Saturday, August 1, 2009

Two

*Edward*

I sat in my lavishly furnished living room, my feet propped on the Queen Anne coffee table I really didn’t appreciate for what it was worth and a steaming mug of coffee held tightly in my hands, sighing heavily and smiling contentedly. Leaning my head back against the Queen Anne sofa, I closed my eyes and tapped my grandfather’s black onyx ring against the mug as I listened to absolutely nothing.

The cabin was quiet. The streets were quiet. Everything around me was absolutely quiet and I don’t think that I’d been this content since February when I visited last.

My cell phone wasn’t ringing with the slightly annoying – albeit highly amusing at times – fans that had managed to find my real number and call, giggling just to hang up when I said hello. The fax machine that my agent had insisted I needed and still couldn’t figure out wasn’t printing out a mile long list of what I needed to get done before the next movie I’d signed on to started filming. The computer wasn’t beeping at me to alert me that I’d gotten a new email message or a reminder that I needed to tend to immediately.

There was nothing but my steady breathing and the distant humming of my refrigerator in the next room, relaxing me and letting me breathe evenly without worrying about what I might’ve been missing.

It was like being in a completely different universe.

When I’d first arrived after buying the house, there had been a few people that had approached me asking for autographs or looking to see if there was anything they could help me with.

And I was pretty sure that their “anything” and my “anything” were two completely different things.

And in all honesty, I didn’t really want anything. I’d tried dating a celebrity and that only managed to piss the both of us off when our egos got a little too big for our apartments to fill. I’d tried dating the non-famous girls and only ended up frustrated when they called me screaming about the new cover of some stupid tabloid, declaring that I was dating the newest actress in Hollywood. I only ended up with a very large migraine and had decided a few months ago that it wasn’t worth it. I’d gladly spend the rest of my acting career single, waiting for retirement before I found someone I could even think about settling down with.

For the most part, though, everyone in this town was laid back and casual about me being here. I’d never had anyone camping out in my front lawn, waiting for me to come out in hopes that they’d capture my interest and be my next… whatever it was they thought I wanted.

I could go to the Cumberland Farms downtown when I ran out of milk or bread or to get a bag of potato chips that I’d been craving without being gawked at. There weren’t any cameras shoved into my face with people yelling my name to get me to look up and I didn’t have to hang out the side of my car window to make sure I wouldn’t be running anyone over when I backed out of my parking space.

By the end of the three weeks, I’m sure I’d never want to leave to go back to all of that. This was the longest I’d been able to stay here and I wanted to enjoy every single minute of it.

I had plans to do absolutely nothing and I was determined to follow through with them.

Lifting my head up, I opened my eyes and raised the mug to my lips, smiling as the coffee easily slid down my throat.

Even drinking coffee was like a new experience. I was usually rushing and trying to choke down some sort of food and my coffee before making my way out the door in the morning that it barely registered what I’d shoved down my throat before it was gone. The coffee could’ve been burned, I could’ve been eating a three month old bagel and I wouldn’t have known the difference.

Being able to sit back and actually taste the coffee I’d poured five minutes ago was one of life’s little miracles.

And then someone knocked on my door and I sighed heavily before lowering my feet to the ground and setting my mug on the coffee table.

I knew it wouldn’t last long, but had hoped differently.

There was only one person that had ever knocked on my door and although I couldn’t fault her for it, having to get up from my almost comatose state on the comfortable couch really didn’t appeal to me.

Running my hands through my hair, I reached the front door and pulled it open, expecting to see Bella standing on the other side of it.

Instead I saw nothing but the railing to my porch and the trees surrounding my little piece of property. Blinking slowly, I looked behind me as if someone would magically appear in the doorway leading to the dining room, jumping up and down gleefully clapping their hands and laughing at me to declare that they’d just pulled one of the most interesting pranks on me. Still seeing no one, I looked back out and down, seeing that nothing had been left on the doorstep, either.

Maybe the peace and quiet was getting to me after the whole day I’d spent there with no necessary noise and I was losing my mind.

Shaking my head, I raised one hand to run it through my hair again before stepping back and starting to close the door.

A piece of white paper flashed in my vision and I yanked the door open again to see Bella’s slightly messy handwriting.

Smirking at it, I grabbed it from the door and stepped onto the porch in enough time to see her front door slamming shut. Chuckling softly, I stepped back into the house and closed the door behind me, looking down at the note.

Edward,

Wanna join me for lunch?

Bella

Why she thought she couldn’t have just stood there and asked me this question to my face was puzzling. I hadn’t wanted to be bothered, no, but there was no need for her to tape notes to my door and run away as if I might bite her for interrupting my silence.

Laughing, I walked into the dining room and grabbed the phone to search through the programmed directory. Finding her number, I pressed the ‘ON’ button and cradled the phone in between my neck and shoulder, crumpling the note in my hand and walking back into the living room to grab my mug as I listened to the line ring.

“Hello?” she asked timidly.

I laughed again, walking into the kitchen and leaning against the sink as I dumped the coffee out.

“You could’ve stuck around, you know.”

“I don’t want to bother you. You can say no!” she said quickly. “I just thought that... I don’t know… maybe…”

“Bella…” I started, shaking my head as I suppressed laughter and started cleaning out my mug.

“You don’t have to come! Really, it’s not a big deal if you don’t want to. I have today off and I’m just…”

“Bored?” I guessed when she trailed off, setting the mug in the drainer before grabbing the phone and bracing one hand against the counter.

“Yeah, something like that, I guess,” she muttered, huffing. “But you don’t have to! I just thought that maybe you’d like to eat something of substance.”

I turned and eyed my refrigerator, knowing that there was nothing but bottled water in there at the moment. I did plan on going to the grocery store sometime today, but it hadn’t been a top priority until I started to get hungry later on.

Shaking my head, I walked out of the kitchen and back into the living room to push aside the white curtains on the front window and look over at her house.

Jacob’s car was still gone, leading me to believe that she hadn’t been able to get a hold of him like I had assumed she’d been trying to do.

Of course they’d get back together. They were always so happy with each other when I’d seen them; the idea of them breaking up for good didn’t really make sense in my mind.

It didn’t stop the slight flutter that I felt creep up my spine when she’d told me that they’d broken up last night, but it never entered my mind that they wouldn’t be back together within the week.

And I’d chose not to dwell on that stupid flutter because a relationship between Bella and I was complete nonsense. I wasn’t here all the time, she was with Jacob and it just didn’t make any damn sense.

Plus, it would probably just cause unnecessary drama between the two of us and I valued her friendship entirely too much to ruin it on something as foolish as a relationship.

“Edward?”

Bella’s voice snapped me out of the thoughts running through my mind and I shook my head, taking a deep breath and letting the curtain fall back to its original spot.

“Really,” she laughed nervously, “it’s not a big deal. Maybe another time.”

I had my mouth open and the response ready on my tongue before I heard the click in my ear, signifying that she’d hung up on me.

I snapped my mouth shut, bringing the phone from my ear and staring down at it as I slowly turned it off.

That was the second time a female had hung up on me in two days. I can’t say that I enjoyed it.

Shaking my head, I walked back into the dining room and placed the phone on its cradle before grumbling about how I managed to be surrounded by moody women and grabbing my boots from the bottom of the stairs.

By the time I had them on and was pulling my coat over my arms as I stepped out of the house, I watched as Bella’s truck took off down the road and my shoulders fell.

Maybe I never should’ve gotten out of bed this morning. I hadn’t wanted to, in all honesty, and I was really beginning to think that I should just go back to it. I had no reason to be up and about, there was no pressing need to see anyone for the next three weeks and there would be absolutely no harm done if I shed my clothes and crawled back underneath the warm cotton sheets to sleep the rest of my day away.

Clucking my tongue, I hastily ran my hands through my hair before stepping back into the house and shedding my coat, dropping it in the rocking chair by the door.

I’d just be picking it back up when she returned from wherever it was that she suddenly needed to disappear to.

Grumbling again, I dragged the rocking chair to the front windows and flicked the curtain back on its rod before plopping onto my coat and staring intently out the window.

She couldn’t have been going very far for very long. As far as I knew, Bella liked to cook her meals more than she liked to eat out and she probably had something on the stove or in the oven when she’d decided to tape the note to my door. Logically, there was no way that she could be gone for very long.

I could’ve been doing anything else. I could’ve still been drinking that coffee I’d dumped down the drain for some unfathomable reason and enjoying the silence that engulfed my escape. I could’ve been watching mindless soap operas just because I’d never really had the chance to before.

Instead, I sat in a wooden rocking chair, looking out my front windows and waiting for my highly skittish neighbor to return home so that I could take her up on her request for lunch.

I should’ve just said yes. There was absolutely no reason for me not to have said yes and gone over there without calling her. There was no reason for my hesitation as I stared out the window at the cabin identical to mine because I was always up for a meal that Bella had prepared.

Plus, I’d be sitting with her in comfortable silence much like I’d been doing before she called. There had never been a reason for us to fill a silence with meaningless chatter when we were just as comfortable not saying anything. That was the way we worked and I liked it that way.

I spent most of my days trying not to say something stupid to the wrong person and having it land on the front page of some sleazy newspaper, taken completely out of context and blowing things way out of proportion that not having to say anything at all while in the company of someone I considered real was like heaven.

She never asked about my career and I only offered her bits and pieces if it couldn’t be avoided. She didn’t treat me any differently than she treated anyone else and I never expected her to. When I was here and when I was with her, I wasn’t Edward Cullen the actor. I was Edward Cullen the person and that was exactly what I’d been aiming for when I bought the house.

Granted, I hadn’t counted on becoming close with one of my neighbors, but it was an added bonus. She wasn’t nosy and she never pried or fished for information on other celebrities I’d met and associated with.

I leaned forward when I heard a car rumbling up the street, standing up and grabbing my coat before I realized that it wasn’t Bella’s truck that had pulled into the driveway across from mine.

It was Jacob’s restored Volkswagen Rabbit that I’d heard and my eyebrows drew together on their own accord.

Okay, so he’d come home and they’d work things out like I knew they would. Whatever had happened between them was merely a bump in the road; normal couples had those every once in a great while.

And she hadn’t been too horribly upset last night when she told me about it. Sad, yes, but she wasn’t falling apart at the seams like most of the girls I’d known had done when they’d been dumped by their significant other.

So why did I feel so damn disappointed at the sight of his car parked in the driveway like it should’ve been last night? It was an irrational feeling; hadn’t I already told myself that Bella was nothing more than a friend to me and that she actually belonged with Jacob?

He was a much better choice for her. I was too much of a risk and my lifestyle obviously wasn’t something that would suit her. She deserved stability and normalcy – two things of which I would not be able to give her even if I’d wanted to.

Which I didn’t.

Dropping my coat back into the rocking chair, I sat down on top of it and leaned forward, watching as he climbed out of the car and angrily slammed the door behind him.

I sat up a little straighter upon hearing it and propped my chin on the ledge of the window, watching intently as he paced back and forth across the melting ice in the driveway.

His long black hair was pulled back into a low ponytail at the back of his neck and his hands were clenched into fists at his sides as he stalked back and forth impatiently.

I’d never seen him acting this way before. He’d always been so easy going and friendly each time I’d been here that seeing him tense, jumpy and just plain pissed off triggered something.

My hands balled into fists as they rested on my knees and my eyes narrowed as I watched his jaw move up and down, obviously talking to himself. He’d glance at my house every few seconds, his own eyes narrowed before he looked away and continued his irritated pacing.

He looked like he wanted to hit something. And if that something was Bella…

I sucked in a deep breath, my nostrils flaring slightly as I rigidly stood up, my back ramrod straight and my whole body tense.

I heard Bella’s truck sputtering its way back up the road and quickly grabbed my coat, slinging it over my shoulders but standing still as I watched her pull into the driveway again.

Well, at least I’d been right that she wouldn’t be gone long.

I slightly wished that I’d been wrong. I didn’t want her near him when he was acting this way. He looked like he was going to snap and no matter how quickly I could move when I really needed to, I knew that if he hurt her I’d never get there in time to stop him from doing it.

And it wasn’t like I could just walk out on my front porch, blatantly stare and listen to them arguing – because that was all they’d be doing with the way I’d been watching him pace – and expect to be unnoticed. There wasn’t even a good excuse that I could use to get outside. My driveway was clear, there was a clear path to my front door and there was nothing out there that I could pretend to be busy with.

I was trapped inside what had been my escape a mere two minutes ago, wanting nothing more than to be across the street and shielding Bella from Jacob’s apparent wrath.

So I stood by the windows, watching as she climbed out of the truck and cautiously walked around to the front of it, effectively blocking my view of her.

I cursed under my breath, all but pressing myself up against the windows in a sad attempt to see her.

When that didn’t work, I pressed my lips together in a tight line and focused on Jacob standing in the space between his car and her truck. And then I actually heard him and if possible, my eyes narrowed even more.

“What the hell is there to talk about, Bella? I can’t do this anymore!”

Her response was muffled and I cursed the fact that she wasn’t yelling back. Hell, I wanted to yell back and I didn’t even know what had made him break it off with her.

Aside from the fact that he obviously didn’t like perfection.

Shaking my head at the direction my thoughts were suddenly taking, I listened intently to hear the rest of Jacob’s side of the argument.

“I don’t fucking believe that! There’s no fucking way that you don’t talk to him when he’s gone off to wherever it is that he goes to! You two are way too close for it not to be happening!”

What the hell was he talking about and why did it suddenly seem like I was a very big part of the whole mess?

“Don’t tell me that I’m making shit up, Bella! Look at the facts! You’ve never been that comfortable around another guy before! It took you damn near two years to even agree to go out with me! And you just so happen to feel comfortable around him when he’s hardly here?”

It was painfully obvious that I was in fact a very large part of what had happened between them, and as I stood watching Jacob’s tan face turn red, I swallowed hard.

I’d come here to escape all the drama I seemed to create just by looking at another woman and it hadn’t worked. I’d driven a very large wedge in between two people I’d considered friends just by… doing what they’d both asked of me.

I stared at my reflection in the window as Bella answered, her words still muffled due to the level of her voice and shook my head disbelievingly.

That really couldn’t be the reason that he’d broken it off with her, could it? They were the ones that wanted me to call them during the winter months; why had it suddenly turned into a problem?

And what had he been talking about when he said that we were too close? I never heard from her or saw her after I left my driveway at the end of my stay so I didn’t quite understand what might’ve made him believe that we’d been talking anytime after that.

“What do you expect, Bella? What more do you-“

And then I finally heard it; her voice rising in anger as she responded the way I’d wished her to.

“What do I expect?” she all but screamed. “I expect you to trust me! I expect you to know that I would never cheat on you because I love you! And if you can’t trust me on something like that, then what the hell are we even trying to pull off here?”

I pursed my lips and nodded, impressed. She had a very good point.

“Of course I trust you! I don’t trust him!”

My brows pulled together again and I licked my lips, irritated. When had I ever given Jacob a reason not to trust me? It’s not like I’d been sneaking into their house to watch them sleep or anything absurd like that. I’d never done anything untrustworthy to either of them so why the sudden hostility towards me?

“That’s a bull shit excuse and you know it! He’s done nothing to deserve this!”

“Why are you defending him so much then? If there’s nothing going on between the two of you, why are you defending him?”

“Because you’re being an ass to someone who doesn’t deserve it! I’m not cheating on you, you big dumb oaf! He’s a friend!”

Yeah, some friend I am. Friends don’t cause this kind of turmoil in other’s relationships; I wouldn’t classify myself as any sort of friend either of them should even want in their lives.

Although, at this point – I watched Jacob’s hands curl into fists and my own twitched as I sidestepped towards my front door – I was pretty sure that Jacob didn’t want me in his life, or Bella’s for that matter.

“It’s different for you and you know it! Your entire face lights up like a god damned Christmas tree when he shows up or calls and you have never looked like that for someone you supposedly didn’t know well!”

“Is it wrong for me to enjoy his company? He’s one of the very few people in this damn town that won’t start running his mouth if I tell him something personal!”

“You’re telling him personal shit now? What have you told him about us, Bella? What does he know?”

“Up until last night, there wasn’t anything to tell! You’re driving yourself crazy with this, Jake, and I’ve had it!”

“What is that supposed to mean?”

“It means it’s over!”

“No shit it’s over, Bella! It was over last night! I only came over here because my father wants to use his phone without you calling in!”

“I only called him twice last night!”

“It was enough!”

I watched as he began pacing again and finally saw Bella step into my line of vision, her over-sized purse clutched in her hands tightly and her cheeks red.

Her voice was softer again as I could see her lips moving, but couldn’t hear any of the words I’d been hanging onto since she’d started yelling back at him.

Huffing, I stepped back in front of the windows and watched as he threw his hands in the air, let out a stream of curses directed towards my house and got back into his car.

I continued to watch with amusement as Bella raised her leg and kicked the front of his car once he was in and the car was started.

And then I wasn’t so amused anymore when her other foot must’ve slipped on a patch of ice underneath her and she disappeared from my sight for a few painful moments while Jacob pulled out of the driveway.

Without letting myself think too much about what I was doing, I was out of my house and at the end of my driveway, looking cautiously down the road to see the back of Jacob’s car disappear over the hill before I ran across the road and bent down in front of her.

She was clutching at her left ankle, her wallet and checkbook scattered on the ground around her from her fall, moaning and cursing slightly underneath her breath.

“Bella, are you all right?”

Her head snapped up and a little whimper escaped through her lips as her eyes connected with mine.

“This is one… I can’t even… ugh!” she exclaimed, shaking her head as she lurched to the side to grab the items on the ground. “I just wanted a bag of popcorn.”

I raised an eyebrow at her as she opened her purse and tilted it the right way to display a bag of un-popped microwave popcorn wrapped in cellophane before throwing her wallet and checkbook on top of it.

“I wanted my grilled cheese sandwich, I wanted to watch my movie and I wanted to eat popcorn,” she continued to grumble, shaking her head as she slung her purse over her shoulder again. “But no, that just wasn’t possible.”

She braced her hands, palms down on the cold concrete beneath her and attempted to stand up.

The slight amusement that had returned as she outlined what she’d wanted to get accomplished that afternoon disappeared when she cried out and fell back onto her butt, her hands immediately going back to the ankle that she’d obviously twisted.

I quickly brushed her hands away and pushed up the leg of her jeans, gently taking her ankle into my hands and placing her foot in my lap.

I ignored a gentle, annoying tugging inside of my chest as I touched her soft skin, instead focusing on carefully putting pressure on her ankle to make sure that nothing was broken.

I’d watched my father tend to one of our swollen limbs or broken bones more times than I could count while I was growing up. It was easy to see that the only thing Bella needed to do was get into that house and stay in one spot for the rest of the day.

“This is nothing. Please, don’t even worry about it. I’m perfectly capable of getting up.”

I looked up at her from eyeing the slowly growing lump that used to be her ankle with a raised eyebrow. If that were the truth, she’d already be up and we both knew it.

She narrowed both of her eyes at me before brushing my hands away from her ankle and bracing her palms on the concrete once again.

“I could help you, you know.”

She shook her head, scrunching her nose as she put the most pressure on her uninjured ankle and managed to hoist herself into a standing position. She bent her left knee, hopping over to her truck and leaning on the hood as she adjusted her purse on her shoulder again, her back to me.

And just when I expected her to start hopping her way to the front porch, she began tapping her nails against her truck’s hood.

“How much did you hear?” she asked quietly, barely turning her head to look over her shoulder at me.

I reached up and uncomfortably cupped the back of my neck as I stared down at my feet.

“Of what?”

“Being dense doesn’t work for you, Edward.” She hopped on her right foot once, effectively turning herself so that she was now facing me. “How much did you hear?”

“All of it,” I said meekly, dropping my hand to my side and hooking my thumbs into the pockets of my coat. “I was waiting for you to come home and I saw Jacob pull up…”

She nodded, closing her eyes and holding up her hand to stop me.

“I’m sorry.”

My eyes widened and I shook my head, waiting for her to open her eyes and look at me again.

What was she apologizing to me for? She hadn’t done anything that called for forgiveness from me. If anything, it was the other way around.

Apparently, my mere presence in her life had caused a whole hell of a lot of trouble that I hadn’t been able to think about. I should’ve, of course; I never managed to make anything but a movie scene even a slightly bit better.

“Bella,” I said forcefully, stepping up in front of her and gently placing my hands on her shoulders.

She opened her eyes again and looked up at me, biting her bottom lip and sighing.

“You have nothing to apologize for.”

“You heard him, Edward. Nothing he said was very complimentary or true.”

“Well, if it wasn’t true then it doesn’t matter, does it?” I reasoned, smirking down at her.

“It was embarrassing.”

I shrugged a shoulder, my smirk turning into a full fledged smile.

“It was no worse than reading about my underwear preference in a nationally published newspaper.”

Her face flushed red before she laughed and shrugged, shaking her head. “Yeah, I guess that would be pretty embarrassing.”

“You don’t know the half of it.” I looked behind her at the front door of her house. “Is that offer for lunch still good?”

Her eyes widened slightly again and I barely suppressed the urge to roll my eyes at her. I don’t know why she always seemed so surprised when I said something about spending additional time with her. Who wouldn’t want to spend time with her? She was, by far, one of the most interesting people I’ve ever met in my entire life.

Not one of the most colorful people I’ve ever met, but surely one of the most interesting.

“You really don’t have to do that. I mean, it was just a whim and I…”

“I’m hungry,” I finally interrupted her. “And the bottled water in my refrigerator isn’t going to do anything to abate that feeling.”

“I was only going to make a grilled cheese sandwich…”

“Bottled water, Bella. That’s all I’ve got in that house.” I moved a hand from her shoulder and jerked my thumb across the street. “A grilled cheese sandwich sounds pretty damn good.”

She laughed nervously before nodding and turning on her good heel, causing my other hand to fall from her shoulder and slap against my thigh.

I watched the internal debate she seemed to be having with herself as she tilted her head from side to side, staring at the porch. She took a deep breath and I scooped her into my arms, grinning widely at her as she screamed.

“Edward!” she screeched, quickly wrapping her arms around my neck tightly. “Put me down right now!”

“You’re not hopping on a sprained ankle when I’m perfectly capable of carrying you. Is the door unlocked?”

Without waiting for an answer and desperately trying to find a way to distract myself from the way she felt against me, I walked up the porch steps and bent down, twisting the doorknob and shoving it open when it turned easily in my occupied hands.

“Why ask if you aren’t going to wait for an answer?”

“It’s the polite thing to do.”

She ‘hm’-med at me as I set her down on the couch and quickly grabbed one of the throw pillows from the other end, propping her ankle up as she dropped her purse onto the floor next to her.

“How am I going to make lunch?”

“You’re going to let me attempt to make a simple sandwich.”

She eyed me, leaning over to rummage around in her purse, producing the wrapped popcorn bag and placing it in her lap.

“I can do it.”

“You probably could,” I agreed, shrugging out of my coat and walking over to close the front door and hang my coat on the closet door behind it. “But I’m not going to let you. Relax,” I demanded, quickly turning around to see that she was shrugging out of her coat as well. “And don’t get up until you smell smoke.”

She pursed her lips, throwing her coat into the armchair next to her and crossing her arms over her chest.

“Comforting.”

“Isn’t it?” I grinned, snatching the popcorn off of her lap and quickly darting into the kitchen.

~*~

*Bella*

It was my only day off this week and I was spending it on the couch, my ankle propped up on a pillow, Edward banging things around in my kitchen and a fight with my now, official, ex-boyfriend ringing in my ears.

It was beyond mortifying that Edward had heard everything Jake had said. I’d been hoping to avoid that by dragging him into the house, but it obviously hadn’t worked. He said he wasn’t going to stay long and when I said that I just wanted to talk, he went off.

Moaning softly, I crossed my arms over my eyes and leaned my head back against the arm rest.

I’d been lonely when I cowardly taped that note to Edward’s door and had just wanted some company. The house was too big and too empty and too quiet without Jake here – even if we were screaming at each other – and I wasn’t used to it.

I stupidly figured that Edward – who was constantly surrounded by people screaming his name and asking him stupid pointless questions – would somehow feel the same.

I hadn’t really thought that one through. So when he failed to give me an answer after a full five minutes of silence, I sputtered something, hung up on him and decided that I was destined to be alone today. So I grabbed my coat and purse and hopped in my truck to go downtown to see if there was anything that would keep me interested for the rest of the day.

Finding my way to the movie store, all I’d managed to find was a bag of popcorn. I had plenty of movies at home but no popcorn. So I grabbed a bag, slapped it on the counter, paid the whole dollar for it and got back into my truck to go home.

I hadn’t expected to see Jake there waiting for me.

I still didn’t understand what the hell made him think that I’d give up our stable, comfortable relationship for someone who was universally wanted by women fifteen times better than I was and lived across the damn country most of the time. I still don’t know why he thought that I called Edward when he wasn’t around or who he might’ve heard it from to cement that stupid idea into his head.

Certain people in this town were too damn nosy for their own good. And what wasn’t fact, they made sure to make something up and sound convincing enough to anyone who would listen to their stupid ramblings.

And yet, there were still no tears for Jake.

Dropping my arms to my lap in frustration, I stared at the blank television and eyed the remote sitting on top of the DVD player on the oversized entertainment center Jake had insisted we needed six months ago.

Half of the shelves were empty, but oh yes, we most definitely needed it to take up half of the damn living room.

“Shit,” I sighed heavily.

Leaning up, I tilted my head to the side and listened to hear sizzling sounds from the kitchen, indicating that Edward hadn’t tried burning my house down yet and slowly maneuvered my injured leg to the floor.

Testing my ankle, I winced slightly when the pressure sent a shooting pain up my leg, digging my fingernails into the couch cushions I was gripping tightly.

Grinding my teeth together, I pushed myself up on my right leg and, as quietly as possible, hopped my way over to the entertainment center with the help of the couch to snatch the remote.

When I didn’t hear more than the necessary movement in the kitchen from Edward, I huffed out a sigh of relief. The last thing I needed was to have him come running in here and trying to get me to lay back down. This had all been embarrassing enough; I didn’t need the famous actor turned neighbor currently making me lunch to come back in here and find that I’d disobeyed his doctor-like orders.

Grabbing the edge of the television tightly in my hand, I hopped once more to my right and began to look through the movies neatly stacked on the shelf.

If Edward felt so inclined to stay for the movie portion of the highly exciting day I’d been having, then I might as well have one picked out at the very least.

Snatching Sweeney Todd off the shelf, I opened it and quickly stuck it in the DVD player before hopping my way back to the couch and quickly plopping back into it.

“Did that make you feel any better?”

I jumped and a small shriek sounded out of my throat as he waltzed back into the living room with a sandwich bag full of ice in his hands and one of my kitchen towels draped over his shoulder.

“What?” I breathed, swallowing hard and trying to catch my breath.

“You’re not as quiet as you think you are.” He carefully set my foot back on the pillow before placing the towel on my ankle and the bag of ice on top of it. “Now, please, stay here.”

I looked into his eyes and had to swallow hard again before nodding dumbly.

He looked so… concerned. Not even Jake had seemed that concerned about me whenever I’d managed to hurt myself somehow.

Granted, it happened more often than I’d really like it to but a certain level of concern from my own boyfriend would’ve been nice. I could’ve really managed to hurt myself during one of my less graceful moments and he would’ve still been sitting on the couch, the TV remote in his hand as he carelessly yelled to ask if I was okay without moving his eyes from the screen.

“Oh… okay.”

“Do you mind if I stay for a while after we eat?” he asked, standing up straight.

Hell, you could move in with me and I wouldn’t even bat an eyelash.

“No. That’s fine.”

He nodded and grinned at me before turning and walking out of the room again.

“I’m almost done!” he called over his shoulder before he completely disappeared.

“Okay!” I called back, my voice shaky.

I covered my face with my hands and shook my head, closing my eyes tightly and moaning unhappily.

He was probably just sticking around to make sure that I didn’t get up or hurt myself anymore. There were probably a million and one other things that he could’ve been doing and instead, he was at my house, making us grilled cheese sandwiches because I’d been dumb enough to kick Jake’s car and hurt myself.

Brilliant, Bella. Abso-fucking-lutely brilliant.

And I’d gotten so much satisfaction out of that stupid, insignificant movement, too. He adored that car and even though I hadn’t done any damage to it, it still felt pretty good to kick it and know that it would piss him off just a little more.

Not that he needed the fire power to begin with, but it made me feel a little bit better about the whole absurd situation.

Then I’d slipped, twisted my ankle as I went down and the next thing I knew, Edward was crouched in front of me, his eyes wide and intent on my face as I sat on the cold, wet ground with my hands clutching my ankle.

Which meant that he heard it all. If he saw me fall, he heard everything that Jake and I had been screaming at each other and it only made me feel worse than I already had.

The man wanted peace and quiet and I’d been a very large part of disrupting that for him today. He wanted a quiet neighborhood to relax in and up until five minutes ago, he’d had that.

Groaning, I covered my face again and threw my head back into the pillows behind me as I heard him open and shut the microwave door.

I felt like an idiot. I never should’ve written that note. It didn’t do me any good in the grand scheme of things and he was probably just annoyed at me.

But he was too damn polite and nice to ignore me like he rightfully should. He came here to get away from annoying people and nosy stalker-like fans I was sure surrounded him on a daily basis out in California.

And here I come, slipping and sliding my way into his life without stopping to even consider that he might just want me to leave him the hell alone.

All he wanted me to do was to snow blow his driveway when it snowed and feed him on his first night in town. There’d never been any mention of spending any additional time with him after that day unless he showed up on my doorstep.

“You don’t have to stay if you don’t want to!” I called out, dropping my hands to my lap again and sighing heavily.

I heard his heavy footsteps before he appeared in the doorway of the living room, a butter knife in one hand, his head tilted and his eyebrows drawn together as he stared at me.

“Why would I do anything that I didn’t want to do?”

I blinked slowly at him and my lips started twitching. He looked so confused and slightly dumbfounded – coupled with the butter knife in his hand and his head tilted as if he were trying to figure out a complicated math problem, it was impossible not to laugh at him.

“What?” he asked, stepping completely into the living room and waving the knife around. “What are you laughing at?”

“You look ridiculous,” I laughed, covering my mouth in a sad attempt to stop laughing.

He looked from me to the knife before smirking and meeting my eyes again, shrugging easily.

“This is what happens when I’m cooking. Now, why would I do anything that I didn’t want to do?”

“I don’t want you to feel like you have to stay here,” I shrugged, sighing heavily as my laughter stopped rather abruptly and letting my hands fall back into my lap again. “I’m fine.”

He pointedly glanced at my ankle and I rolled my eyes, throwing my hands in the air and huffing.

“Bella, if you want me to go, all you have to do is say so.”

“No!” I said quickly.

Too quickly. And hoping that he wouldn’t notice went out the window as soon as I saw his eyebrows shoot up.

I felt my face start to redden and wanted to bury myself in the couch cushions until the most embarrassing day of my life was finally over.

“Not unless you want to.”

“And I don’t.” I looked up at him and he quickly nodded once, pointing the end of the knife at me. “So give me five more minutes and we’ll have grilled cheese sandwiches, popcorn and some wine.”

“That’s a hell of a combination.”

He shrugged, grinning crookedly at me and I stopped breathing. I forced myself to gulp in as much air as I could without drawing more attention to myself and waited for him to say something. Anything to get my mind off of how that smile affected everything about me.

“You picked it out. I’m just following the outline you’ve provided.”

“I never said anything about wine.”

“I improvised. You don’t mind, do you?”

I shook my head and smiled. “No, I don’t mind.”

He nodded again before turning and walking back out of the living room.

The DVD menu was on the screen and as I listened to the popcorn popping in the microwave and the comforting sounds of sizzling in the kitchen, I didn’t even let myself feel guilty that I wasn’t more upset about the fight I’d just had with Jake.

That relationship was over and there was probably no way to make it right again. Then again, at this point, I wasn’t sure that I even wanted to make it right. The fact that Jake couldn’t even trust me and would listen to the people in town as opposed to the girl he’d been living with for the past few years kind of made things a hell of a lot easier than I’d imagined.

I was more upset about the public display we’d given the whole rest of the neighborhood than I was about the ending of a relationship I previously hadn’t seen myself living without.

Well, maybe not the neighborhood, per se, but Edward at least.

Pursing my lips and rubbing my eyes, I took a deep breath and tried my best to give myself a mental pep talk about not making an even bigger fool out of myself in front of Edward.

And then I rolled my eyes at myself because really, the thought of me not doing something incredibly stupid to embarrass myself in front of him was damn near laughable.

I was a walking disaster and he made me slightly nervous and very anxious. It was very close to being one of America’s Funniest Home Videos instead of my life.

And as he walked into the living room a few minutes later with one of my grandmother’s old trays, brimming with the sandwiches, wine and a big ass bowl of popcorn, I was pretty sure this was all some practical joke someone had set up for me to deal with.

The loss of my boyfriend, my hot actor neighbor “friend” serving me lunch and taking care of me when I sprained my ankle, and my complete inability to find anything to say other than a stuttered “M-movie?” as I pointed to the TV screen just could not be real.

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©2009 Stay | by TNB