Rated M for the usual…Oh, and I don't own squat…
"Love is a game in which one always cheats." -Honore de Balzac
When I finally arrived at the resort, it was everything I had hoped for. Beautiful open lobby, fresh flowers, a complimentary glass of champagne. I walked over to the front desk to check in, vibrating with energy. You did it, Bella. You're here.
"Hi, I'd like to check in please," I told the young Samoan woman behind the counter.
"Last name?"
"Swan. Isabella."
After typing for a moment she found my reservation.
"Alright. There's some good news. I've actually been able to upgrade your room. Here are the keys. Breakfast is every morning from six to 11, so we're still serving if you're hungry. If you will just leave your bags, I'll have someone bring them up for you. Can I help you with anything else?"
"No, thank you…" I read her name tag, "…Anna. You've been very helpful."
"Just follow the path around, Miss Swan, and you'll see Ocean Towers. Oh, and please don't hesitate to call down and ask for me if you need anything else."
"I won't. Thanks again, Anna."
I walked around the side of the building. Ocean Towers? The room I had reserved definitely didn't involve seeing the ocean when I read about it online. I walked the long path that led along a lagoon, taking in all the lush greenery and bright beautiful flowers. The sun was shining down on me and I took a deep breath in and out. If Forks could see me now...Bella Swan vacationing in Hawaii.
After the walk and up some winding stairs, I was a little out of breath when I arrived at my room. God, I've got to find the elevator.
I slid the key card in and entered, not really knowing what to expect. I peeked my head around the corner. Oh, my. She wasn't kidding about the upgrade. The room was large, decorated in soothing, muted blues. The floor was a polished marble, but the best part was the king sized bed up against the wall. There was a desk and chair, and a small couch off to the side. I went to the large sliding glass door and drew the long sheers. The view of the Pacific was absolutely incredible. Thank you, Anna. I had never been to a place like this in my life.
I read all the material in my room about the resort while I sat in a chair on my balcony breathing in the salt air. There were restaurants, nightlife, luaus and a ton of water sports to choose from. There was no doubt that I was going to enjoy myself. Even if I was alone.
After the bellman dropped off my luggage, I decided it was time to lounge at the beach for awhile. I put on my teeny white bikini and sarong, tucked my hair into my big floppy hat and threw on my sunglasses. I grabbed my beach bag off the bed and headed out.
I followed the short path to the beach, and when I reached the end, there was a man standing in a straw hut handing towels to passers by. I took one from him and smiled, and headed for an empty beach lounger that I spied off to the side.
Just after I got settled in, a woman came up and took my drink order.
"I'll have a pina colada. Don't be shy with the rum, please. Room 1102."
***
I sipped my drink and I turned the page of a book that I had been trying to read for the last hour. But I found I was just looking at the words and not actually absorbing the story. There was just too much I was trying to forget, and my brain wasn't letting me. I threw it off to the side and looked ahead. I lost myself in the view of the waves crashing against the rocks, and couldn't help but think about what led me here.
I guess I was relieved to find I was no longer feeling heartache. I was madder at myself than anything, for not seeing my boyfriend for what he was. A lying, cheating bastard.
A month ago, I was standing in the familiar kitchen of the home he and I shared for a year, sipping wine, singing along to the radio, stirring the pot of meatballs I was making for dinner that night. The recipe was Grandma Swan's and Jacob loved them. It had been a long week since I'd seen him. Just as I moved along to tossing the salad, my phone chirped, startling me, and I picked it up right away.
"This is Bella," I said into the receiver, not recognizing the unknown number.
"Hey, it's Angela. My cell died and I couldn't find my charger. I'm on the hotel phone."
"Hey Ange. What's up?" I asked and began slicing bread.
"Are you sitting down?"
Angela Weber Cheney had been my best friend since high school. Eight years now, I guess? She was someone I could always count on through thick and thin. And more recently I found out definitely through thin. She and her husband Ben had moved to Seattle, to the city, for his job. About a week ago she landed a great gig of her own at a luxury hotel, where she was the front desk manager. They were stable and loving life, and I was so happy for her.
"No, silly. I'm cooking dinner, waiting for Jake to get home."
Ever since Jacob started his new job, he and I had been spending more and more time apart. He was having to travel a lot for meetings, and was always so apologetic when he got back from a trip. I constantly reassured him it was alright, and that I understood that he had to be away to prove himself to the higher ups. He and I had been in a serious relationship for a couple of years now, and I was definitely ready for the next step. I was ready to start a family within a few years, and Jacob and I constantly talked about our future together.
We met again a few years previous when I landed a job out of college working for a building supply company in our hometown of Forks, doing secretarial work. Jacob Black was a contractor and called every day, and I happened to answer the phone just about every time he called. I remembered him vaguely from when I was younger, as our fathers were old fishing buddies. We talked on the phone, caught up, and flirted, and one day he asked me out. I accepted and the rest was history.
He loved working with his hands, but with much coaxing from me, applied for a better job on the commercial business side of things. It had all been working out great so far save for the traveling part. I stayed with my company, and I was promoted to office manager within a year. The pay wasn't astronomical, but I stayed because with Jacob's new job, we could move at any time if he was promoted. Which we were both hoping would happen soon.
Not that I didn't love living near my dad Charlie, and he close to his family, but we wanted to be somewhere different. We had been here all our lives and it was time for a change. Our lease would be up at the end of the year, and hopefully by then everything would be sorted. He had assured me that it would.
"Bella, sit down, honey."
"What!? Oh, God, Ange you're freaking me the fuck out! What's going on?"
I took my glass of wine to the breakfast table and sat down, clutching my phone in my hand tightly. Was it Ben? Oh God, are her parents ok? Was she pregnant?
"I um…I don't know how to tell you this…God, I've been putting it off for hours now. You know you're one of my best friends, right Bella?" Oh, shit. Where is this going?
"Spit it out, Ange."
"Ok…ok. I came in this morning…to the hotel, and I saw Jacob walking through the lobby. I went up to say hello, and when I did, he looked as if he'd seen a ghost."
"What? Why was Jake in your hotel? They usually put him up at a Best Western or Holiday Inn or something…why would he be there?"
"I'm getting there. This is just really hard. Um, when I went up to him, the first thing he said was, 'I didn't know you worked here.' I told him I had just started, but he didn't seem too interested. He was kind of…rushing the conversation along, acting really weird. Just as I was asking about you, a woman, some woman came up and…oh, Jesus…held his hand and asked who I was."
I almost dropped the phone. I was fucking stunned to the core. Jacob was in Seattle…with another woman.
"Bella? Ya there, sweetie?"
"Yes…I'm here. Tell me everything. Now."
"Well…he never introduced us. He told the woman I was nobody, just a hotel employee. Can you believe that? He knew I wouldn't make a scene in the middle of the lobby. He just left with her and never looked back at me. I caught him red-handed Bella."
"Is that it?" I asked, my blood boiling.
"Um…there's more. I checked his hotel bill. He stayed for two days in a suite on the waterfront, had two nice dinners in the restaurants here, ordered room service and an expensive bottle of champagne."
"Who is she?"
"I don't know. She had long dark hair, dark skin. I could probably find out more, but-"
"No. I think I can figure out the rest." Leah. It had to be her. Jake's ex. She had never gotten over him in the two years that he and I were together.
"Bella, are you going to be ok?"
I let out the breath I was holding. Would I be ok? I hadn't really had time to think about what I was going to do.
"I don't know."
"Please call me as soon as you can. I hate to have to run at a time like this, but I have to go. Be strong."
I dropped the phone on the floor and stared off into space. How could he do this to me? How could he? I've been the one loving and supporting him, and this is how he repays me? Cheating on me with that bimbo Leah? Spending money on her? He never even took me out to dinner anymore because we were trying to save to buy a house of our own someday. Oh, God. There was no way I could stay. No way in hell.
After an hour or so of self loathing, I got up and walked over to the stove, where the meatballs had bubbled over, and the noodles were mush in the water. I grabbed the wine off the counter and swigged straight from the bottle. I turned off the stove and stalked into our bedroom. I went into the closet and pulled out my five piece luggage set and put all the bags on the bed. Then I started packing. I picked up anything that was mine or that I wanted, and threw it into one of the open bags. I walked back into my closet, tore all my clothes down, and threw them in. I did the same thing in my drawers, left them all hanging open, and did the same in the bathroom. In my frenzy, I didn't realize the cause of all this mess was standing in the room.
"What the hell are you doing, Bella?!" Jake yelled.
I took another swig from the bottle and just scowled at him for a moment. I went back to collecting the rest of my toiletries. I walked back out into the kitchen and through to the den, and began collecting some of the personal items I had lying around. I could hear him following behind me as I did so.
"Bella, are you going to talk to me?" he asked as I moved about the room.
"Fuck you, Jacob," I said as I purposely knocked over the figurine of a wolf his dad had given him when he was younger.
"Watch it, Bells! Jesus!" He said and scrambled to pick it up off the floor.
I ran back into the bedroom and zipped up my luggage and began taking it out to my truck. Jacob just sat in the kitchen with his head in his hands. Oh, poor thing, I thought and rolled my eyes.
When I finished throwing all my bags into the back of the truck, I went into the kitchen to grab my purse and keys.
"Can we discuss this? Please?" Jake pleaded.
"Nothing to discuss. I'm leaving you."
He sighed loudly, "Bella it meant nothing, I swear! Please give me another chance. I love you, Bells. Don't leave."
"You love me?! Damn you, Jacob!" I was beyond pissed, and was screaming, so naturally the tears started to sting the corners of my eyes.
"You don't love me! If you did you wouldn't have cheated on me with that bitch, Leah! You never loved me you bastard! You son of a bitch!" With those words, I threw the glass of wine I was drinking earlier against the wall and watched as red wine and glass shattered all over the floor. Looking back now, I wish I'd have aimed for his head.
Jake's nostrils flared and he was getting angrier by the second, "Stop fucking up the house, Bells! Jesus Christ!"
"So it was her!" I screamed and flew toward the open door.
"I'll be back tomorrow for the rest of my things. Don't even think about being here," I said as I slammed the door behind me. I started up my truck and pulled out my cell, trying to breathe in between sobs. As I pulled out of the driveway, I dialed the only place I could think of where Jake sure as hell wouldn't come after me. He picked up after two rings.
"Hello?"
"Daddy?" I said and couldn't help the sob that escaped my throat.
"Bella?! What's wrong, honey?"
"Can I come home?...Now?"
"Oh my God…of course, of course. Are you on the road?"
"Yeah," I sniffled. "I'll be there in ten minutes."
"Ok, baby. I'll see you soon. I love you."
The next day I moved everything that was mine out of the house and into Charlie's garage. Angela drove from Seattle the following weekend to stay with me while I grieved. We did some digging and it turned out Jake had been spending money out of our joint savings account in small increments for three months, no doubt on Miss Clearwater. So I took matters into my own hands and withdrew the rest of the funds and closed the account. It wasn't so much the money, it was all the dishonesty. And damn right I never heard a word from Jacob about it.
After much thought, I quit my job and scoured the internet for any openings in Seattle. I wanted to be near my friends, but most of all I wanted to get the hell out of Forks and away from Jacob as quickly as possible.
Angela, always trying to help, asked her boss if there were any positions open in the hotel. I had some bartending experience from my college days, and she got me on there doing exactly that in the restaurant on the waterfront. I took it reluctantly, knowing I would be working every day at the scene of the crime. I told myself it would be fine for the time being, but I would find something more permanent once I got on my feet.
I stayed with Angela and Ben for a week until I found an apartment. It was a brick loft right in Pike Place Market, and had a wonderful view. I used some of the savings for first and last month's rent, and got the keys the same day. Everything in my new life had been falling into place almost perfectly. Jake tried for weeks to get in touch with me, but obviously I changed my number and moved out of Forks. He went to Charlie's and was told he'd be arested if he pressed the issue any further. So he gave up and finally accepted I was not going to come back or even let him explain.
One wine filled evening, Angela and I had just finished unpacking the boxes into my new space. We laughed and giggled as we talked of ghosts of boyfriends past. She reminded me about how when we were younger we always used to talk about just getting upand escaping for some spur of the moment vacation. I reminded her of her responsibilities, and of Ben.
"Well it's obvious I can't go, but Bella, come on…you should go somewhere. You don't start work for another week. Use some of that money and hop on a plane. When would you ever be able to do this again?"
And that's how I ended up here. We drunkenly scoured the web, picking this very resort on the big island of Hawaii, where I would be spending three nights and four days, alone. It was steadily becoming easier for me to be by myself, but this, this beautiful vacation would be wonderful to share with someone special. Just not a lying, cheating bastard.
I snapped out of my reverie when the waitress brought me another drink. Pina Colada, extra rum.
I was enjoying the second on what I had planned on being many drinks, when a volleyball landed in front of me, kicking up sand onto my chair. This caused me to spill a little, well a lot, down the front of my suit. I jumped up at the cold sensation and looked up to see a girl, no she was a woman, jogging toward me from the beach volleyball area. She was definitely petite, and was gorgeous, and had spiky black hair and a pink and black striped bathing suit on.
"Oh, God! I told them not to make me play!" she yelled toward me. I was toweling myself off when she made it to my chair and plopped down on the edge.
"Hey, sorry, are you alright?" She asked and touched my forearm, with a sincerely concerned look on her face.
"Yeah, I'm fine. No problem, really."
"God, I feel terrible. My family always tries to get me to play sports, but it's not really my thing. I'm Alice by the way."
I looked over to where she had been playing volleyball. There were four others standing around waiting for her. That must be her family. From what I could make out there was a big guy that could bench press a car, a blonde woman with big boobs, another blonde guy who looked like a surfer, and a guy with brown…no maybe bronze hair with his hands on his hips. Those weren't real people, were they? They were all really, really good-looking.
"Oh. Hi, Alice. I'm Bella," I said and shook her hand.
"Throw it back munchkin!!" The bronze one yelled at her.
"Edward, you know I can't throw! Don't tease me!" She yelled back. I looked over her shoulder and watched him shake with laughter, and I couldn't help but stifle a giggle myself.
"Well, Bella, it's nice to meet you," She said and turned back to me, "What were you drinking by the way? I insist on getting you another."
"Oh, uh, pina colada. Heavy on the rum." I was not above letting this girl buy me a drink.
"Ok, don't leave. I'll be right back."
I shrugged my shoulders. "Ok."
I took off my hat, shook out my curls and took my sunglasses off. It was time for a re-application of sunscreen, as I could feel my skin burning. I took out my bottle of thirty stood up, dug my toes into the cool sand and began applying it all over. There is nothing worse being on vacation with a sunburn. I knew this all too well from visiting my mother in Florida.
While I was applying, I looked over my shoulder toward the volleyball area, hoping Alice was on the way with those drinks because it was hot. She wasn't there. The three guys who were members of Alice's family were gaping in my direction and whispering to each other. The big one had a smile on his face. The blonde girl smacked him in the chest, and he looked down at the sand, laughing. What were they all looking at? I looked behind me to get a glimpse of what they were seeing, but all I saw was an old couple lounging by the sea. Must've missed it.
I lay back down in my chair, and when I thought it couldn't get any hotter, Alice came skipping back over, two pina coladas in hand. She set them down on the small table and pulled a chair over right next to me, without actually being on top of me. She doesn't have personal space issues, obviously.
"So," she asked, "Where are you from?"
Ok, guys. What do you think? Shall I go on? Oh, screw it, I'm going on anyway…
PS. And for others who are worried…I AM finishing Playing with Eddie, I swear. I just had to get this new fic on paper (or computer…whatever) before the idea got away from me. Ta, and Happy Holidays to all!
