Blindsided

Chapter One

Edward

I concentrated on eating my food to avoid my mother's persistent nagging about Tanya. We had broken up over a month ago, yet Esme just couldn't let it go. It wasn't that she was particularly fond of Tanya, but she wanted to see me happy, so that's what stopped me from cutting her off and telling her to drop it.

"She just wasn't the one mom." I spoke quietly, my voice low and hushed over the buzz of the restaurant, "I didn't love her and she didn't make me happy."

I thought the mention of my happiness would make her stop, but instead that spurred her on even more.

"What do you mean you didn't love her? You told me you did a few months ago. You told me she made you very happy." Her brow creased and I noticed my father sigh from beside her, but he didn't add anything to the conversation.

"At one point I thought she did." I put my fork down, looking my mother square in the eye, "I truly believed that I could be happy with her. Then I pictured proposing, and having children, and seeing her in my house day in day out and... And I couldn't picture it. She wasn't the right girl, she wasn't the right wife or mother I wanted for my children."

Esme's eyes bore deep into my soul for a long moment, and then she appeared satisfied. She gave a little "humph" before looking back down at her meal.

Carlisle gently smiled at me from across the table.

Alice, my sister, took this as her cue to speak and change the subject. I was eternally grateful that she was here; she always had something to say.

"So I'm thinking of moving to New York." She grinned, "Will you miss me?"

I rolled my eyes at her. Firstly, I knew she was never going to move to New York, she enjoyed being a part of Dad's law firm in Chicago too much. Secondly, I lived in Boston. I never got to see her anyway.

I voiced these thoughts to her, and my father grinned from his seat. He never wanted to lose his baby girl. Hell, he hated the idea of me being so far away.

She crossed her arms, "I can't stay in Chicago forever. I want to branch out and have my own law firm."

I chuckled, "Maybe you will one day. But not when you're just out of college and twenty-two years old."

She tiled her head to the side, "True. But-"

Her phone began a low shrill, and her eyes widened as her face turned red. A few of the other patrons in the restaurant turned to look toward our table. She lifted it out and pressed the button quickly. I assumed she was hanging up, but instead the phone lifted to her ear.

"Bella? Are you ok?"

Isabella Swan was Alice's childhood friend. They were in the same year of school back in Chicago, and she practically grew up with us. I was three years older than them, so I only ever saw them as kids, and when I left for Harvard at eighteen, I never saw Isabella Swan again.

Of course, I came home during the holidays, but she was always spending time with her dad then. When she turned eighteen, she didn't have enough of a college fund to go straight to school, so she worked for a year to add to the funds and then took herself off to Harvard just like me. By then, I'd already left college, and even though we both lived in Cambridge, I never had the chance to lay eyes on her again.

Even though Alice had stayed in Chicago for college and Bella had gone off to Boston, they still remained best friends.

And I could tell by the worried look on Alice's face that something was wrong.

"Well, can they give you some sort of notice?" Alice's face was going red, "A week? Surely that's not legal..."

She stayed quiet for a moment, and our entire family refused to eat as we listened.

"I know it's your final year, Bella... Surely there is someone that has a spare room." I couldn't hear what was being said on the other end of the phone, but suddenly Alice noticed us all looking at her, "Listen, I'm in Boston right now with mom and dad visiting Edward, we're having dinner but once we're finished I'll come over and see you, okay? We'll sort this out."

She hung up a few minutes later, and Esme's eyes were wide with worry, "What's wrong with Bella?"

"Turns out her apparent 'landlord' has been subletting to Bella and got caught out. She has until the end of the week to find somewhere new to live but everywhere is too expensive or too far away from Harvard."

"Can't Charlie help her out?" My mother asked quickly.

Obviously she didn't think about what she was saying. After Bella's mom left when she was a baby, Charlie had been a single parent most of Bella's life. He gave her everything he had and even then it wasn't enough to get her to college first time around. Bella, from what I'd heard, took her father's money for college on the one condition that he let her take care of everything else for the rest of her life.

If I knew one thing about fifteen year old Bella, it was that she was stubborn and independent. I doubted that had changed now that she was twenty-two.

"Obviously not." Carlisle answered my mother, "We could give her some money?" He hedged the conversation towards Alice, but she raised her hand in a flat no. We all knew Bella would never accept.

"She could move in to my spare room?" I offered.

I don't why I'd just said that. To be honest, after Tanya had moved out a month ago, I loved having my own space back again. I didn't want it tarnished with a college girl.

But she was also my sister's best friend, and she'd been a part of my childhood. If Bella had a brother I'd want him to do the same thing for Alice.

Alice stared at me for a long moment, dumbfounded.

"What? It makes sense."

It did make sense. When I moved to Harvard I got a college house with my friends just like everyone else. And when I finished college and got my job at my accountancy firm, I rented a gorgeous apartment in Cambridge. I loved Cambridge, I loved living near Harvard with a short commute to the city every morning. It was the best of both worlds – city and suburban life.

Alice still hadn't spoken.

"Listen, if she doesn't want to take it as charity, tell her I'm struggling to pay the rent since Tanya moved out last month. She can pay whatever she was paying in her old place."

I could almost see the wheels turning in Alice's brain. She knew it made sense.

"But you're not struggling to pay rent. And you haven't seen Bella in years. You don't even know her anymore." She argued.

"I know that, but she doesn't. And yes, that's true. But I doubt she's changed that much. Unless she's now a crazy college girl that goes to parties all the time. I don't really want to deal with that, especially with a nine-to-five job."

Alice giggled, and I saw Carlisle and Esme grin from the corner of my eye, "That's not Bella at all...Maybe you do still know her a bit." Alice agreed, "Only if you're sure though Edward."

"I'm sure... She will only be there a few months away until she finishes college, right?"

"Obviously." Alice rolled her eyes, before excusing herself to use the restroom, where she was going to phone Bella and tell her the good news.

Two days later, my family had left Boston to go back to Chicago and I had been given Bella's number to contact her about her move.

I had text her early in the morning before I had gone into a meeting, and when I returned to my desk at lunch I didn't have a reply. Like most days, I worked through my lunch hour with my pasta salad at my desk. I barely raised my head until it hit 5:30pm.

The accountancy firm I had landed a job at after college was one of the best in the city. It was busy, fast paced and I loved it. But there were a lot of people who worked here, and at twenty-five I was also one of the youngest. I had to work even harder to get noticed, because I wanted to move up the ladder quickly, at my pace not the firm's.

That was another problem I had with Tanya. I would rather work than spend time with her, and I wanted a woman that made me question my love of my job. I wanted a woman that would make me forget the office, not bring any work home, just so I could spend all my free time with her so I never missed a second.

By the time I'd left the office, got in my car and drove home, it was nearly 6:30pm. Traffic was busier than usual tonight because there was a big college football game on.

When I got in, the first thing I did was throw my keys in the bowl by the door, drop my briefcase and coat on the rack, before pulling my tie undone. The apartment was quiet, obviously. I made my way to the kitchen, lifting out the homemade lasagne from the fridge my mother had made me just before they left yesterday. I took a massive slice off, put it on a plate and began to heat it up.

While I was waiting, I walked through the kitchen and into the living room, flicking on the TV before I plopped down on the large grey corner sofa, relaxing for a moment as I found the channel that would have the game on tonight.

I let the noise filter through the apartment as I made my way into my bedroom and stripped off. I put the dirty clothes in the hamper and padded my way into the en-suite, not bothering to close the door as I showered quickly and put on some sweat pants and an old t shirt.

I chuckled to myself quietly as I remembered I would have to get used to closing the door in the next few days after Bella moved in.

Thinking about that reminded me that she still hadn't replied to me, and as I ate my lasagne and watched the game, I wondered if she was going to cancel the move and she'd perhaps found somewhere else to live.

Just after 9pm, however, I received a text.

Hi Edward, thanks again for the offer. Sorry for the late reply, I had class and I'm just home. I have a half day tomorrow, so I could move my stuff in then if it's okay?

All I could picture as I read the text was fifteen year old Bella Swan; pretty but plain, with mousey brown hair, deep brown eyes and a few pimples on her pale face.

Class until 9pm? Yes, tomorrow is fine. I can leave work at 4pm so you could come over at 5.

I replied back quickly, before remembering to send her the address.

After I had done that, it took her another half hour to reply. I tried to picture what she was doing and why she wasn't answering me. Maybe she was getting changed, maybe she was eating dinner.

Yes, I take a journalism class on a Monday night for extra experience. 5pm tomorrow is good. Thanks x

I simmered over that for a long moment, wondering if I should reply. Eventually, I replied with See you then but I couldn't help but get curious about the journalism class. Was that the job she wanted? To be quite honest I didn't even know what her major was.

But I knew I was about to find out, tomorrow at 5pm.

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