*Edward*
I abruptly woke up when I felt her elbow jab me in the stomach and groaned, rolling even closer to her and wrapping my arms around her waist, effectively pinning her arms to her chest.
"Get up," she mumbled, her voice thick with sleep.
"No."
"The phone's ringing."
I yawned, burying my nose into the back of her neck when I felt safe that she wouldn't try to hit me again.
Since when did the phone ever bother her when she was sleeping? The one time that I'd actually heard it ring while she was here, she'd barely moved, much less woken up.
"They'll go away."
"No, they won't."
I grunted into her neck, throwing my leg on top of hers and tightening my arms around her waist.
"Yes, they will."
"It's been ringing for the past hour, Edward. Please," she yawned, wiggling around. "You need a damn answering machine."
"That means that I'm obligated to call them back."
"How do you figure?"
"I have to listen to whoever it is. And I'm sure that it's just my sister. Ignore her and she goes away."
"Edward," she whined, wiggling around a little more.
"Go back to sleep," I mumbled, breathing in the scent of my shampoo in her hair.
It always smelled so much better on her than it did when I used it.
I smiled when the phone stopped ringing and kissed the back of her neck, listening as she sighed and relaxed against me.
"Told you," I mumbled.
"Mm," she mumbled, "shut up."
I laughed sleepily and did as she asked, absently rubbing my thumb against her stomach through the t-shirt.
After returning back home from meeting her father, I'd watched with a whole hell of a lot of pouting as she took off the corset, threw the t-shirt over her head and crawled into bed.
She was tired. Yeah, I understood that. I could accept that she was tired and dealing with her father for the rest of the night had been pretty stressful for her.
Not to mention for me, too. At least she'd been slightly more prepared for when she met Alice.
Nothing scares the shit out of any guy more than meeting their girlfriends' parents. I am no exception to that and I spent the entire ten minutes pacing, trying to tear my hair out and convincing myself that there was no possible way that he'd like me.
I was all wrong for her. There were probably a hundred thousand things he could come up with to prove it to her and of course when he said it, she'd see that he was right and she'd break it off with me.
I had been very tempted to pack all of my shit and barrel out of the driveway with the Volvo. Snow be damned; I wouldn't have had time to dig it out.
But this was Bella and I loved her. And if I had to meet her father, then I would meet her father.
So I dawdled my way over there, my bottom lip caught in between my teeth in much the same fashion that Bella always had hers and knocked on the door.
I'd wanted to crawl into a damn hole and never come out when the first thing I saw was her father sitting at her dining room table, glaring at me and leaning back to show off his gun.
But she wanted me to meet him. And as much as I'd wanted to, I couldn't deny her anything.
So I went inside and I met him and I called him sir. Numerous times.
And by the end of the night, while I wasn't anywhere close to being accepted by him, at least I was still alive. I was still alive, I was still with Bella and there was no going wrong with that.
Everything had been fine until she'd put her coat on to go outside and say goodbye to Charlie. I'd forgotten that she still had the corset on underneath my t-shirt – somehow – until she'd lifted her arms above her head to slip her arms into her jacket.
That's when I saw a little black sliver appear just above her jeans and I'd been very thankful that Charlie was already out the door.
The response that small little peek had received probably would've really gotten me shot at that point.
So I'd been quick to clean up the mess we'd made from dinner in hopes that when we got back to my place, she'd want to continue from where we'd left off.
But when she'd looked up at me from the bed, her eyes barely open as she patted the spot beside her, I'd given in and had gotten ready for bed as well.
I had a week. There was an entire week when I'd have the opportunity to see her in that again.
An entire week where I could be… helpful in taking it off and showing her just how skilled I really was when it came to those tiny fucking clasps I'd watched her deftly unhook.
An entire week where we wouldn't have to wake up to the alarm clock and she wouldn't have to go in to work to deal with Jessica. An entire week where I'd finally be able to take care of her.
The phone started ringing again and she groaned in frustration, wiggling against me.
"It's been ringing for an hour, Edward! Please go answer it," she begged.
"How the hell did you even hear it?"
"When it rings for an hour non-stop, it's hard to ignore it. I'm surprised that you didn't hear the damn thing. You had to pick the most annoying ringtone on that damn thing too, didn't you? I'm changing it as soon as I possibly can."
I smirked sleepily into her hair as I listened to her ramble about the ringtones on a home phone being almost as annoying as the ringtones on a cell phone.
Note to self: Bella doesn't like being woken up by phones.
Not that it really mattered – when I wasn't here anymore and only had phone conversations to hold on to, I was calling her no matter what time it was.
Hopefully she wouldn't hold that against me.
"If you ever want to see me naked again, you will answer that phone," she threatened.
"We don't necessarily have to be naked, you know. It just makes things a little more complicated, but it's otherwise easy to get around."
"Okay," she said slowly and I smirked again, believing that I'd won this round.
"If you ever want me to come within fifteen feet of you again, you will answer that fucking phone."
I quickly untangled myself from her and was walking out of the bedroom before I could really comprehend anything else. I ran a hand through my hair, shaking my head and wondering when the hell she'd gotten so much power and control over me as I walked down the stairs and glared at the phone.
I was really fucking comfortable, too, so Alice better have a good fucking reason for calling me at…
I looked over at the microwave and my eyes narrowed when I saw that it was barely five in the morning.
Meaning that it was barely two in the morning in Washington.
I was going to joyfully murder my sister when I got the chance.
What the hell was she doing up, anyway? I know that she didn't need a massive amount of sleep before she was firing on all cylinders, but even two in the morning was a bit much for her.
I snatched the phone off of its base, listening to hear Bella's footsteps above me as she climbed out of the bed and I scowled at the ringing annoyance in my hand, pressing the right button.
"Alice, so help me, this had better be good," I growled as I put the phone up to my ear, ignoring the caller ID flashing on the screen.
"Edward, as soon as I find out where you're hiding, I'm coming there to murder you."
I froze and stared into the dark living room when I heard the familiar dry, annoyed voice on the other end of the line.
I was fucked.
And most definitely not in a good way.
So I laughed nervously and hunched my shoulders, turning from the living room and immediately plopping down into one of the chairs at the table.
"I uhm… we uh… something came up."
"If you even think about telling me that the thing that came up was attached to your body, I'm booking a flight in ten minutes and your ass is picking me up whether you like it or not."
I slapped my forehead, shaking my head and resting my elbow on the table.
"No, Jeannie. Someone showed up and the situation couldn't be ignored."
"You seem to ignore the other big situation over in this part of the world pretty damn well, Edward!"
"Don't you ever sleep?" I sighed, running my hand down my face.
"Don't you ever answer a question? Or keep a promise?"
"Jeannie, I was going to call you…"
"Do you know how I've had to scramble around for answers when I only know her name? I had to disconnect my phone at the office for a few hours, Edward, because it wouldn't stop ringing. I couldn't get any work done!"
"I'm sorry."
And I really was. Jeannie put up with a hell of a lot of shit from me and for me; the least I could do was call her back when I promised her that I would.
"And do you know how much digging I had to do to get your number? The people at the phone company up there aren't too happy with me at the moment."
I rolled my eyes, over the regret I'd momentarily felt as I pushed back from the table and walked into the kitchen, absently starting a pot of coffee for Bella as I heard the water in the bathroom finally kick on.
What I'd give to be up there with her right now. What I'd give to still be in bed, wrapped around her and sleeping.
Christ, she was going to be tired as hell tonight. And that shot all the plans I had for when she got home from her last day of work straight to hell.
Damn Jeannie.
"So you decided to call me at two in the morning your time?"
"I knew you'd be there at this time. You can't hide from me Edward. I haven't pried into your life up there simply because I know that you need time away from everything out here. And it's never been an issue before. But when you start dating someone new – someone who is unknown to this world – without telling me and giving me a warning, it tends to make things a little hard!"
"We were just… Jeannie, we were just enjoying each other."
"And that's entirely too much of your sex life that I didn't need to know about."
I rolled my eyes again, snapping the top of the coffee pot into place once I'd poured the water into it.
"That's not what I meant," I grumbled, walking to the refrigerator and flinging open the door to grab the coffee grounds.
"Nevertheless," she stated simply, her deep voice unusually chipper, "I need to talk to her."
"Excuse me?" I asked dryly, nearly dropping the can of coffee as I walked back to the counter. "What do you need to talk to her for?"
"She's not an actress, meaning that I don't have an agent to talk to so that I can get all of the information I need. Meaning," she sighed heavily, the chipper aspect to her voice completely gone, "that I need to talk to her."
"Why can't you just ask me the questions? I know enough about her," I grumbled, slamming the coffee can on the counter and ripping off the plastic top.
Jeannie had never wanted to talk to a girlfriend of mine before. It had never made that much of a difference and she'd never actually had to talk to them before.
Granted most of the people in the world had already known everything there was to know about them because of who they were and yes, Jeannie had a point about Bella not being an actress and being out in California with the rest of my exes, but it didn't mean that I wanted Jeannie to talk to her.
If Alice hadn't scared her away, Jeannie definitely would.
"Can you tell me the name of her parents?"
"Charlie," I said proudly, scooping the grounds into the coffee machine.
"And her mother?"
"Uh…"
"Give her the phone, Edward," she demanded, her voice low.
"She's in the shower!"
I think.
"So get your pretty little ass in that bathroom and give her the damn phone. Edward, I'm not playing around with you anymore. Do you really want them to pry into her life and follow her around when they don't have to?"
"No," I grumbled, slamming the plastic lid back onto the can and snapping the rest of the machine into place.
"Then go give her the damn phone!" she shouted.
"Seriously, don't you ever sleep?" I sighed, flipping the switch on the machine before grudgingly walking towards the stairs.
"I sleep a hell of a lot better when my clients aren't trying to drive me insane!"
"I don't do this on purpose!"
"Could've fooled me. It seems that you like seeing me dye my hair a different color to avoid the grey's you've given me!"
"You look good as a brunette."
I think I heard her growl and I twisted my lips to the side as I made my way up the stairs.
"How'd you know she was even here?"
"You said you were in love with her," she said easily, "and since you're leaving soon, I can only imagine that your poor little heart doesn't want to be away from her."
"You really should get married one day, Jeannie," I grumbled, hauling myself up the last few stairs and padding over to the bathroom door. "You're such a hopeless romantic."
She scoffed.
"Like I have time to get married. Stop stalling."
I rolled my eyes and gently knocked on the door, reaching down to grab and twist the knob before stepping into the steam filled bathroom.
"Bella?"
"Was that Alice?" she asked immediately, her voice still slightly annoyed at being woken up this early. "If that was her, I swear to God, Edward, the next time I see her, I'm going to shove one of those designer heels right up her ass."
I heard Jeannie's cackle of laughter while I stifled my own and licked my lips, clearing my throat.
"Feisty one, isn't she?" Jeannie asked, still laughing.
"You have no idea," I grumbled.
"What?"
Bella stuck her head out of the curtain and I couldn't stop the bark of laughter that escaped my mouth when I saw her sudsy hair piled high on top of her head, her eyes narrowed dangerously at me and her lips pursed.
"Are you still talking to her? Give me that phone!" she demanded, sticking her arm out of the curtain and flexing her fingers at me.
"Yes, Edward, give her the phone."
"It's not Alice," I said quickly, watching as her arm slipped back into the shower and her eyes narrowed a little more at me.
"No telemarketer is really that insistent, Edward," she drawled, reaching up to rub some of the shampoo off the side of her face.
"It's Jeannie, my agent." I watched as her eyes widened and she ducked back into the shower. "And she wants to talk to you."
I had to press my lips together when I heard her whimper over the sound of the running water.
"What have you told her about me, Edward? I can't imagine that the silence means anything good."
"Contrary to popular belief, Jeannie, I don't sit around and insult you all day."
Jeannie hummed and I sighed, walking over to the shower and carefully pulling back the curtain to see Bella standing under the spray of water, her hair still full of suds, her bottom lip caught in between her teeth and her fingertips resting on her chin.
"Bella," I said softly, waiting for her to look at me.
She did, her wide eyes slowly meeting mine as she gently tapped her fingertips against her chin.
"Is she mad at you?" her voice was barely a squeak over the water. "I didn't mean for… I guess I wasn't thinking… Edward, I didn't…"
"Jeannie, hang on for a second, all right?" I asked quickly, not waiting for an answer before placing the phone down on the sink across from the shower and climbing into the tub with her, still dressed in my pajama bottoms.
She backed up, making room for me but keeping her hands on her chin as she looked up at me, worried.
"She's only mad at me for not calling her back," I explained quietly, pressing myself against her and grabbing her face in my hands as the water ran down my back. "And she wants to talk to you so that she can get all of the facts straight for the statement she has to issue to everyone who's asking about us."
"I can't… talk to her. I mean," she shook her head, looking away from me, "I don't… know how."
"It's just like talking to any other person," I said, grabbing her hands in mine and holding them against my chest, waiting for her to look at me again. "She's just going to be asking you a ton of questions. And if you don't want to answer them, then you tell her that."
"Are they going to be really personal?"
"They shouldn't be." I bent down and kissed the back of one of her hands, keeping my eyes on hers. "Just the basics, love."
She sucked her bottom lip into her mouth again as she nodded slowly, taking a deep breath and standing on her toes to kiss me quickly.
"I'll be done in a minute."
I nodded, kissing her again and squeezing her hands before stepping out of the shower and grabbing an extra towel from the rod on the wall. Sliding my now completely soaked pajama bottoms and boxers to the floor, I wrapped the towel around my waist and pushed my wet hair out of my face as I grabbed the phone.
"She's gonna finish her shower and then she'll talk to you," I stated as I securely knotted the towel and bent down to pick up my wet clothes.
"All right," Jeannie yawned.
"Are you going back in tomorrow?"
I walked out of the bathroom, closing the door behind me and into the bedroom to plop my pants into the clothes basket at the end of the bed.
I guess it was laundry tonight.
"Of course I am. I can't miss a day that I'm not supposed to, Edward; you know that."
"When are you going to take a vacation, Jeannie?"
"When you retire."
"I think I can handle myself for a week."
"You've shown that well."
I rolled my eyes, grabbing a dry pair of boxers and slipping them on under the towel.
"If you knew her, you would've given up the right to rational thinking, too."
"For some reason, I doubt that."
"You can't terrorize her, Jeannie," I warned quickly as I walked out of the bedroom and back down the stairs once I'd put the towel into the laundry basket as well.
"Edward," she sighed heavily and I could practically see her shaking her head at me. "I'm not going to terrorize your little love interest of the moment."
My anger flared before I took a deep breath and squeezed my eyes closed once I made it back into the dining room.
She was only doing her job. She was looking out for me and making sure that I didn't do any permanent damage to my precious career.
I rolled my eyes again, sucking in a deep breath through my nose and reigning in my temper.
"How many more times do you really want me to tell you that she's more than that?" I asked quietly.
"I'm not going to believe you until I see the two of you together so open your damn eyes, stop with the attitude and get over it," she snapped.
I pursed my lips and opened my eyes as she'd instructed, dropping a hand onto the table and tapping my fingernails against it.
I hated that she knew me so well. It was unnerving and completely inconvenient.
"She has to get up early, you know," I grumbled.
"It's already early. I did her a favor."
"She has to work."
"Then she shouldn't be staying at your place, should she?"
"I want her here."
"Then she should expect these things. If you've informed her so well of how her life is really going to be in a few weeks' time, she should know that nothing is going to be easy."
"She knows that!"
"Then you should've been expecting my phone call."
"I thought I was safe," I grumbled.
"And that's where you went wrong."
I rolled my eyes, hearing the water kick off upstairs and stood up to pace around the room.
"Will you please just be nice to her?" I begged, running a hand through my still wet hair.
"Of course I'm going to be nice to her," she yawned. "Don't you know me at all?"
"Yeah, and that's what I'm scared of."
"You need to give me an address of where you are, too. The director of this script wants to know if you want in or if he has to start looking for someone else for the lead," she stated, ignoring my last comment.
"Oh, I need an extra ticket to that movie premiere," I said quickly, casting glances nervously up the stairs.
"You already have one."
I stopped pacing, furrowing my eyebrows and reaching around to scratch the back of my head.
"What?"
"You claim you're in love with this girl and then have a movie premiere to go to – alone? I'm not stupid, Edward."
I sighed heavily and shook my head.
I wished that Bella would be able to go with me, but I knew that she'd never go for it. No matter if I paid for the entire trip out there and back, she still had a business to run and with Jessica already at the premiere, there was no way that Bella would close just to go with me.
She was way more grounded and business savvy than I could ever claim to be.
"I need you to send it here, Jeannie," I sighed heavily, plopping back into the chair. "It's not for Bella."
"You're taking someone else?"
I could almost see her eyebrows raised at me and I sighed again, reaching up to tap the ball of my hand against my forehead.
"No. I just need a general admission ticket for someone else. I made a deal with her and she needs to have it before I leave."
"Feeding someone to the wolves, are you?" She sighed. "Fine. I'll get another one and have it sent to you as soon as possible. Now give me the address, Edward."
I gave it to her, pouting as I stared at the wall in front of me and waited for Bella to come back downstairs while Jeannie read the address back to me.
"You'll have these things on Tuesday. I really need you to look over this script because if that director calls me one more time, I'm going to be in jail when you get back here."
I snorted, completely believing that she had the ability to snap and kill someone if they looked at her the wrong way.
I'd seen her desk drawer overflowing with any kind of stomach and headache medicine anyone could possibly imagine and it wasn't hard to believe that one day she'd eventually lunge across that shiny desk at someone and snap their neck when they talked back to her.
That was one very big reason why I preferred talking to her on the phone rather than in person. She couldn't kill me if she couldn't see me.
"I'll look it over."
I looked up when I heard Bella's footsteps on the stairs and immediately smiled at her, most of the tension of having to talk to Jeannie this early in the morning melting away at just the sight of her.
Even wearing something as simple as a sweater and a pair of jeans, I thought she was absolutely beautiful. Her hair was still wet, she kept looking from me to the phone at my ear nervously and her bottom lip was once again in between her teeth.
She smiled nervously at me as she reached the bottom of the stairs and I watched as her hands immediately crossed in front of her so that she could play with her fingertips.
"Hang on a second," I said to Jeannie, once again not listening to her answer before I reached out and grabbed Bella's wrist, gently dragging her to me.
"Good morning," I said quietly, letting go of her wrist to place my hand on her cheek.
"What's so good about it?" she grumbled, pouting slightly as she leaned into my hand.
"Well, I woke up next to you." I watched the smile reluctantly start to pull at her lips and smiled back. "Always counts as a good morning in my book."
"Edward! That was the cheesiest thing I think I've ever heard!" Jeannie screamed from the phone still clasped in my other hand.
I looked over at it and shook my head, slamming it down a little harder than necessary on the table top before I stood up straight and grabbed Bella's face in both of my hands.
"She's a nice person," I said softly, rubbing my thumbs over her cheeks.
"She sounds it," she grumbled sarcastically, reaching up and gripping my wrists in her hands.
I laughed and shook my head.
"She's only looking out for me. And for you, actually. She wants the truth out there before people start mangling it too much more. You're in my life and it's her job to make sure that my life is protected as much as it possibly can be."
She sighed and nodded, briefly pressing her lips together.
"Put her on speaker?" she asked timidly, her eyes pleading with me. "Stay with me?"
I nodded, leaning down to rest my forehead against hers.
"I made you some coffee," I said quietly. "I know you'll need it today."
She smiled and hummed her appreciation.
"Have I told you how much I love you?"
"Not today."
She laughed and stood up on her toes to press her lips against mine gently.
"I love you," she whispered as she backed down from me.
I kissed her again, tilting my head to the side and pressing my lips more firmly against hers as my thumbs continued their treks across her cheeks.
"Edward!"
I groaned, breaking away from her and shaking my head.
The woman had a talent for ruining the perfect moments in my life. It was like she'd taken classes for that shit.
"Do you want some coffee?" she asked, quickly kissing my bottom lip before walking away from me and into the kitchen.
"Sure." I plopped back into the chair and snatched the phone off the table, glaring at it again before punching the speakerphone button. "I'm back, Jeannie."
"Do you have to make everything ten times harder for all parties involved?" she grumbled.
"Who was the one insulting me again?"
She snorted and I rolled my eyes, leaning forward and resting my forehead on the table as I stood the phone upright in the middle of it.
"When can I talk to this girl? Did you hide her from me?"
I heard Bella huff out a breath behind me and looked up to see her placing a cup of coffee in front of me and pursing her lips at the phone. I smiled at her apologetically and sat back, carefully pulling her into my lap so that she didn't spill her own coffee and wrapping my arms around her waist.
"She's right here."
"Well, can I talk to her?" she sighed, clearly getting annoyed with my unintentional avoidance of her questions.
"Hello, Jeannie," Bella said quietly, leaning into me and sipping off her coffee.
I turned one hand down, resting it on her jean-clad thigh and gently moving it down to her knee and back up again.
"It's nice to finally talk to you, Bella. I've heard quite a bit about you."
She turned in my arms, raising an eyebrow at me and I grinned at her, shrugging my shoulders.
"I'm sure you have," she grumbled, gently elbowing my chest again.
"Bella," I whined, leaning forward and resting my lips against her shoulder.
"You're fine."
"I'm glad you think so."
"Okay!" Jeannie exclaimed, breaking us out of the bubble we'd once again started to encase ourselves in to. "Bella, I need some answers."
She kissed me quickly before turning back to the phone. I smiled, licking my lips and faintly tasting the French vanilla creamer I hadn't realized had taken up residence in my refrigerator.
Not that I minded. I'd said it before and I meant it even more now; she was more than welcome to move all of her shit into this house and I really wouldn't give a damn.
"What do you need answered, Jeannie?"
I just smiled and tightened my arms around her waist, turning my head to rest my cheek against her shoulder and close my eyes.
Listening to her talk to Jeannie and answer questions that we'd be reading whenever we dared to pick up a magazine only managed to make this whole damn thing more real to me.
Not that it wasn't real to me before, but this just solidified everything and made me see that the good things in my life weren't illusions.
I hadn't fallen asleep on my first day here and dreamt that all of this was happening; Bella really was sitting in my lap with her coffee mug cupped in her hands as she answered Jeannie's question about what her parents did for a living.
With a pause in the conversation – presumably so that Jeannie could write down everything Bella had just said without interruption – I turned my head again and looked up at her.
She smiled down at me, whatever nerves she'd had before completely gone as she moved one arm and wrapped it around my shoulders.
"I love you," I whispered, one of my hands rubbing up and down her back.
She grinned, leaning down and gently touching her lips to mine as her hand tangled in my hair.
"I love you too," she answered in a whisper, setting her mostly empty coffee cup on the table next to my completely full one.
"And how long do you plan on staying with Edward?" Jeannie's no-nonsense voice broke through.
I quickly looked over at the phone, my eyes widening and Bella's eyes narrowing as she slowly turned back to face it.
The surge of anger that was currently running through my veins was not entirely her fault. I knew there would be quips about our relationship because, to be fair, Jeannie didn't know what Bella and I were like together. All she had was a picture that was taken about a minute and a half before we darted out of the club and came home to have sex on the stairs.
It didn't really show how much I loved her. It merely showcased how much I'd wanted her and in Los Angeles, those two things hardly ever went hand-in-hand.
"Excuse me?" she asked, her voice low.
Not such a good idea, Jeannie. Did you really have to piss her off today?
All my plans… every single last one of them…
I sighed heavily and mentally waved them goodbye as they floated away, giggling loudly at me as I rested my forehead against Bella's shoulder.
"How long do you plan on staying with Edward? Is this just something you decided to do one day just to see how far you could get with him?"
"Okay, Jeannie, I think that's enough," I said quickly, swallowing my anger when I heard Bella suck in a deep breath through her nose as the rest of her tensed.
"No!" Bella growled, grabbing my wrist before I could get the phone. "I can understand that you're his agent and I can understand that there are really personal things that need to be splashed across magazines simply because of what he does for a living but don't you ever ask me something like that again. This is not some… some… fling; I'm not using him. I'm in love with him."
"Bella," I said quietly, wiggling my wrist out of her grasp to grab her hand and twine our fingers together.
"This is not okay!" she exclaimed, looking back at me and shaking her head. "This is not all right with me."
She ripped her hand out of mine and abruptly stood up, snatching her coffee mug and stalking into the kitchen. I sighed heavily and closed my eyes tightly, leaning forward and resting my head in my hands.
"I didn't mean to offend you, Bella," Jeannie's surprised voice sounded through the phone yet again. "But you did pass that test."
I heard the coffee mug shatter as she slammed it into the sink and winced, wanting nothing more than to be back in that bed where we were about fifteen minutes ago; asleep and more than content with each other.
I'm turning the ringer off of this phone as soon as fucking possible. I'm not doing this again.
"Test?" Bella seethed, standing behind me now. "The way I feel is a test for you?"
"You're not the first person to trick Edward into thinking that you want him for more than the exposure that being with him can grant you."
"Jeannie, that's enough," I growled, opening my eyes to stare at the phone.
It was not the phone's fault that my agent had a twisted, sick way of getting the truth out of people. I had no rational reason to want to throw the phone out of the window and hope that I didn't find it until spring.
"I may not be," Bella answered, her voice still low as they both seemed to ignore me, "but I am probably the first to tell you to fuck off."
I groaned, closing my eyes again and shaking my head.
This was not what I imagined being said when this conversation finally happened between the two of them.
"I have to go," Bella grumbled, leaning down to press a harsh kiss against my cheek before she stood up straight and stormed to the front door.
"Bella, you don't need to be there for another hour!" I exclaimed as I looked at the clock on the microwave.
"I'll find something to do!" she barked out.
I turned around, watching as she struggled to get her shoes on before getting up from the chair and walking over to her.
Jeannie was thankfully very quiet at the moment and I briefly wondered if she'd hung up on us. At this point in time, though, I really didn't care if she was still on the line.
Bella came first.
"Bella…"
"I'll just talk to you later," she grumbled, waving her hand at me as she slipped her shoes on and grabbed her jacket.
"Bella, just wait…"
I reached her and stood by helplessly as she slid the jacket over her shoulders and turned to grab her purse and keys from the table.
She stopped all movement and looked up at me, her eyes boring into mine.
"I love you," she said quietly. "I mean it."
"Bella, I know that. And I love you too! Don't go into work so early, please? Sit here, talk to me."
She nodded once in the direction of the dining room, pursing her lips before looking at me again.
"I'll be home around four."
"Bella…"
"I've already told her to fuck off," she said quietly, breaking her stance and reaching up to run her hand through my slightly drier hair. "I don't want to say anything else that can be held against me."
"She won't! She's just…"
"She's not being fair to me; she's not being fair to us and I refuse to just sit here and listen to it." She dropped her hand and took one step closer to me, leaning up and kissing me softly. "I love you and I'll see you later."
I was back to watching her helplessly as she turned and walked out of the house, closing the door softly behind her.
I listened to hear her truck start up and then rumble off down the road before I turned on my heel and walked back into the dining room to stare the phone down.
"Jeannie," I started quietly, the anger that had been in control quickly slipping out again.
"I like her!" she chirped. "Much better than the other ones."
"That wasn't fair to her!" I screeched, waving my hands around as I began to pace around the dining room again. "That was… that was uncalled for!"
"You're right," she chirped again and I stopped pacing, openly gaping at the phone. "But I got all the answers I needed from her and she really was the only one of your girlfriends to tell me to fuck off when I pushed too hard." She laughed then and I narrowed my eyes. "You've got a good one this time."
"I'm aware of that!"
"Well, now I fully believe you. I'll send out a statement to everyone as soon as I get back into the office and you'll have the script and the extra ticket by Tuesday morning."
I hung my head and reached up to rub my temples.
I'm glad that she seemed so happy to have put Bella in a hell of a mood for the rest of the day.
I groaned and ran my hands through my hair, looking up to glare at the phone again.
"Thanks," I said sarcastically.
"You're welcome. Tell Bella when she gets back that I'm very sorry for upsetting her but it needed to be done."
"Mm," I mumbled, pulling at the ends of my hair slightly.
"I'm going to go back to bed for a few hours. Maybe you should do the same."
"Yeah," I mumbled again, closing my eyes tightly before letting my hands fall to my sides again.
Because I'd be able to actually do something as silly as sleep after all of this.
"I'll talk to you soon, Edward. Call me when you've made a decision about the script."
"I will."
"Goodnight."
"'Night," I grumbled, walking closer to the table and snatching the phone off of the table to angrily crush the off button underneath my thumb a few times.
Why had I wanted to become an actor again? It wasn't anything like I thought it would be when I first started out.
Of course, I hadn't imagined the pain in the ass agent I'd end up with or the screaming horde of women that followed me around on a daily basis while I was in California or the long ass hours I'd have to put in just to get a two hour movie made in under six months or the fact that I'd never, ever have a private, personal life again.
I sighed and walked into the living room, flipping on the television as I passed it before collapsing onto the couch and curling up on my side.
There were entirely too many hours to wait for Bella to get back home and after all that had already happened this morning, I was definitely too afraid to leave the house.
God knows what could be waiting around the corner for me if I did.
~*~
I was once again awoken by Bella, nearly jumping out of my skin when I heard her voice in my ear.
I blinked, looking around to find that I was still in the living room, still on the couch and the only addition had been Bella lying in my arms. Squinting, I looked at the DVD player and saw that it was almost six at night and sighed, relaxing again and wrapping my arms tightly around her again.
Even in sleep, I had to have her in my arms.
But how in the hell had I not heard her come in the front door? How had I not felt her when she'd joined me on the couch?
How did I sleep all damn day and still feel as if it wasn't long enough?
Damn Jeannie; screwing up almost everything.
"Edward, wait," she breathed.
I sat up a little, looking down at her face in the glow of the television and swallowed hard, reaching up to run the backs of my fingers down her cheek.
"No, wait, please," she begged, one of her hands reaching out, landing on my chest and her fingers curling into my shirt.
I realized that she was talking in her sleep again and twisted my lips to the side, wondering what she could possibly be dreaming about and why she sounded as though someone had just crushed her toes.
"Bella," I whispered into her ear, still brushing my knuckles down her cheek. "You're okay, Bella. I'm here."
I watched her relax and settled back down, wrapping both of my arms around her again and pulling her even closer to me on the small couch.
"Don't leave me," she whispered, her voice cracking before she buried her nose into my chest and hummed in contentment.
I nearly whimpered, immediately tightening my arms around her and burying my nose into the top of her head as I closed my eyes tightly.
Just like that, I knew what she was dreaming about.
And it broke my fucking heart.
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