*Bella*
It took me all of five seconds for the high I'd been on to wear off. The cameras and flashes and the screaming of Edward's name snapped me back into focus really damn quickly and had my stomach dropping into my feet.
There were so many of them. And seeing this on television or in pictures didn't compare to the way it really was when I was standing directly in the middle of it. It was ten times different than the airport had been this morning and it made me feel a little sick, to be perfectly honest. There was no way to focus on any one person and they were all just blurs of camera flashes and colors to me.
He'd warned me about all of this and I'd assured him many times that I knew what I was getting into when I told him that I was moving here to be with him.
But I didn't – not until this very moment when I finally let it sink in that my entire world had been spun on its axis and I was quickly losing my footing.
I wanted to get Edward's attention and tell him that this was too much; I didn't think that I'd ever be able to adjust to something like this.
But when I looked up at him as we stood in the middle of the red carpet, people blurring around us, to see that he was smiling – really smiling – I couldn't do it. This was his life, I'd told him that I'd be fine as long as he was with me and damn it all, he enjoyed this.
Why shouldn't he? He deserved all of the attention that was thrown his way. And because I was going to be with him and this was all going to be a very big part of my new life with him, I simply squeezed his hand, smiled at all the people snapping our picture, stepped away when I had to and did it all with as much grace as I could muster up.
By the time we made it into the theater, I felt like I was going to fall to pieces. My legs felt like they were made of rubber and walking in the damn shoes Alice had made me promise to wear with this thing she called a dress wasn’t making anything any easier.
I'd been introduced to a few of his co-stars and while they were all as nicely detached to me as I could expect, they were also fucking gorgeous.
Cue massive insecurities and irrational jealousy – simultaneously. For fuck's sake, this was Hollywood; of course they would be as inhumanly beautiful as possible, wearing expensive dresses from designers that I couldn't even pronounce and diamonds sparkling each time they moved an inch.
Most of them didn't bother me. In fact, I found watching them to be extremely entertaining and until she'd walked in the room – with her flame red hair, white curve-hugging dress, tiny little body and a laugh that could be heard through a hurricane – I'd nearly forgotten what I needed to be worried about.
I watched as her eyes landed on Edward while we talked to someone whose name I couldn't quite remember before she was strutting across the room with her lips pursed and her hands on her hips. She'd completely ignored me while she draped herself over Edward's shoulders, laughing loudly and pouting her lips entirely too close to his for my liking. And when he'd finally gotten a chance to speak and had immediately introduced me, the look she'd shot my way should've been more than enough to have me cowering and running away.
But just because Victoria DeHoney had a steamy sex scene with my boyfriend in the movie we were all currently waiting to see didn't mean that fantasy would live up to reality. I was on his arm tonight – not her. I would be crawling into bed with him tonight – not her. And if she touched his chest or accidentally bumped me out of the way one more time, she was going to be missing a few important limbs.
Needless to say, I was extremely glad when we were told to take our seats at seven. Victoria had disappeared the minute we walked in and we were surrounded by people that didn't really seem to have much interest in trying to molest my boyfriend.
When the lights dropped down, Edward leaned over the cushy arm rest and placed his lips against my ear.
"You wanna get out of here?" he whispered, his fingertips ghosting over the back of my hand.
"What? We just got here," I laughed in a whisper, shaking my head.
"Yeah, well… I hate watching myself and plus," he mumbled, linking our fingers together, "you're leaving tomorrow and I want to spend time with you."
"I'm coming back, you know."
"I know, but you'll still be gone for a while. It feels like I just got you back and I'm gonna miss you."
I leaned into him, closing my eyes as the opening credits appeared on the screen. Victoria didn't matter, the paparazzi failed to exist and we were back to Bella and Edward in our little bubble. My insecurities melted away, the jealousy disappeared, my knees suddenly felt a hell of a lot sturdier and my stomach was back where it was supposed to be.
I was where I was supposed to be.
"Won't Jeannie be mad?"
"She'll get over it. We did the carpet thing and smiled pretty. Let's just… go home."
My heart fluttered in my chest and I slowly opened my eyes to see a sprawling seascape up on the screen. As beautiful as it was, it was nothing compared to the man sitting next to me and the way he made me feel.
"Okay."
He grinned at me and we stood up, quickly walking back up the darkened aisle without drawing too much attention to ourselves and walking back into the bright, empty lobby. He dragged me over to a corner of the red and gold themed room, wrapping an arm around my waist as he let go of my hand and pulled his cell phone out of his pocket. He twisted his lips to the side and smirked, shaking his head as he dialed in what I assumed to be Jeannie's number before placing it up against his ear.
"What?"
"Mind if we make a stop before going home?" he asked, his hand rubbing circles on my back.
I shrugged, shaking my head as I leaned against him and rested my head on his chest. I listened as he told Jeannie that we wanted to leave an hour and fifteen minutes after arriving, cringing at the volume of her voice on the other end.
That woman was shrill when she wanted to be.
"No one will miss us," he insisted, sighing.
I jumped when I clearly heard her screech, "You're the star of the movie, Edward! You can't just leave! They're going to notice that!"
"Jeannie, please," he begged, his hand still rubbing circles on my back as he leaned down and dropped his chin onto the top of my head. "I promise to be on time for everything for the rest of my life if you just send the limo back right now."
"Oh, right, Edward. I don't believe that for a second!"
"Well, okay, look at it this way," he started, huffing slightly, "either the limo comes back or I'm calling a cab."
They were both quiet and I bit my bottom lip, looking down at my feet.
"Thank you," he finally said, tilting his head and pressing his lips to the top of my head. "I'll call you when the interview is over tomorrow morning."
With that, he dropped the phone from his ear, pressed the button to end the call and shoved it back into his pocket. He wrapped both arms around me, pulling me tight against him and swaying from side to side.
"Are you gonna be back before I leave?" I asked, tilting my head out from underneath his chin and looking up at him.
"Of course," he smiled, nodding. "The interview is at nine and should last about an hour or so. I'll have plenty of time to come home and get you."
I smiled and nodded, leaning up and gently kissing his chin before stepping back down and resting my cheek against his chest.
"So where do we need to stop?"
He hummed out a chuckle, squeezing me tightly and kissing the top of my head again.
"It's a surprise."
I groaned and turned my head to bury my nose into his chest.
"Edward!" I whined. "No more surprises!"
"Last one for a while. I promise."
I huffed and backed away to look up at him. I held up my hand, curling all my fingers except for my pinkie. He barked out a laugh before reaching up and twisting his pinkie around mine. I smiled triumphantly and nodded, standing up on my toes to kiss him quickly.
"Thank you."
"No problem, love."
Twenty minutes later, I sat in the back of the parked limo, Edward's tie wrapped around my eyes while I impatiently waited for him to get back.
We'd escaped out a door at the back of the theater and had quickly been ushered into the waiting limo, bypassing another very large room where I'd seen a few of his co-stars - including Victoria - sitting around a bar with drinks in their hands and smiles on their faces as they toasted each other. I couldn't really say that I'd miss not going to that too much.
Once we were both seated and Edward had whispered the destination of this newest surprise to the driver, George, Edward had also given him strict instructions to physically restrain me in any way possible – without causing me any harm – if I so much as twitched towards the door.
It was absolutely ridiculous and completely like Edward to do something like this. One day, I was gonna get him back. And he probably wouldn't like it.
I crossed my arms over my chest, leaning back against the seat and stifling a yawn.
It had been an extremely long day and all I really wanted to do was curl up next to Edward in the insanely large bed that was in his room and get some sleep. I hadn't realized how tired I was until I'd started to relax a few minutes ago, but now all I wanted to do was crawl in between the covers of the extremely large, comfortable bed and go to sleep.
I jumped when the door opened and pursed my lips when I heard his laugh. I didn't care how much I enjoyed hearing it; when he was making me jump and laughing every time it happened, the last thing I wanted to do was marvel over how it sounded.
"This is ridiculous!"
"I didn't want you peeking," he said easily and I jumped again when I felt his lips on my cheek.
I cursed at him under my breath, raising an eyebrow when I heard a plastic bag rustling as he closed the door.
"I really wish you liked being surprised," he mused and I felt him shifting closer to me.
"Are you naked?"
"What? No."
"That's the only surprise I'd like to see."
He laughed and I felt the limo starting to move again, huffing a little and keeping my arms crossed tightly over my chest while I attempted to glare in his direction.
"Maybe later," he whispered, suddenly by my ear and his lips grazing over the skin on my neck.
I bit back a shiver before I felt his hands at the back of his tie, thankful when it fell down around my neck and my sight was restored. Unfortunately, my eyes landed on the plastic bag resting at his feet, the familiar extended red check mark plastered on the side.
"Edward," I sighed, looking over at him and letting my hands fall into my lap.
"When I couldn't get a hold of you on New Year's Eve, it was…" He sighed heavily and pulled the tie carefully from my neck. "I didn't like it, Bella. I thought something had happened to you."
"But I was…"
"I was scared," he said softly, winding the tie around his hands nervously.
My eyes snapped to his and I swallowed hard when I saw the honesty and vulnerability staring back at me. I hadn't even thought to call him before I left the house. I just knew that I needed to get there and every other rational thought was pushed to the back of my mind. I never thought that not calling him would make him worry about me.
"Edward," I whispered, reaching up to place my hand on his cheek.
He leaned into it, his eyes closing as he reached up with one hand to cover and slide his fingers in between mine.
"I'd seen the pictures of you outside of your store and when I didn't hear from you, I thought that maybe they'd followed you home or blocked you from leaving. I just didn't know." He sucked in a deep breath and opened his eyes again. "So it's more for me than it is for you, I guess."
I leaned in to him, gently placing my lips on his and rubbing my thumb over his chin, carefully curling my fingers around his.
"Can I see it?" I whispered as I backed away from him.
I opened my eyes to see him grinning at me before he threw the tie onto the floor and grabbed the bag, handing it to me. I moved my hand from his, taking the bag and pulling out the box that housed my brand new, apparently fully equipped Blackberry cell phone.
I'd never had the need for a cell phone before. No one had ever gotten reception for one at my house and for the amount of time that I spent in Queensbury where I would've been able to get reception, it just wasn't worth it. My place of business was right down the road from my home and I had land lines at both places. There hadn't been any logical reason for me to have a cell phone.
Well, until now.
He probably spent entirely too much money on it, had gotten everything under the sun that probably came with it and probably had half of the phone numbers I'd never use already programmed into it. But if it gave him peace of mind and another way for me to be constantly connected to him when we were apart, I couldn't really complain too much about it.
I looked up at him as I flipped open the top of the box and leaned over to kiss him again.
"Thank you."
"You're welcome."
~*~
I looked around the airport the next night, standing on my toes as I shouldered one of Edward's messenger bags after I'd shrugged my coat on – I'd left the majority of the things Rose had packed for me in California just to make things a little easier on the way back – and looked over the crowd for a semi-familiar head of curly brown hair.
We'd called Emmett upon our return from the attempted premiere and he'd informed us that his flight would be landing about an hour before mine would. I gave him specific instructions to meet me by the baggage claim at eleven o'clock New York time and he was nowhere to be found.
And there were people openly staring at me and whispering to whomever it was that they might've been walking with.
Nervously looking around once more and not seeing Emmett, I pulled open the flap on the bag at my hip and grabbed the cell phone that Edward spent most of the night and half of the morning after his interview trying to explain its functions to me.
After managing to turn the camera on and bring up a blank text message, I finally found my contact list and scrolled through with the annoyingly tiny ball to get the number Edward had stored for Emmett's cell phone. Clutching the bag close to me, I walked from the baggage carousel and over to a row of the horribly uncomfortable blue seats next to the wall.
And saw Emmett sprawled into one, his head tipped back, a little bit of drool rolling down his cheek and his hand tightly clutching onto a very large orange duffel bag that rivaled the purple one Rosalie had given to me.
Rolling my eyes, I brought my cell phone from my ear and mashed the buttons to end the call before walking over to him and kicking his foot. He jumped, his arms spreading out at his sides as he blinked up at me.
"Hi."
He continued to blink at me before raising his arms over his head, leaning back into the wall and yawning loudly.
"Hi," he managed before standing up and grabbing onto the handles of his duffel bag again as he shouldered away the line of drool on his cheek. "Sorry."
"S'okay. I'm tired, too."
He nodded and absently flung an arm around my shoulders, yawning again.
"How are we getting to wherever it is we're going?"
I grinned as I flung an arm around his waist and started to walk in the direction of the exit as I pocketed my cell phone.
"I called Rose this morning and she said she'd pick us up."
He was quiet and I pressed my lips together, stifling laughter as his steps slowed.
"I need to use the restroom," he mumbled before taking off in the direction the sign above us pointed him in.
I laughed, shaking my head as I walked over by the ugly green door he'd just disappeared through and leaned against the wall next to it. I pulled the cell phone back out of my pocket and once again managed to turn the camera on before I was able to get to my contact list. I found Edward's cell phone number and pressed the stupid green button before placing the phone up to my ear and leaning my head back against the wall as well.
"When are you coming home?" Edward immediately greeted.
I laughed softly and wrapped my free arm around my waist, looking down at my feet and licking my lips.
"As soon as possible. Miss me already or something?"
"Yes, of course I miss you already," he sighed heavily. "It doesn't matter how much shit Jeannie has me doing during the day, I'm still coming back to an empty condo."
"I'll try to hurry things up as much as possible. I don't like being without you either." I took a deep, quick breath before continuing on. There was no need to make any of this worse for either of us. "I'm sure you have tons to do to keep yourself occupied without me."
"I've been roped into going out tonight with Victoria, James and some others from the cast," he mumbled and every inch of me tensed. "Something about celebrating the premiere of the greatest movie ever."
I could practically see him rolling his eyes and struggled to laugh, swallowing hard when it came out strangled.
"That should be fun," I managed, nodding and reaching up with my free hand to run it down my face. "Did you get close to them while you were filming?"
"I didn’t have much of a choice," he laughed.
I dragged my hand into my hair and fisted it tightly, closing my eyes and taking a deep breath.
She's just a co-star. That's all she is. Just another co-star to him. He's with me and they'll be with the rest of the cast. He's not alone with her. This is fine.
"I'm sure you'll have fun."
"I just wanted to let you know so that when you saw the pictures somewhere along the way, there wouldn't be a misunderstanding. Don't listen to whatever they have to say, Bella," he said quietly, seeming to easily pick up on my nerves, "because they're going to start something. They've been doing it since the movie wrapped."
"Hey," I said softly, swallowing hard and digging my toe into the blue carpet, "I trust you."
"I just wanted you to be aware. I love you, Bella."
I smiled and dropped my hand to my side, hooking my thumb into my pocket.
"I love you too."
"Are you with Emmett? I don't hear him."
"I told him that Rose was picking us up and he disappeared into the bathroom."
He laughed loudly and I grinned, looking up to find that there were three girls standing a few feet away from me, their phones flipped up and pointed in my direction.
I sighed and looked away from them, shaking my head slightly and not understanding at all what the sudden obsession with me was. Yeah, okay, I was dating Edward Cullen, big shot actor. But he wasn't here and I wasn't that interesting so what in the hell was the need to take pictures of me?
"Hopefully he'll come out soon," I grumbled, once again wrapping my free arm around my waist.
"You okay?"
"Yeah. There's just…" I looked over at the girls and sighed again, looking down at my feet once more. "There are these three girls standing in front of me with their phones out."
I was pretty sure I heard him growl and smirked, shaking my head and looking up as the bathroom door opened. Emmett thankfully walked out looking a hell of a lot more chipper than I could really claim to be. All I could do was laugh at him and shake my head.
"Are you ready, my dear?" he asked, holding out his elbow to me and standing up straight.
"I hear him," Edward mumbled.
I laughed and nodded, winding my arm around Emmett's elbow and slowly leading us toward the exit once more.
"He's here."
"Is that Edward? Tell him that I'm taking good care of his little love muffin."
I craned my neck to look up at him, blinking and shaking my head in disbelief, little bouts of laughter slipping through my lips as I listened to Edward's laughter on the other end of the line.
"Tell him that he better be!" he laughed. "Kind of fond of you."
"Well that's good to know," I drawled, still shaking my head as we made it outside.
And it was so much more peaceful walking outside in Albany than it had been when we walked out of LAX that I sighed in relief, relaxing against Emmett and scanning the brightly lit pick-up spot for Rose's beloved car.
"I'll let you go, love," Edward sighed into my ear.
"All right," I mumbled, spotting Rose's car and tugging on Emmett's arm to get him to follow me as I started off in that direction. "Call me when you have time tomorrow."
"Call me when you wake up," he countered, "and I'll make time for you."
I smiled and bit my bottom lip, watching as Rosalie crawled out of the driver's seat upon our approach.
"Okay."
"I'm still not saying it."
"I still don't want you to."
"Okay."
"Okay."
I held on, merely staring at Rose as we came to a stop in front of her until I heard the line click and brought the phone down, pressing the little red button to end the call.
"You better appreciate this, Bella," she stated, huffing. "I have to work in the morning."
"Thank you, Rose. I appreciate it," I stated, finally looking up at her and smiling widely as I shoved the phone back into my pocket.
Her eyes were wider than normal and she had her jaw clenched tightly, standing tense and nervous in front of me. I furrowed my eyebrows at her, wondering what the hell her problem was until I felt Emmett shift and then clear his throat.
"Oh!" I laughed, covering my mouth with my hand before standing up straight and smirking at her. "Rose, Emmett. Emmett, Rose."
They stared at each other, both of them nodding awkwardly to the other and I barely resisted the urge to roll my eyes and slap my forehead.
Smooth, guys; real smooth.
"So, are you ready?" she asked, clearing her throat and looking back at me.
"Yeah," I nodded, shaking my head as I walked around to the passenger side of the car and dragged Emmett along with me.
He'd been unnaturally silent since we'd walked outside and I didn't know what to do with that. He'd always had something to say no matter the situation and to look at him and have his mouth actually closed was a little unnerving.
"You sit in the front," I said before moving my arm from his and yanking open the door.
He sputtered behind me and I snickered to myself as I pulled the seat up and crawled in the back, grinning at Rose as she glared at me.
"My visit was fine, by the way, thanks for asking," I drawled as Emmett shoved the seat back and flopped down into it.
"I saw the pictures," she quipped, quickly turning back to face the front. "I know exactly how your visit went."
"Out already, huh?" I asked, flinching slightly.
"Oh yeah," Emmett laughed, turning in his seat to look at me. "They're everywhere, Bella. Alice was very excited."
"I'm sure she was," I mumbled, reaching up to run my hands through my hair.
"That's what you get for dating a famous actor!" Rosalie exclaimed, pointing at me in the rear view mirror before pulling away from the curb and taking off out of the parking lot.
"Just wait," I grumbled, kicking the back of her seat.
"Do not kick my seats unless you want me to send you back to California in pieces," she threatened, her voice low.
I glared at the back of her head and sighed, shaking my head as I leaned back into the seat and closed my eyes, listening to the awkward, deafening silence in the front seats.
"Angela's making dinner for you tomorrow night at her place," Rose finally said as she merged into the dribble of late night traffic on the Northway.
"She doesn't have to do that."
"She insists and honestly, so do I. You're leaving us, Bella," Rose sighed heavily, catching my eyes in the rear view mirror. "We need to do something."
I slid over to the seat behind Rose's and leaned forward to wrap my arms loosely around her shoulders, resting my chin on the side of her seat.
"It's not like I'm disappearing," I mumbled. "I'll still call all the time and come to visit when I can. You guys can come visit too."
She nodded, one of her hands reaching up to rest on my arm as she switched lanes.
"Not the same," she grumbled.
"I know," I said softly. "But I kinda love him."
"I know," she grumbled again.
"And I kinda want to spend the rest of my life with him."
"I know," she sighed heavily, dramatically.
"And to do that, I kinda have to be in California."
"Why can't he live here?" she whined, slapping her hands angrily on the steering wheel.
"I tried asking him that," Emmett finally spoke up.
I looked over at him, raising an eyebrow before shaking my head and moving my arms from Rosalie's shoulders to slide to the center and stick my head between the two seats.
Sure, now he finds his vocal chords.
"See? It's a pretty logical damn question!"
"He needs to be in California; that's where his job is."
"And your job is here!"
"I can start another bookstore, Rose," I sighed, leaning forward to rest my elbows on the center console and drop my head into my hands. "He needs to be there and I need to be with him. I'm going."
"I still don't understand why he can't just move here. He'll have to spend a lot of time out there and all, but-"
"And it makes a hell of a lot more sense for me to move out there as opposed to him moving out here if he needs to be out there anyway! Rose," I sighed, running my hands through my hair and sitting up straight. "I'll miss you and I'll miss home, but it's not like I'll never come back!"
"You say that now," she mumbled.
"Think of it this way," I sighed again, looking over at her. "I'm gonna be how I was before New Year's Eve. Do you really want to see me like that again?"
"No," she grumbled.
"And fuck knows I never want to see Edward like that again," Emmett mumbled. "You don't even know how much of a pain in the ass he was once he saw those pictures."
"So we're all well aware that I need to be with Edward. And Edward needs to be in California." I nodded and slapped my hands on the center console again. "End of discussion."
"I still don't understand," Rosalie shook her head. "He's an actor. He can work from anywhere."
"But he's still relatively new to the whole fame thing," Emmett piped up, looking over at her. "It'd be better if he stayed in California until he had the credibility he needs to move wherever he wants."
"He's making more than enough money to do that now!"
"It's not always about the money, you know. He needs the credibility."
"What do you know about credibility?" she snapped, looking over at him.
"I'm a sports announcer! I know a bit about it!" he exclaimed, sounding extremely offended.
I hung my head and sighed, reaching up and digging the heels of my hands into my eyes.
So much for that perfect match shit everyone had been talking about when it concerned these two.
"That's a lot different from being an actor! And what more credibility does he need? He's been acting since – what? – he was nineteen?"
Her voice had taken on that condescending tone; the one where it sounded like she was talking to a child that didn't quite understand the logistics of getting the spoon into their mouth.
"But he wasn't getting the movie roles he's getting now! People barely knew his name before! This is his breakthrough year and he needs to be in California for the majority of it!"
"Why? Did he even consider what it would do to Bella's—"
"We're not dragging Bella into this!" I exclaimed, my head snapping up quickly as I looked in between them. "Bella's moving no matter what the hell you two argue about."
Rosalie huffed and glared over at Emmett before reaching forward and flicking on the radio, setting the volume up to an uncomfortable level and nixing out any attempt at small talk.
Oh, it was going to be a very interesting stay. I didn't know how long I'd need to be here but damn it all if I wasn't going to hurry it up. I didn't need these two trying to yank each other's throats out at any opportunity.
Plus, I'd never be able to hide that from the papers and having to explain that my best friend ripped my boyfriend's brother's head off was not something that I'd ever look forward to dealing with.
On top of that, I was pretty sure Edward and the rest of his family would never forgive me for letting something like that happen.
With a sigh, I flopped back into the seat and closed my eyes, taking deep breaths as I crossed my arms over my chest and tried to remember what it was about these two that everyone thought would make them perfect together.
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