It started with waking up late; Edward startled out of bed, alone, the clock read a blurry...ten o'clock! Grumbling words he would never say in front of his mother he pulled himself out of bed. He was irritated that Jasper didn't think to wake him and neither him or Jake were any where in sight. Skipping both his shower and breakfast was not as frustrating as not receiving his customary good-bye kisses. He didn't have time to deal with the subway and he had already missed the bus; waiting for the next equaled out to taking a taxi. The first one he tried to get into he was elbowed out of the way by a tiny old woman with a bouffant piled high on her head, she gave him the finger when he tried defending his claim. After that he happened into the smelliest one in the city. He was sure. The skies looked like they were threatening rain and Edward hoped it could wait until he was back home. Jasper had mention the predicted nasty weather, but of course his umbrella was cozy at home in the entrance closet. He rushed through the employee entrance twenty minutes before noon and ran straight into Alice.
"Sorry, I sl-"
She cut him off, "Get in the dining room. The Blaines lunch is wearing Seth into the ground; he can barely keep up." He ground his teeth together he was part owner of this place, not her lackey, but didn't say anything, only turned toward the dining room. He tried to remind himself that it was Monday, Monday's sucked. And they were short staffed, and he was late; of course Alice was going to be snappy. Damn Mondays.
One argument with the overreacting Bethany Blaines later and he was ready to go home. He should have stayed in bed. He took over the large table and Seth moved to a section across the dining room. He was pouring Mrs. Blaines her fourth cup of coffee, mumbling to himself that Mondays were Hell on earth. He was plotting on how to make it a half day in the hopes of skipping over the dreaded parts; like waking up. And going to work.
Seth shuffled over to him and Edward sighed on the inside; he was a great kid but he didn't make up for Leah being gone for a month. "I am so sorry, Edward," He was thankful Seth had finally dropped the "Mr. Cullen" title. "They just kept running me, every time I got to the table they had something else; couldn't they make a list. Fuck," he mumbled the last word, scrubbing at his face, particularly his eyes.
Edward patted his shoulder, "Don't let it bother you, Seth. Mrs. Blaines is old and grouchy," And Edward had had his fill of old ladies today, thank you? "There is a reason your sister usually handles them." Seth grinned, he could imagine how his abrasive sister 'handled' the high maintenance table.
"Good thing she'll be home soon."
Edward snorted, "good thing they only come in every other week." He plastered a smile on his face and walked into the dining room. He needed to remember that even if they were the worst guests in the world they were a large, regular party that enjoyed spending their money; Edward would excuse their rudeness if they kept spending it at his business.
It felt like hours and it would have been better if it had been but finally they stood, ready to leave. Edward walked them to the door. "It was a pleasure to have you all," He thought he would swallow his tongue on the lie.
Mrs. Blaines smiled thinly, "The pleasure was ours. You have the finest restaurant in the city Edward; but not the finest help." Her eyes flicked over his shoulder and he knew Seth was some where behind him. "When will that precious Leah return?" Only this- thing would call Leah 'precious'.
"Leah's gone on her honeymoon for another two weeks." Edward resisted blinking his eye rapidly; he had a migraine building.
Her mouth turned down, "How unfortunate..."
"Call ahead, Mrs. Blaines, and I'll personally serve you again on your next visit." The mini-Edward inside him kicked him in the spleen. The woman brightened at that though and Edward resigned himself to this horrifying future visit. Soon as the last Blaine was through the door Edward turned on his heel and stalked back to the kitchen.
It was Monday, he had things to do, orders to fill, a night shift to put together. His best night manager, Emmett, was out for the week; his daughter had come down with a bad bug and his wife was deployed. He was stuck there for the foreseeable future. By the time four o'clock had rolled around Edward's no good day had turned horrible; a complaint, several (expensive) broken dishes, and one call-out. He was starving and Alice had been no where to be seen in two hours.
She came stumbling into the kitchen her arms loaded down with brown grocery bags. She huffed, "the damn truck didn't come with this weeks organic orders. How ridiculous! Our order 'got lost in the shuffle'!" Alice ranted this and more to the two cooks manning the kitchen; they were slowly shrinking back from her throwing glances at him.
Alice caught their wandering eye and turned to him. "Edward!" she shouted, "what are you still doing here? You have plans tonight."
He raised a brow in confusion, "What are you talking about?" She crossed her arms over her chest and started typing her foot. "What?" his jaw clenched, he hadn't forgotten anything; what could she possibly be talking about.
"Go, now," She started shooing him toward the door.
He tried to figure out what she was going on about. "What are you-?" She gave him that look; it was a smile, head cocked to the side and her eyes were just...filled with soppy happiness. It was her look whenever Jasper and him were doing something especially...domestic?
Alice pushed him out the door, "Good-bye, now." He stumbled a few feet and gave her an incredulous glare. "Have fun you three." Edward groaned, what the hell?
He made the subway, thank God, and even manged to wrestle a seat that didn't have a hobo sleeping in either of the ones next to it. He was settling in ready to figure out what his partner had up his sleeve. There weren't any reasons to celebrate were there? It was a Monday for crying out loud! Edward's mental musing came to a pause when a young lady stepped onto the train. She was noticeably pregnant with one of her arms hugging her belly and the other clutching two full shopping bags. She glanced around the train and visibly sighed when she took in that there were no open seats in the car. She took two steps in his direction and Edward stood and held out his hand for her bags. With a huge smile she sat in his previous seat and hm'd in contentment at being off her feet. She took her bags and smiled, "Thank you."
Edward smiled the best he could and grabbed the bar over head. He ignored the fact that his hand landed in something sticky and reasoned that moving would not change the fact that he: one, already had something on his hand at this point, and two, would most likely put his hand into something else that was even worse. He kept himself firmly in place. It's a short ride, he reasoned. Short, only three sto- The man hanging on the bar next to him lolled to the side, his head coming to rest directly on Edward's shoulder. He cringed and pulled away while gently trying to coax the drunkard to prop his own self up. It wasn't working, and when Edward bumped him too hard he smacked the man on the other side. He looked neither amused nor willing to shoulder some of Edward's burden.
He gave up then and repeated to himself that it was only three short stops.
The day perked immensely when Edward emerged from the subway to find that the storm that had been threatening finally passed over; and it seemed that he had lucked out and missed it. More positive than he had been all day he walked toward his apartment suite. It didn't matter that he had forgotten some event Jasper planned; he was almost home to him and that was better. Whatever it was he would have fun with his partner.
A gaggle of giggling girls forced him to step dangerously close to the street just as a truck passed. Wet from head to toe and covered in an inch of street grim Edward stood there, shocked for a moment. This had not happen, he thought. He could see the front doors of his apartment building; just inside was the doorman, Frank and his little dachshund, Hunley. He. Was. Almost. Home. The kicker though, the snap right through his last shred of patience was one of the girls turning to glance over her shoulder. "Burn!" she giggled to her friends; while another shouted, "thanks," with a twinkle of her fingers.
Edward stomped through the glass front doors and trudged, soggily toward the elevator. Hunley eyed him resentfully as he dripped over the foyer. Edward returned the glare, but knew the small animal would not back down. Frank caught sight of him and smiled genially, "Good afternoon, Mr. Cullen. Good day at the Lounge?" He took in Edward's disheveled appearance and clucked his tongue. "Storm came outta nowhere. Mr. Whitlock and Jake got in just in time." Edward nodded sharply; normally he could hold a pleasant conversation with the doorman, but today was not one of those days. Seeing Edward's terrible mood plainly across his face Frank stepped back and let the man pass without further word.
Seeing his apartment door with...the dark blue balloon tied to the knocker? was still a welcomed sight. He wondered at the balloon a moment while he fished his keys from his pocket; Jasper enjoyed doing the odd thing now and again. Said it kept some of their more chattier neighbors busy. He let himself in with a sigh and shut the door a little harder than necessary; he was just so relieved to be home. He didn't even have the chance to turn around before strong arms wrapped around his waist.
"Finally," Jasper huffed in his ear before giving Edward a much needed peck on the cheek, and then another, lingering kiss on the neck. Jasper jerked back with a surprise, "Oh, yer all wet." He took Edward's jacket in hand and slipped it off his shoulders.
Edward turned to watch Jasper carefully fold the jacket so not to soil his own usually dressy clothes before hanging it over his arm. Jasper looked up catching his first glance of Edward's face, he didn't know what his partner saw but Jasper shook his head, "Go take a shower. I'll run this down to the dry cleaners."
Edward protested, "No, don't do it right now, I just got home."
"You've had a bad day and that wont do." Jasper's smooth country drawl soothed over him, "take a hot shower, get dressed," he motioned to his own attire, "and relax until I get back." Edward nodded, giving in. Before either could move though there was an excited yip from the dining room and then the familiar clicking of Jake's paws on the hardwood.
"Stay Jake!" Jasper commanded quickly, the puppy heeled before ever entering the hallway. Edward scoffed, "Y'know that mutt never listens to me like that."
Jasper grinned, "That's because you talk about him like that." Edward grumbled but couldn't argue. Jasper walked into the dining room. "We've got to wait for Daddy, Jake, he's had a bad day." Jake rowled his displeasure over the news and Edward smiled. The bond the two shared was something special, and he wasn't going to tire any time soon over calling Jasper "Mommy". "Okay, you can go give him kisses now, dahlin'." Jake bounded out of the room and flung itself into Edward's arms.
As far as his age and attitude told Jake was just a year old, maybe, but the brute was doubling in size everyday, or so it seemed. Edward had to adjust his arms to accommodate and Jake littered his face with licking-kisses and some of his bad day started to melt away.
"Okay, go, go. Jake don't let him outta that room until I get back." Edward would have sworn the animal nodded to him. "Good." Jasper kissed him quickly on the lips then shoved him toward their bedroom.
"I don't know what you two have planned..." He trailed off, grinning.
"Don't worry," Jasper smiled, "you'll love it." They smiled at to each other before turning separate ways.
Edward dumped Jake on the bed and started to strip off his dirty clothes. "What's so special, Jake?" Jake turned a few circles before settling down with his paws crossed and chin resting on them. He gave Edward a distinct look that said, "Nanana, you're gonna have to wait." He rolled his eyes, the animal had too much personality sometimes. He patted it on the head once before retreating to the bathroom. It felt heavenly to stand under the warm spray and before he knew it Jasper was knocking on the bathroom door.
"You okay in there, honey?" Edward started and Jasper laughed from the other side of the curtain. "Come on out, we've got a party to get started." He shook his head in amusement, not much of a party, just the two of them. He shut off the water and pulled back the curtain, Jasper gave him an appreciative look but backed out of arms reach before Edward could pull him against his still wet body. "Uh-uh," Jasper grinned. "Get dressed and meet us in the dining room." Edward grumbled but complied.
Dressing in soft gray slacks and a stone blue button up Edward shook his head at the ridiculousness of dressing up for dinner at home. He debated on putting a tie on just to rile Jasper but thought against it. He really only wanted to sit down and have a meal with his partner, then crawl into bed. He didn't care if it was only eight o'clock by then. He was done with the day.
He didn't recognize his dining room. Blue, black and silver streamers hung around the room, a Happy Birthday Banner was stretched along the wall and there were two cakes on the table, plus an assortment of meats, both vegetarian and not, cleverly labeled so Edward wouldn't accidentally pick up the wrong kind. Jasper was standing behind a chair that had been placed at the 'head' of the table; Jake was sitting on the chair with a cone-shaped birthday cap on his head, around his neck was a homemade sign that said Birthday Dog turns One Today.
"Surprise," Jasper shouted and Jake barked.
Edward's brow furrowed, "How am I the surprised at Jake's birthday party?"
Jasper said somberly, "We couldn't throw Jake the surprise party." Which was too true. Once when they had first rescued Jake, Jasper sneaked up on the six month old puppy. The poor thing had peed right in Jasper's arms so frighten of being suddenly picked up.
"Well, consider me surprised. What brought this on?" They took seats on either side of Jake and Jasper piled the pup's plate with an assortment of food.
Jasper's cheeks tinted pink, "Actually I thought about it a week ago and was going to tell you. But then Emmett's little girl got sick and you were suddenly doubled up on your shifts. I was just going to spend the day with him, but some how Alice caught wind of my plans. Your sister is terrifying when she wants to be, just so you know. She insisted that we have a party, even if it was only for us. Even offered to take over you night shift." Edward grinned, shaking his head with amusement; he would have to thank his excitable sister. Throwing a pup a party was right up her alley.
Edward leaned across the table and took Jasper's hand, "This was a great idea, but why did you pick today?"
The blush came back deeper this time, "Well, it's been exactly six months, today, since we found Jake. I thought it would be appropriate to mark it there." Edward smiled and rubbed his thumb over Jasper's knuckles.
"You're too damn sweet sometimes, you know that?" Jake barked an agreement before giving pointed looks to the meats still piled on plates. The men laughed and gave the pup more; Jake yipped happily and dug in. Sitting at the dining table with Jasper and Jake munching on tofu bacon and apple salad Edward was forgetting why his day had been so bad, and at this point all he wanted to do was stay right where he was.
After the food had been ate and Jake had devoured half of his own personally made dog-bone treat cake the three of them retired to the living room. Edward was sitting in the corner of the couch with Jasper snuggled against his chest, while Jake curled around their entangled feet. It's chin was resting on Edward's thigh and with one hand he kept up a slow caress to the big puppy's head and ears; the other hand was wrapped possessively around Jasper's middle and he had no intentions of letting go anytime soon.
Disclaimer: I do not own Twilight
First time posting for Twilight, and I never really thought I would post my Twilight musings. And this isn't even my OTP, but they have grown on me. This is my first entry for the schmoop_bingo being played at livejournal, sign-ups are still open, I believe if you want to get in on the fun! Enjoyed?