deal with any of that now; did she really want to give that up just to be with me?
I wasn’t sure how we were going to make the long distance thing work, either. I’d never had to think about something like that before. But I couldn’t see myself without her for very long and having to deal with just phone calls would be bad enough. Did she want to be with me enough that she’d deal with not being able to see me on a regular basis?
And she did. She trusted me; something that my previous girlfriends hadn’t even tried to do before all hell had broken loose between us. She wanted to be with me, she was willing to give up her quiet, normal, peaceful life in this small town that we could both call home for me.
That had never happened before. I’d never had someone sacrifice so much of their life just so that they could be with me the way I wanted them to be.
I smiled over at her, watching as she kept her eyes trained on the road in front of her as her fingertips danced along to a rhythm that was completely in her head.
She’d insisted that we take this death trap she called a truck because it was possible that someone had seen me take off in the Volvo when I tried this by myself a few days ago.
I hadn’t thought of it that way and was forced to grudgingly agree, climbing into the passenger seat of the rusty vehicle while she practically danced over to the driver’s side, her keys held up triumphantly above her head as she climbed in.
And I vowed, then and there, that I would be driving us to and from wherever we needed to go in my rental car.
At least that had a working radio.
And it didn’t feel like I was sitting in a time bomb that was ready to go off at any wrong movement from either of us.
Most of the ride was spent in a comfortable silence, only interrupted when Bella would look over at me and snort again.
I’d merely pull the brim of the hat down lower, causing her snorts to become giggles and then outright laughter when I sunk lower into the seat and crossed my arms over my chest.
But the sound of her laughter made it all worth it. And the way she’d throw her head back to laugh when I attempted at a southern accent to go along with the hat was even better.
Maybe not such a good idea when she was driving, but it still made me feel a hell of a lot better to know that I could make her laugh like that.
When we pulled into the parking lot of Price Chopper twenty minutes later, all traces of relaxation were gone from my body. Just the sight of the outside of the stupid store made me tense, which was pretty damn stupid of me.
I couldn’t avoid every single place that I’d caused a scene in. If I did, I’d never have anywhere to go. I’d be house bound and that would get pretty old after a while.
“Hey.”
I snapped out of it, looking over as I heard Bella’s voice sound through my thoughts to realize that she’d parked as close to the front of the store that she could get. I tried my best to smile at her, feeling slightly sick through it.
If I had her house bound with me, though, maybe it wouldn’t all be so bad.
“Hm?” I mumbled, trying to make my smile look as real as possible.
She grabbed my hand and intertwined our fingers, squeezing gently and smiling softly at me.
“No one but me knows, Edward. We’ll be out of here in an hour at the most.”
“I know. I’m just…”
“I know,” she nodded, squeezing my hand again before letting go and pushing open her door. “An hour!”
I swallowed hard and grabbed the door handle, yanking on it and stepping down from the truck. I placed a hand on the top of the hat, making sure that it stayed in place even though there was no wind that might’ve taken it anywhere in the first place.
I wasn’t going to be taking anymore stupid changes with being recognized by someone else. Not when I was here in the place I’d run away to. Not when I was with the girl that had put aside her life to join mine, no questions asked. We had a little over two more weeks to enjoy the peace and quiet with each other until I had to go back to
Running away from a screaming horde of people didn’t really equal time well spent with Bella.
Paranoia had never been that much of an issue before. And if I hadn’t had Bella with me, maybe it still wouldn’t have been.
I didn’t like the screaming and the rushing up to me, but if I was by myself, I could handle it a little better. They didn’t want to hurt me; they just wanted to see me.
But I’d been by myself. I’d been able to escape when the situation called for it because I didn’t have to worry about anyone else escaping with me.
I had Bella now. If the hat thing didn’t work and someone recognized me anyway, Bella would be shoved front and center into the mix. There was a very high risk of her getting hurt in the whole thing if it got to that point and I was pretty sure that I would be the first one pushing people out of the way to get to her.
Jeannie would skin me alive when she got those pictures.
“Maybe we should go somewhere else,” I mumbled as Bella rounded the hood of her truck and joined me on the other side.
“Maybe you should relax and look around,” she said softly, once again twining her fingers with mine and pulling me into the open.
There were people scattered all over the parking lot this time, chasing after their children or shoving paper bags full of their groceries into their trunks.
And all of them had only briefly looked at me as we walked up to the front door, their eyes flicking away from mine as they continued on their way. None of them had gaped, stopped or pointed and I felt myself beginning to relax as we made our way through the automatic doors.
“Told you,” Bella muttered out of the corner of her mouth as she grabbed a cart.
I tugged on her hand, getting her to stop and leaned down to press a kiss against her cheek, carefully avoiding poking her in the eye with the brim of the hat.
“When you’re right, you’re right.”
I watched her face redden and grinned, taking the cart from her and following behind her as she pulled a list out of her purse.
And for once in a very long time, I felt normal. I was relaxed, once again hunched over the handle bar of the cart as I followed Bella up and down aisles, watching as it took her ten minutes to decide which cheese she wanted more.
I knew we’d never be out of here within the hour, but if I could be seen as a normal guy roaming around this store with his girlfriend then we could spend six hours in here and I wouldn’t care.
“What do you think about chicken parmesan for dinner?” she asked absently, her eyes trained on the two different packages of cheese she held in her hands.
I rested my elbow on the handle and cradled my cheek in my hand, smirking as I watched her eyes dart from package to package, clearly wondering what cheese would be best for the dishes she had in mind.
“We’re having dinner together, huh?” I asked.
She looked up at me, nodding as if it were the most obvious answer in the world.
“It’s the least you could do, you know,” she drawled as she threw one of the cheese packages into the cart and set the other back into the freezer.
“Excuse me?” I asked, raising an eyebrow that she probably couldn’t see anyway.
The hat was huge. And I loved it. My girlfriend and her crafty ways were absolutely brilliant.
And if it wasn’t for the way she’d just said that damn comment and made my heart fall into the very pit of my stomach, I probably would’ve smiled stupidly at the thought.
“Making me take you grocery shopping.” She rolled her eyes and turned away from me. “Such an invalid.”
I gaped after her, my mouth quite literally hanging open as she moved down the freezer, running a fingertip on the cold metal casing.
But then she looked over her shoulder at me, her eyes bright and a grin firmly planted on her lips.
I relaxed, breathing evenly and easily as I caught on to what she was doing. Something that I should’ve picked up to begin with. Something that should not have had me reacting that way.
Relax, Edward. Everything in your life right at this moment is perfect. Stop worrying and enjoy what you’ve got now.
“That was a low blow,” I pointed at her, moving the cart up behind her and effectively trapping her against the freezer. “It practically demands retaliation.”
“Oh? And what sort of retaliation do you plan on delivering?”
She jerked her chin up as she turned around, thankfully not tripping over the bottom of the cart as she did so, and crossed her arms over her chest in defiance.
I could still see the grin fighting to take over the hard line of her lips and almost couldn’t help myself from grinning back.
“It will not be easy,” I started, circling the cart until I was standing next to her. “And you probably won’t like it very much.”
“You can’t make predictions like that now, can you? You have no idea what I like and what I don’t like.”
And as she placed one of her hands on my chest when I got closer to her and bit her bottom lip, I would’ve bet my entire career on the fact that Bella Swan really would be the death of me.
Not that I’d be complaining while it happened. Oh, God, no. I would die with a smile on my face if this woman was the last person I ever saw.
“Hm,” I mumbled, gently wrapping my hand around her wrist and pulling her completely against me. “I’ll find out.”
“There are other people around.”
I jumped out of the bubble I forgot we weren’t encased in to see a middle aged woman with three young children standing in front of us, staring at what I was sure was about to become a very interesting show starring me and Bella.
Oops.
I held my breath, waiting for her to realize who was hiding underneath the hat and for the jaw-dropping, stuttering and possible screaming to begin.
“Sorry,” Bella laughed, gently pushing on my chest and getting me to move out of the way as her face flamed red. “We’ll be out of your way.”
She grabbed the first tub of butter she’d seen and plopped it into the already over-filled cart before quickly directing us away from the frozen food section.
“That was embarrassing,” she laughed as we walked down the cereal aisle towards the cash registers.
“That was absolutely amazing!” I exclaimed, grabbing her around the waist and making her stop. “She didn’t even blink at me,” I whispered when I’d turned her into my arms.
“The hat works for you,” she laughed, reaching up and gently tapping the top of it.
I laughed, pressed my lips to hers exuberantly and quickly and stepped back from her.
“All thanks to you.”
“Well,” she breathed, clearing her throat.
I grinned. I’d done that to her. And it felt really good to know that she reacted to me the same way I reacted to her most of the time.
“That was the plan wasn’t it?” she asked, smiling softly at me as she moved back to the cart.
“I will never doubt your choice of head wear again.”
“As you shouldn’t.” She nodded matter-of-factly before pursing her lips at the cart and looking back at me. “Do you have everything that you need?”
I peered over her shoulder and into the cart, looking over all the items that were mine and then landing on the cereal I’d been craving since the last time I’d been here, and nodded.
And then, before she could move, I wrapped my arms tightly around her waist and pulled her against me.
“Yes,” I whispered into her ear, “I have everything that I need.”
~*~
“You really don’t need to help me bring all of this stuff in, you know.”
I ignored her, grabbing a few more bags out of the bed of her truck and walking up the driveway to her front door, waiting as she walked up behind me with the keys.
I finally had groceries and I was pretty damn proud of it. I had also become very attached to the hat that made me look completely ridiculous simply because no one even looked twice at me while I was wearing it.
I’d made it up to the counter, once again cringing at my face on the cover of Life & Style and made it through the check out, easily paying for everything in cash and able to walk out of the store without someone screaming at me.
The afternoon had been a success and I would be spending the rest of my night with Bella.
Really, I had absolutely nothing to complain about at the moment.
“Edward, you have a lot of things to bring over to your own house. I’m more than capable of bringing all of this in on my own.”
I merely tilted my head at her, looking pointedly at the doorknob and then the keys in her hands.
If she really thought that I’d let her bring all of those bags in by herself, she was out of her mind. There might not have been much ice left on the driveway, but there was more than enough to make her slip and fall when she undoubtedly found it.
Plus, it was one sure way of spending just that much more time with her.
“It’s really infuriating when you don’t talk,” she grumbled, unlocking the door and pushing it open.
I smiled brightly at her and stepped into the living room, blinking at the total emptiness of it.
The only piece of furniture that was left in the small room was an old blue rocking chair, an out-of-place lamp and a small side table that was holding up a very large file folder stuffed with papers.
She’d told me that he’d taken pretty much everything, but I figured that she at least had a couch to sit on.
“He really did take everything, didn’t he?” I asked, turning around when I heard her step into the house.
She sighed heavily and nodded, shrugging and offering me a sad, pathetic smile.
“Yeah.”
“Bastard,” I grumbled, my eyes narrowing as I stomped my way into the kitchen and set the bags down on the floor.
Easily, the lightheartedness I’d been feeling since we walked out of Price Chopper was gone. Seeing what he’d taken from her – the beautiful, damn near perfect woman I was now officially attached to – had just made everything that I’d been feeling previous to this moment disappear.
I didn’t understand, no matter how beneficial it had been to me, how he could walk out on her over something as ridiculous as a jealousy issue. And to take more than half of what had been in the house they’d shared didn’t make anything easier to comprehend, either.
I waited until she walked in behind me, setting the few bags she held in her hands on the floor next to the ones I’d just placed there before I grabbed her arm and kept her in place.
“What else did he take?” I demanded.
“Nothing that I can’t replace.”
“Bella, what else did he take?”
She sighed heavily again and reached up to run her free hand through her hair, staring down at the floor and slowly shaking her head.
“The couch, the love seat, the bed, his dresser, a night stand, a few lamps and a couple of pots and pans. It’s nothing that I can’t replace.”
“He took your bed.”
She nodded, dropping her hand to her side as she looked up at me again.
“He took your bed,” I repeated, nearly growling as my eyes narrowed even further. “What have you been sleeping on?”
“It’s not a big…”
“It is a big deal, Bella!” I exclaimed. “This is a big damn deal!”
She’d conveniently left out the part about him taking her bed, meaning that she was probably sleeping on the floor or in that damn recliner that didn’t look at all comfortable out in the living room.
All she’d said was that he’d destroyed her bedroom. Never had she mentioned that he’d done so by taking out an entire bed.
It made sense and I should’ve been able to read between the lines and figure it out for myself. But no, I’d been too damn focused on the way her lips moved when she talked to really be able to think about anything else.
“I’ve been sleeping on an air mattress,” she finally grumbled. “Please, Edward, don’t make a big deal out of this. He’s gone and if it made him feel better by taking stupid possessions like that, then who cares?”
“I care. I care that you probably haven’t gotten a good night’s sleep in two days.”
I stepped forward, cupping her face in my hands and studying her eyes carefully.
How had I not noticed before that they were practically bruised and definitely bloodshot? I noticed everything about her and yet I didn’t see that she was probably falling asleep on her feet?
Some boyfriend I was already turning out to be.
“Edward, I’m fine.”
I moved one hand from her face, yanking the hat off of my head and throwing it on the floor next to us before firmly planting my lips on hers.
I felt that immediate surge of electricity flow through me and wrapped my free arm around her waist, pulling her against me as her arms lazily came up to wrap around my neck.
I tilted my head, gently scraping my teeth across her bottom lip as I rubbed my thumb across her cheek.
“You’re staying with me tonight,” I whispered, breaking away from her.
“No, that’s not…”
I cut her off, my lips on hers once again and my tongue running across her top lip as she quickly opened her mouth underneath mine.
I felt her starting to untie the knot at the base of my neck, quickly pulling the bandana off my head to bury her hands in my hair as her tongue met mine.
I turned us both, pressing her back against the door of the refrigerator and bracing my hands on each side of her.
“You’re staying with me tonight,” I whispered again, breathless as I backed away again.
“That’s not…”
Again, I placed my mouth on hers, quickly being able to pick up from where I left off with her before. She fisted her hands in my hair, wrapped one of her legs around one of mine and I couldn’t have stopped the moan that sounded out of my mouth and into hers if I’d wanted to.
Sure, I’d had her pressed up against me quite a few times in the short time since we’d become an official couple, but it hadn’t really been anything like this before. She just fit; like I’d been missing vital pieces of me and she’d been the only one able to fill them.
Nothing had ever felt like this before. I’d never had the type of feeling running through my veins like I had with her. Like every nerve ending was on fire and alert, aching and waiting for anything and everything this woman was willing to give to me.
I wasn’t sure whether to be terrified of it or to revel in it. Nothing had ever hit me so hard before and I really didn’t know what to do about it.
“You’re staying,” I breathed out as I backed away once more, resting my forehead against hers, “with me tonight.”
“I have to work in the morning.”
“I have an alarm clock.”
“It’ll wake you.”
“I won’t mind.” I opened my eyes to find her looking up at me. “I’ll even sleep on the couch if you want me to.”
“No. I won’t kick you out of your bed. I’ll stay on the couch.”
I rolled my eyes, closing them and once again pressing my lips against hers, placing a series of quick, soft kisses against them.
“You need a good night’s rest,” I whispered, leaning up to press a kiss against her forehead. “Air mattresses are not comfortable.”
“You’re telling me,” she grumbled, leaning forward to sink against me and rest her cheek against my chest. “I have Monday off. I’ll stay over tomorrow night.”
“Bella,” I sighed, shaking my head and leaning down to bury my nose in her shoulder. “Why are you making this harder than it needs to be?”
“You come here to get away from everything, including annoying alarm clocks.” She shifted away from me and I backed up to look down at her. “I don’t want to interrupt that.”
“How many more times are you going to make me tell you that you’re not? I want you there, Bella.”
“Tomorrow,” she promised. “I’ll stay with you tomorrow night.”
“You’re kind of infuriating, you know.”
She laughed and nodded. “Yeah, I know.”
I sighed heavily, linking my fingers together behind her back and rolling my eyes dramatically before dropping my forehead back onto hers.
“Fine. Tomorrow night you’re staying with me and you’re going to get some sleep.”
“You really don’t need to…”
“Do you want me to say it again?” I laughed, gently nudging her nose with mine. “I don’t do anything that I don’t want to do, Bella.”
“I feel bad.”
“Don’t,” I whispered, brushing my lips against hers and watching as her eyes fluttered closed. “Please don’t.”
“If I stay with you tomorrow night,” she started, clearing her throat and opening her eyes. “I may never want to leave.”
“Who says that you’d have to?” I asked, smiling softly at her.
“Work. Jessica goes on vacation at the end of the week and then I’ll have no days off whatsoever.”
I rolled my eyes. I’d never met the girl, but from the little that Bella had told me about her, I already wasn’t very fond of her.
“Why is that she has your vacation time? You own the store, don’t you? Shouldn’t it be the other way around?”
I watched the blush rise up straight from her neck and raised my eyebrow at her. Ah, so this Jessica person was blackmailing her with something embarrassing to get what she wanted.
“It’s… nothing.”
She tried to move and I merely locked my arms even tighter around her, shaking my head.
“It’s something.”
“It’s not a big deal.”
And when she said that, it always meant that it was. I’d come to find out that it was usually a big damn deal that she always insisted on downplaying for the sake of not hurting anyone’s feelings.
“Don’t lie to me, Bella. Please,” I said softly, pleading.
“You’re really good at that,” she breathed, licking her lips.
“Don’t distract me, either.”
“She found out that you were my neighbor right after you moved in and got settled and I gave her my vacation time so that she wouldn’t bother you,” she finally mumbled in one breath.
My eyes widened slightly and I nodded once. “Oh.”
She nodded, folding her bottom lip in between her teeth and looking away from me. “Yeah.”
I opened my mouth, closed it and then opened it again. “Oh.”
Apparently, I wasn’t going to be able to form any words other than that one.
“Let’s get the rest of the groceries, okay? I’m really hungry.”
I merely nodded, letting her walk out of my arms and following her out of the house, my mind on everything but the groceries that would probably be frozen to the bed of the truck if we left them out there much longer.
She’d given up her vacation time to save my privacy from someone who did nothing but aggravate her. Just a few hours ago she’d given up her quiet life to jump head first into the craziness of mine.
What more was I going to let her sacrifice for me without doing the same for her?
~*~
I stood against the Volvo the next afternoon, staring up at the front door to the bookstore and clenching my hands together in a fist in front of me.
We’d had a quiet night after I’d made my mouth form something other than “Oh” and no matter how hard I’d tried to get her to come back to my place with me, she insisted on staying at her house.
Even when I kissed her goodnight at the door and had managed to drag her out onto the porch almost without her noticing, she’d quickly backed away and huffed heavily at me when a gust of very cold wind blew through to freeze the both of us where we stood.
I think someone was trying to tell us something.
I had to wait until tonight and she wasn’t going to have it any other way.
Honestly, I just wanted her to get some sleep. And holding her in my arms all night as she did so would just be a very large bonus for me.
When I finally made it home, I’d spent at least another four hours pacing around my living room, running my hands through my hair and thinking about everything that she was giving up for me.
It’s not like I had to sleep, after all. I had the entire fucking day to sleep away if I felt so inclined to do so.
And I knew that she’d have to give up a very large piece of her life, but I hadn’t realized just how large it had been when we were just friends. She’d never said anything about Jessica Stanley stealing away her vacation time because of me or Jacob being crazy and jealous enough to storm out on her the night before I arrived.
What else had she given up that she hadn’t told me about?
And it wasn’t going to be an easy task to get all of that information out of her by any means. She’d probably fight me tooth and nail, finding ways to distract me and making me completely forget that there had been something else on my mind.
So instead of spending more of my day pacing around my house and worrying about everything that was out of my control, I grabbed my car keys and stalked out of the house, driving down to the bookstore and standing on the curb.
I could at least try to make this right for her.
Taking a deep breath and unclasping my hands, I pushed myself off the car and started the short walk up to the bookstore, my eyes trained on the front door.
It had probably been someone’s house at one point in time, but had been converted into a place of business. The gold knocker on the dark purple door only made me shake my head as I pushed through it, looking around when it snapped shut behind me.
There were three groups of four wide, seemingly comfortable arm chairs in the main room, a small table that held a coffee maker, sugar and instant creamer and off to the side of the wide front counter with a dirty blonde girl sitting behind it was a doorway leading into the room with the books.
There wasn’t anyone else in this room and for that, I was grateful. I wasn’t sure what kind of a scene I’d be making with my self-proclaimed biggest fan, but I was positive that I didn’t want an audience.
I nodded to myself, impressed, and hooked my thumbs into my jean pockets as I casually strolled up to the front counter.
Who I assumed was Jessica sat in front of a computer, her eyes trained on the screen as she tapped bright pink and obviously fake fingernails on the space next to her, either ignoring or completely oblivious to me.
I put on the nicest smile I could muster and placed my hands, rather loudly, on the counter in front of her.
She jumped and the look of annoyance on her face was immediately wiped away when she saw me.
“Oh, shit,” she mumbled, her mouth forming a perfect ‘o’ and her eyes widening. “It’s… you.”
I nodded, keeping the smile in place.
“Yes.”
“Are… is… do you… what can I…?” she sputtered, blinking rapidly at me. “You’re really here?”
I nodded again. “Yes.”
I watched as she took a deep breath and wanted to cringe away from her as she jumped up, squealing, the chair she’d been sitting on rolling backwards and hitting the wall behind her.
“Oh, my God!”
“I’d rather not cause a scene, so if you could keep your voice down, I’d really appreciate it.”
I smiled brightly at her, fighting the urge to run through the entire store to find Bella and hide behind her until Jessica forgot that I even existed.
I had a job to do. This needed to be done and I needed to do it for Bella. That was the only reason I was letting her gawk and stare and squeal without turning and fleeing like the coward I’d turned out to be since arriving here.
“Oh, yes, of course!” She let out one more squeal, actually dancing a little before taking another deep breath and standing up straight. “Anything I can do for you?”
“Actually, there is.” I smiled and leaned even further across the counter, using every acting skill I’d managed to possess and not feeling the least bit bad about any of it. “I heard about your upcoming vacation.”
“Did you want to come?”
She was batting her eyes at me and I had to cough in order to keep the combination of revulsion and disbelieving laughter out of my voice.
It was not an easy task.
“Ah, no, but thank you for thinking of me. I was just wondering if, when you got back, you wouldn’t mind covering Bella’s shifts for a week for her. She really needs a vacation, too.”
I watched as her eyes narrowed, her illusion of what she wanted me to be to her slowly diminishing with each passing moment that I stood in front of her.
“I don’t have any obligations to this place or to her. She knew when she hired me that I didn’t want to work any more than I had to.”
“Even for me?” I asked, smiling at her and reaching across the counter to place a hand on her shoulder. “I’d really appreciate it.”
“What does it matter to you?”
Ah, the gossip was so much more to her than the welfare of her employer.
Squaring my shoulders and letting my hand fall from her shoulder to place it back on the counter, I licked my lips and continued to smile at her.
I wasn’t going to give her the satisfaction of being the first to know anything that concerned me and my personal life.
“I’ll tell you what.” I leaned in closer, keeping my voice down and looking around conspicuously. “If you do this for me, I’ll have a ticket waiting with your name on it to attend one of my movie premieres.”
The star-struck look was back on her face as she smiled, showing all of her teeth, and started to bat her eyes at me again.
Did that really work for anyone? It was doing absolutely nothing for me and it was getting increasingly harder for me to pretend that it was. Especially with a straight face.
“You’d do that?”
I nodded, smiling sweetly at her as I stood back up and drummed my fingertips against the counter.
“So what do you say? All expense paid trip to one of my premieres and all you have to do is look over the store for one little week.”
“It’s a done deal.” She nodded at me, a small squeal escaping her mouth again. “Can I just get one picture with you? No one will believe this.”
So I took about six pictures with her, standing as far away from her as she would allow as the flash went off and she squealed over them before I finally had the chance to ask her where Bella was.
Her face fell and she quickly put the camera back in the travel bag she called a purse, her arms over her chest and her lips pressed together in a firm, annoyed line.
“She’s been holed up in her office all day,” she stated, her voice dripping with disdain as she rolled the chair back over to the computer. “I’ll call her and tell her to come down.”
“If you’d just tell me how to get there, I’d be glad to go find her myself. I wouldn’t want to trouble you.”
“No,” she said icily as she picked up the phone at her elbow. “I’ll call her.”
Okay, then.
“Thanks, Jess. I really appreciate it.”
I smiled at her and watched her flash her teeth at me again, her annoyance completely gone as she pressed a button on the base of the phone.
“You’re more than welcome, Edward. It was my pleasure.”
I stepped back from the counter, turning my back on Jessica and wandering idly around the main room with my hands behind my back.
I heard Jessica hang up the phone and smiled out the window I was standing in front of, listening carefully to hear any sort of noise that would indicate that Bella was on her way out to see me.
It was absolutely pathetic the way that I was acting. It was like I had to see her. Being away from her felt like small, important pieces of me were missing. It didn’t matter how short of a time it had been since I’d seen her last. I ended up staring at the clock on my
“What’s up, Jess?”
I turned, hearing her exhausted voice and watched as she leaned against the front counter, running a hand through her hair as she stared, unblinking at Jessica.
“Someone is here to see you.”
Bella turned, standing up straight and a grin breaking out on her face when she saw me.
The grin, however, faltered as she glanced between me and Jessica as she continued to throw obvious glances my way.
“Uh,” she mumbled, stiffly walking over to me. “Everything okay?”
I nodded, smiling brightly at her. “Everything’s fine. Better now, actually.”
“What are you… uh…?” She looked over at Jessica again, who was pointedly staring at the computer screen as if something would pop out of it at any second before she looked back at me. “I don’t understand, Edward.”
I placed my hands on her cheeks, still smiling at her as I shook my head.
“Everything’s fine,” I said again, softly. “Have you got a few minutes?”
“Oh, yes.” She turned to Jessica, who was blatantly staring at the two of us at this point. “Jess, I’ll be down in a few minutes.”
She grabbed my wrist even before Jessica answered, holding it firmly in her hand as she led me through the door and up a set of stairs hidden just next to it. She pushed open a wooden door, pulled me inside of the small, stuffy room and slammed the door behind us.
“Care to tell me why she’s being so damn calm with you in the same room? Do you know that she’s got your picture as her computer background? How did you… why are you… how is she so…?”
“Bella,” I laughed, stepping up to her and wrapping my arms tightly around her waist, yanking her against me. “Everything is fine.”
“How?” she sighed, exasperated as she draped her arms over my shoulders.
“I bribed her.”
“No!” she whined, leaning forward to rest her forehead against my chest. “Why did you do that? She’s never going to leave you alone now!”
“I did that so that you can take a week off when she gets back.”
Her head snapped up again and she narrowed her eyes at me.
“What are you talking about?”
“When she comes back from her vacation, you’re taking one of your own,” I said softly, leaning down to brush my lips against hers. “She’ll stay here and watch over everything.”
“She’s probably going to burn the place down.”
I shook my head, twisting my lips to the side and smiling down at her. “No, I don’t think she’d do that.”
“What did you bribe her with?”
“Tickets to one of my movie premieres.” I shrugged easily. “She’ll be waiting out with the rest of the fans, but I didn’t tell her that part.”
Her mouth dropped open, the corners lifting up before she got herself in control and pressed her lips together.
“That wasn’t very nice.”
“It got you a much needed vacation, though, didn’t it?” I leaned down and kissed her gently, smiling at the very recognizable current of electricity flowing through my body. “And you can spend all your time with me.”
“Why would I wanna do that?” she mumbled against my lips, her hands tangling into my hair as she kissed me again.
“Gotta get your fill of me, you know.” I kissed her again, digging my fingertips into her shirt. “I won’t be here forever.”
The sharp, shooting pain that was sent through the pit of my stomach at my own words was almost numbing and I had to hold onto her even tighter to keep myself from doubling over.
“Yeah,” she whispered sadly, stepping down from me. “I know.”
“Bella…”
She lifted her chin, forcing a smile at me that I absolutely hated as she untangled her fingers from my hair.
“Edward, it’s our reality. Plus, it’s going to work out.” She shrugged easily, the fake smile slowly turning into a small, real one. “I’m not letting you go and I’m not going to give up on you.”
I smiled down at her, leaning down again to rest my forehead against hers and kissing her gently.
“You don’t know how good it feels to hear you say that,” I whispered, closing my eyes tightly.
She placed her hands on my cheeks and I opened my eyes again, looking directly into hers.
“If you’re all in, I’m all in,” she whispered back, rubbing her thumbs over my cheeks. “That was the deal.”
I smiled and captured her top lip in between mine, gently sucking on it before backing away reluctantly.
“I’ll let you get back to work.” I looked around the tiny office and sighed, squeezing her once before letting her go. “Tonight?”
She nodded, dropping her arms to her sides and tilting her head at me.
“You’re sure about that? I don’t want to…”
I stepped in to her, kissing her again.
“Okay,” she breathed when I stepped away again. “Tonight.”
“Thank you.”
As she walked me out of the library, the door snapping shut behind me, I quite literally bounced to my car.
She was going to stick with me and there weren’t a whole hell of a lot of people that had truly done that since I’d become an actor. Knowing that she was there and she had every intention of staying was a feeling that I couldn’t even describe.
1 comments:
Awwww....I love your Edward.
Post a Comment