So, this one shot popped into my head after listening to Taylor Swift's song, Speak Now.
Rated M for language and themes.
Beta'd by the wonderfully lovely alwayswriting4life.
The cathedral was gorgeous, I have to admit that. Tanya really knows how to plan a wedding perfectly. Along with the pews she has a beautiful, albeit standard, arrangement of pink and white flowers. She allowed the three stain glass windows to illuminate the altar, with candles along the walls and atop the altar itself. The foyer was a high round ceiling above a fountain, and it provided a perfectly intimate ambiance.
However, the only thing that could really runin her "perfect wedding" was that the church was sweltering in the unusual Seattle heat. Guests milled about, sitting down and fanning themselves with their clutches and the song books in the pockets in front of them.
I hang back in the room observing Tanya's perfectly snooty family. Her mother and father, Alec and Jane Denali, were pacing just outside the door of the church as I hear, unmistakably, the awful, high-pitched voice of Tanya screaming at someone.
The organ begins to play, and the door near the alter opens and I hold my breath, quickly taking a seat amidst the hundreds of guests, praying I was blending in unseen. I know I was noticeable to some of the people in the room, and some of them knew Tanya did not want me here.
When I see him standing up at the alter in his tux, I can see some strain on his face, and my chest pinches painfully. It was easy to tell he was unhappy, and it makes me hurt for him.
.:Speak Now:.
When I was six years old, my family moved to Seattle when my father was offered a position in their police department. I can remember being scared of the big city with its pretty lights and fast moving cars. Because of my father's promotion and inheritance from my Nana, my older brother Emmett and I were enrolled in a private school.
My first day was awful. It was plainly obvious that Emmett and I didn't fit in with the children of doctors and lawyers and athletes. What I learned early on was that I was the poorest student there, and they made sure I knew it, too. I didn't bother to tell them that my mother was a member of the social elite.
For five years, I had only one friend, Angela Weber, whose mom was also a social elite but had married a "lowly teacher," as girls like Tanya Denali and Jessica Stanely would remind her. Angela and I would spend our days in the library, reading, studying, and giggling over boy bands and the cutest actors. We ate lunch there, spent free period there, and even break time. It was like a refuge for the atrocities of Saint Mary's students.
On my eleventh birthday, the Cullen's were enrolled at Saint Mary's. Alice, a very small girl, came up to me in the hallway on my way to algebra.
"Hi! My name is Alice, and I just moved here and I wanted to tell you that you have beautiful hair! I think we can be best friends, which would be nice 'cause I've only got my older brother, Edward, but he's just a boy and doesn't understand. You'll be my friend, won't you?"
I waited for her to take a breath before I informed her of my and Angela's "leprosy". Alice had then laughed at me and told me we were definitely going to be friends. I just smiled, figuring she would feel differently by the end of the day.
My brother Emmett, though like me in regards to parentage, was the exact opposite. Where I was a shy, mousy little girl, he was a tall, bulky athlete that had built him a fan base and friends. I was secretly jealous, until one night, when Emmett had Edward Cullen over for the very first time.
I had seen him in the halls before, but lonely seventh graders did not talk to the tall, beautiful eight graders. Even today, I can recall how his hair was untamable, the reds and browns and blonds a mixture of perfection that caught light when he walked. If I'm being honest, I was pretty mesmerized by it. Fascinated even. I would often look down at my own brown hair and sigh, wishing I could have his vibrant color.
He had come home after we had dinner, a nasty affair, because my mother, while an okay cook with the basics, liked to dabble with new recipes, which she nearly always botched. I was upstairs getting ready for bed, when I heard his voice for the first time.
"Dude, this chicken is bad," he said, laughing.
"I told you! You didn't have to try it, we've got some chips in here somewhere." Emmett's voice was muffled by the pantry, obviously rooting around for some snacks.
Having been emboldened by my curiosity, I walked quietly to the stairs in my butterfly pajamas, sitting at the top of the stairwell just so I could hear them. I wasn't tired, and for once, I wanted to do something fun. I desperately wanted to join them, as I was sure they were going to play Em's Play Station. I used to play with him, back when it was okay to hang out with your younger sister.
"It's cool. Can I put my bag in your room?"
I froze, completely unable to retreat to the safety of my room so as not to become embarrassed. Why would he want to know that Emmett's kid sister was eavesdropping on them?
"Yeah! It's upstairs and to the right!" Em's voice boomed from the pantry.
Still unable to move from my perch, I saw his shadow before I did him.
"Oh! Are you Em's sister, uh, Bella?" Edward asked me. It was the first time I looked into his vibrant green eyes. It made my heart beat unsteadily and my palms sweat.
"Y-yeah. Bella," I responded, feeling my face heat. I was embarrassed already.
"Well, Bella, I've heard a lot about you from my sister, Alice. She yammers non-stop about you." He sat down beside me, dropping his duffle bag to the step below our feet.
I wasn't sure if I could breathe, I was so nervous, and in the low light, his hair looked so dark, I wanted to ask if I could touch it so badly. "Oh," I responded dumbly.
He ran his hand through his unruly, beautiful hair, and I blurted, "I love your hair!"
My hand plastered itself to my mouth in shock. I quickly stood up so I could make a run for my room, but his hand shot out and grabbed mine. "Really?" he asked, surprised. "I hate it. Sometimes I just want to cut it all off."
"No! Don't ever cut it off!" Good Lord, my idiocy truly knew no bounds. "Crap, I'm sorry. I really should leave you alone. I'm retarded," I grumbled, and my nose scrunched up involuntarily.
"No, I think you're cute." And that was the first time he ever smiled at me. It certainty wasn't the last, only the first of many times I would make him smile.
.:Speak Now:.
Looking back on it, I guess I should've seen it so much sooner. However, I was just a shy, mousy girl with only three friends and one brother. Because of girls like Tanya and Jessica, I knew I would never be able to be the girl that guys at Saint Mary's would want to date, let alone hang out with. And I was okay with that.
That day at the top of the stairwell, Edward became my best friend. He would come over and hang out with me and Emmett, although half the time it was just for me. The first time we slept together in my bed, I was the tender age of twelve and he thirteen. Originally, he had been in Emmett's room. My parents, especially my hard-nosed father, would never allow a boy to sleep in my room no matter how many times I told him Edward and I were just friends.
I woke up to Edward nudging me gently. "Bella?"
"Uhhh?" I groaned.
"Can you scoot over? I can't sleep with all of Emmett's snoring."
Without a thought, I moved to the wall, rolling so that I was facing it. Edward slid into my twin-sized bed quietly. "Thanks, Bella."
"Mmm," I mumbled, falling back to sleep quickly.
This began our usual thing every time he spent the night. He would sneak into my room to sleep and sneak back out in the early morning after my dad had left for work. That is, until he began dating Tanya. Everything changed when he started dating Tanya.
In the middle of my freshman year, Edward sneaked into my room as usual. It became routine, scoot over, and let him in. It was getting tougher though, because Edward was getting so much taller. He was practically six foot now, and we had to squish together on my twin mattress.
"Bella?" he whispered.
"What?" I mumbled, just wanting to sleep.
"Are you still mad at me?" he asked, running a hand through my hair. I knew what he was doing, trying to get me to tell him that I wasn't, that I could never truly be mad at my best friend. But I was. I was very mad at him.
"Yes."
He sighed, scooting down a little so he could look at me, though why bothering in the darkness was beyond me. "I'm sorry, but you have to understand. I don't get much of a choice in this."
"Oh, please. You could choose anyone but her, Edward, anyone but her. Your parents aren't like the rest, they wouldn't care," I scoffed, closing my eyes. "I just want to sleep. We can talk about it later."
Pulling me against his chest, he apologized again, telling me he didn't want to go to sleep with me angry at him.
"Edward, just go to sleep. I'm tired and right now, I don't have the energy to argue with you."
I fell asleep not soon after, waking up early. I never woke up before he left to go back to Emmett's room, and I was amazed at how we were sleeping. He was draped against my back, his breath falling on my neck softly, while his arm was slung loosely across my side. It was weird, I thought, but I was too comfortable to dwell on it, being lulled back into my slumber by his shallow breathing.
The next time I woke up, he was gone.
And that was the last night he snuck into my room.
.:Speak Now:.
Tanya was the daughter of Carlisle Cullen's boss at Seattle's best hospital. Edward told me that it was just expected of them to date. I tried to tell him, remind him, that his parents weren't the supercilious, stuck up type of people to care whether their son was dating a nobody let alone a somebody. He didn't believe me. He would look at me with this look on his face, like I just wasn't getting it. And I didn't get it, I didn't for a very long time.
Tanya and Edward dated off and on for the rest of high school. It made the both of us miserable, ironically enough as Tanya would not allow him to spend any time with me alone, which I thought was ridiculous. She would glare at me though, which I also thought was ridiculous. Here was this five eight, big-breasted sophomore with naturally strawberry blond hair glaring at me, a short, too skinny freshmen with plain brown hair and eyes. To me, it didn't make any sense.
Edward and I spent less and less time together, and it was very hard on me. Angela and Alice were my only other friends, but they weren't the same. Edward got me, in a way no one else ever did. We could talk about everything, and he would sling an arm reassuringly around my shoulders, pulling me in tight against his side, and his low, soothing voice would talk me into calmness. No other person could talk me out of retaliating when Jessica and Lauran cornered me in the bathroom to remind me of my "leprosy".
I would look over at Edward, sitting with her at lunch, instead of with me, Alice, Angela, and Ben, Angie's boyfriend. He would always have a fake smile on, and I would catch the smile slip when he looked down at his plate or at me. I looked away then. It was his fault if he was unhappy. I know his parents don't like her and have actually encouraged him to break up with her once and for all, however he refused every time for reasons I didn't understand until I was much older.
The summer before my junior year, the Hales moved in across the street from me. Rosalie and Jasper's dad was a retired military man, who finally was able to settle down in one spot. Rose was a tall, blond woman, whom attracted all the guys in the entire school. However, Emmett was the only one she showed any interest, and he reciprocated. Jasper, her exact match but taller and exempt of breasts, met Alice in class one day, and they were inseparable ever since.
That year, when all my friends had significant others who went on dates with them while I studied in the library or at home every day, was the year James Laurence joined Saint Mary's. He was a bad boy, motorcycle-riding guy who smoked cigarettes behind the gym at break and lunch and after school. The only reason Saint Mary's had allowed him to enroll was because his parents were alumnae's who made gracious donations every year.
The first time he talked to me, I was sitting in the stadium watching Edward, Jasper, and Emmett play soccer. Alice and Rose had gotten up to go to the bathroom and grab something to eat when he decided it was the perfect time to sit down next to me.
"Well, hello there, Bella," he greeted. He smelled like leather and cigarettes. And danger. I was ashamed to find that I was attracted to it.
"James."
He leaned in close to me so that I could hear him over the sudden roar of the stadium as Edward scored. I wanted to cheer for him, but James' presence made me unnerved. "You going to the party tonight at Stanley's?"
I laughed. "And why would I have ever been invited?" I looked at him, taking in the shaggy blond hair and grey eyes. He was tan, having moved here from Florida, but the tan was quickly fading.
He gave me a strange look that I didn't understand. "Bella, these snobs are going to be too drunk to see who is there and who isn't. Go with me tonight," he insisted. "These people don't know what they're missing."
"James, do me a favor and get lost." I had surprised myself with that one. In all reality I wanted to take his hand and follow him to his black Ducati and ride with him anywhere. I suppressed my sudden need to rebel. I was not that girl.
He grinned, flashing me bright whites. "Only if you get lost with me."
"Laurence! Get away from Bella and go back to the hovel you crawled out of," Rose ordered as her and Alice approached.
James saluted her, walking down the steps and out of the stadium. I watched him, scared of the trance he had placed on me for the short amount of time.
"Bella!" Alice yelled, making my eyes snap to hers. "What the hell did that guy want?"
I shook my head. "Nothing," I lied. "I don't know why he was talking to me."
"Well," Rose said, taking a bite out of her hot dog, "you should stay away from him. He's no good."
I didn't answer as the people around me stood and cheered as we scored again. Truthfully, James scared me. But there was nothing I could do to stop us.
He followed me everywhere, ignoring the glares and murderous exchanges from my brother, Jasper, and Edward and their warning to never hurt me. We talked all the time, and he seemed to come closest to comforting me the way Edward had way back when. So when James asked me out for billionth time a month later, I finally said yes. We rode his motorcycle to the beach across the water from the hilly Queen Anne neighborhood. He smoked a cigarette as we talked and ate ice cream, freezing in the October weather, but not giving a damn.
I got my first kiss that night, tasting like smoke and mint chocolate chip ice cream. James said goodbye to me on my porch, trying to pretend that my mom and dad weren't peeking at us from behind the curtain in the living room.
I walked in with a smile on my face, but it fell when I was met with four stares. "Bella, I don't like that kid. Bella?" my dad asked, his voice all dark and cop-y. "Why the hell do you smell like cigarettes?"
"James smokes," I answered meekly, crumbling under the rebuking looks of my family and my best friend.
"I don't trust him. He didn't even come inside to meet us!" my mother wailed. I rolled my eyes at her dramatic response.
"He was nervous, it's no big deal. And I wanted to wait until I knew we were serious or not."
"Are you?" Edward whispered, looking at me with pain in his eyes.
"I don't know," I responded, just as quietly, still staring at him.
"Bella, can I talk to you?" he asked, standing up from the couch where he had been watching the Seahawks play on TV.
We walked to the back porch, each of us grabbing a blanket, situating next to each other on the soft outdoor couch. I could hear my father ask Emmett who James was, but I couldn't hear his answer.
"Edward, if you tell me not to date him, I think I might punch you," I groused, pulling my hair up and holding it with my hand.
Edward turned on the couch to face me, tucking a foot underneath him. "He's not good. You could choose anyone, Bella."
I let my hair drop, making a disgusted sound. "Oh, shut up, Edward. This is like Tanya all over again."
"Tanya is not like James, Bella," he argued. "She's not dangerous."
"No, she's just mean and hates my guts. Edward, she won't even let you be my friend. You might catch my pauper disease."
I stood up, and for the first time ever, I walked away from Edward, ignoring him call my name.
.:Speak Now:.
I lost my virginity to James a week later, and we became an "item". Looking back on it now, I know I was pressured into it and mad at Edward for choosing Tanya over our friendship. I was angry and lonely, being the only one who was still a virgin and still, technically, without a boyfriend.
James was nice enough, but after the "dangerous trance" began to lift, I realized I didn't care for him as much as I thought I had. It was the bad boy that had allured me in the first place, and once that began to dull, I was quickly loosing interest. I was the opposite, a girl who had wanted so badly to step out of the constraints my peers had placed me in.
I broke up with him in late January, and he took it very well. "I was feeling the same way, Bells," he told me. Two weeks later, he was dating Victoria Dunlap, and that was that.
Edward and I hadn't talked the entire time I was with James, and I had hoped that once I broke up with him everything would go back to the way it was before. It took a long time, but we finally reached a point where we smiled at each other again.
Time began to move swiftly. Winter morphed into spring, and soon enough Edward and Emmett were graduating. It was a sad affair seeing them go. Rose and I cried like babies when they got their diplomas. I was scared that being at college and with Tanya, I would lose my best friend forever.
He reassured me that everything would be fine, and soon summer was over and Edward, Emmett, and Tanya left for college. Edward and Emmett went to Seattle Pacific University, whereas Tanya went to UDub. I was so glad when I heard that the Bitch wouldn't go to the same school as Edward. It was difficult for me to see her suck the life out of him.
Being so close, Edward and Em visited every weekend and although I didn't see him at school anymore, obviously, it was almost like nothing had changed, except everything had.
.:Speak Now:.
I was brought out of my musings when I heard the organ start to play again and have to stand up. By then, everyone has taken their seats, and I watched as Edward turned toward the aisle to see Tanya's bridesmaids walk somberly down the aisle by the equally somber groomsmen. Alice was maid-of-honor only because she was Edward's sister, but I knew she absolutely hated her and vice-versa. Emmett, the best man, was paired with her. It was hard for him to allow this to happen when he knew the truth. Jessica followed her, paired with Jasper, Lauran then paired with her boyfriend since Edward had no other close male friends.
I made sure I was hidden behind the bodies of people in front of me and beside me. I picked the perfect spot, nestled between people much taller than me and towards the wall. My heart was beating so hard I was afraid I was going to have a stroke when the organ's song changed and Tanya steps out in her feathery monstrosity of a dress.
And I was forced to remember why I'm there again.
.:Speak Now:.
Tanya and Edward became engaged my second year at Pacific University. Edward had seemed so strained for a few weeks, and whenever I asked, he refused to answer me. He would come over to my dorm late at night and sit on the floor with me, his head on my shoulder while we watched reruns of the Big Bang Theory. It was then that he told me he was going to propose to her.
When I asked why, he exploded, saying things that hurt me deeply. You always hated her, he told me, and I should be ashamed that I've been trying to keep him from being happy.
At their engagement party, I awkwardly congratulated them. Edward had apologized to me the next day, but from then on our time together was tense. Later in the evening, Tanya cornered me in the bathroom.
"Stop talking to Edward, Bella," she said calmly, snapping her clutch closed and pursing her lips again in the mirror. "He doesn't appreciate the fact that you don't like me."
"I'm not going to stop talking to him unless he does," I responded, ignoring the painful vise my heart was suddenly snared in.
She turned to face me, placing a hand on her lower stomach and smiling. "Oh, you will. You see, I'm pregnant, and Edward no longer needs you. I am all he'll ever need."
"Needs me? What does that have to do with your being pregnant?" I demanded. She's pregnant? Oh God, Edward, what have you done now?
She glared at me. "You are so stupid. And our conversation is done. Get it? You and Edward are over."
I stood up as straight as possible. "Or what."
"Or I end you anyway I can."
.:Speak Now:.
I spent the night at Emmett's when he heard what had happened. He told me that I shouldn't be alone with a bitch like her on the loose.
"Here, Bella," Emmett said, handing me a glass of something.
I was huddled on his couch, thinking about everything that had to do with Edward and I over and over in my head. "Thanks," I said, taking the glass from his hand to take a sniff. Recoiling, I asked, "God, what the hell is this?
He rolled his eyes, plopping down beside me and sticking his toes under my blanket. "It's just some rum and coke. Loosen up, Bella. You're almost twenty-one. And you need one of these for this conversation, trust me."
I took a sip, grimacing and setting it aside. "What kind of conversation?"
He leaned back against the armrest, encouraging me to turn also. I put my toes in his lap, still under the blanket, and he tweaked on of them. "The kind that will make you rethink your best friend."
"You're going to tell me what Tanya was talking about? Was she lying about being pregnant?"
"No, as far as I know, she is. Edward told me last month, before he proposed," he answered, rubbing his eyes. Poor Em, having to be stuck between us. I would've told him I sorry I was if I wasn't so stressed out.
"Why didn't he tell me?" I demanded. "I asked and asked and he finally told me he was going to propose, and then yelled at me because I hate her fucking guts, and I just don't get this! Everyone is acting so strange!"
"Bella, Edward is in love with you. He has been since he first met you at the house," Emmett told me softly, holding my feet gently. "He never told you because you were friends, and he valued your friendship above everything else, especially his relationship with Tanya."
"W-what?" I couldn't think, couldn't talk.
.:Speak Now:.
"Bella," Edward said.
His voice meant I had to look at him, so I did. I smiled brightly, swishing my feet in his pool. "Yeah?"
"I love you, you know that?" he asked, kicking water on my legs.
I laughed and did the same. "Of course, silly. Love you, too," I told him.
.:Speak Now:.
Edward grabbed my hand just as I was about to scream. Why in the hell Alice made us watch this horror film, I never understood. "Shh," he whispered in my ear, hauling me into his lap so I could hide my face in his neck while I inconspicuously stole glances at the TV. "I'll never let Jason get you."
.:Speak Now:.
"Bella, I'm so proud of you!" Edward swung me around in his arms at my graduation.
I rolled my eyes as he set me back down on Earth so I could breathe again. "It's just high school. People graduate from high school all the time," I said.
He leaned in and kissed my cheek softly. "And it's just you graduating this time. I love you, you know?"
I poked his nose playfully. "Of course, silly. Love you, too."
.:Speak Now:.
It was hard for me to accept the fact that Edward had always loved me. And then, after contemplating all of that, I couldn't filter out my own feelings for him. Did I love him? Could I love him in time if I don't now?
I ignored him all that weekend, deleting the voicemails before listening to them because I just needed to step back from him. I needed fucking time after the bomb was dropped. The entire weekend, I was holed up in my apartment. I had to reevaluate my entire relationship with him. I thought over everything, all of our interactions.
Suddenly, it became so obvious. Of course he fucking loved me. He showed me by every single thing he did for me, all the looks, all the touches. It was why he stopped sleeping in my bed, why I had woken up spooned up against his front. It was why he was truly with Tanya. It was everything.
By Monday, I had finally realized that my heart hurt when Tanya told me to stay away from him because I was in love with him, too. The mere thought that I would never get to spend any time with him literally hurt.
So that night emboldened my epiphany, I marched over to his dorm room. For some reason, he had never moved in with Tanya when she had gotten an apartment in the city. And it was probably because his dorm was across from my building.
I came up to his door, and tried to control my breathing. Reaching up, my fist seemed to freeze over the wood. Damn it, Bella, you can do it! I took a deep breath and knocked.
The door opened and I can't breathe. All I can do is stare at him, longing so deeply to reach out and touch his cheek, smooth a finger across his eyebrows to trace their shape. Then I would slope the finger down his Roman nose to his lips. I would outline them first, before softly feeling their fullness beneath my fingertips. They would open for me, and I would feel his breath on my skin, making me shiver.
Then, as if nothing could hold him back, he would lean forward and breathe out-
"Bella? I've been calling you all weekend! And your roommate told me you were out. Come in."
My heart, the stupid thing, seized as if he had rejected me. As if he could've known what I was thinking! "Sorry, I was at Em's." I walked in, sitting on his futon.
"Why didn't you call me back? I left several messages." He sat facing me, tucking a foot beneath one of his long legs. God, how had I not noticed his legs before? So muscular and lean at the same time…
Focus. "I was busy with homework, sorry." All I could do was stare. I felt different, facing him now after everything. It was like looking at someone completely new and foreign to me. Suddenly, I felt the tension between us as I stared at his lips. Holy…
"It's okay. I know you never wanted Tanya and I to be together. You probably needed to go to a spa after the engagement party," he joked and I froze.
"Edward," I started, but he interrupted me.
Waving a hand at me dismissively, he just said, "It's okay. She can be kind of hard to get used to at first."
I just nodded at him dumbly. I was starting to lose my nerve, looking at him, hearing him talk like this. It made me begin to wonder if I could do it.
"She's pregnant. Tanya. I'm sorry I haven't told you, but I just needed to process it on my own, you know?"
What could I say? I completely deflated. "Em told me," I murmured.
He looked surprised, rubbing a brow. "Really? Oh. Well, this had just… made me realize how much I love her, you know? I had begun to wonder. She had grown so distant and I-" he coughed. "Well, I was thinking about ending things until she called to tell me she was pregnant. I had to reevaluate things. A baby! Can you believe it?"
"No," I whispered. "I can't." Trying to figure out what the old Bella would do, I reached forward to hug him, and tried not to cry. It felt so much like goodbye that I could hardly bear it. "Congrats."
He pulled back, pushing my bangs off my face, smiling at me in a way that it shattered my heart. "Thanks, Bella. You mean a lot to me, you know?"
.:Speak Now:.
"If there are any people who wish to object to this union, speak up now or forever hold your peace."
I swiped my sweaty palms on my black dress and swallowed every ounce of fear and nervousness I held inside me before standing up with shaking hands.
A hush like no other fell on the cathedral. Edward and Tanya had their backs to me, but slowly turned to face me as I muttered apologies to the knees and feet I bludgeoned while trying to make my way across the pew and to the aisle.
I cleared my throat awkwardly. "I'm, uh, sorry for this," I said, cringing at the way my voice echoes in the silence. I look at Alice, Jasper, and Emmett who were grinning so wide it looked as though their faces would crack at any moment.
"Bella," Edward whispered. "What are you doing?"
I stepped closer to him until I was standing five feet away from him. "Saving you," I told him, trying to smile.
"You bitch!" Tanya screeched, coming at my, fists flying.
The priest reprimands her, very rudely, actually, while the room gasps at her vulgarity. Jessica comes forward to hold her back as she tries to throw her bouquet at me.
Stepping back a little, I cleared my throat again. "Edward, I was blind for so long," I croaked, as tears started to form in my eyes. "I'm in love with you, Edward. So, so, so deeply in love with you that I cant even bear the thought of you marrying her."
I couldn't look away from his eyes. The vibrant green held me and it was as if they had some sort of power over my entire body. They caged me in as he slowly stepped down the three steps from the alter. It was blatantly obvious the two of us were ignoring Tanya's shrieking voice calling his name.
Honestly, for the first time since I had met her, it was as if she just… didn't exist.
He cupped my face in his hands. "It took you long enough," was all he said before crashing his lips down on mine.
.:Speak Now:.
"I still can't believe you did that," Edward told me, toying with my hand. We were lying in his bed, completely naked, a few hours after I interrupted his wedding.
I laughed, hiding my face in his perfect chest. "Honestly, I can't either," I said. "I just couldn't do it. Couldn't watch you throw your life away with her."
With a hand under my chin, he pulled my face up to meet his eyes. "Bella, I don't think I could ever tell you how much it means to me. That you finally love me back is… incredible," he breathed, scooting down until we were both lying on our sides facing each other. I held the covers under my armpits so he wouldn't get distracted. Again.
Holding his face softly in one hand, I placed my lips gently on his nose. "I love you." My lips moved to his cheeks. "I love you." Finally, "I love you," I tell him humbly and then my lips fall on his.
As I pulled away, his voice fanned out over my face reverently. "I will never get tired of hearing you say that, or kissing you."
I smiled, closing my eyes and just feeling him in my arms, in my heart.
"Tanya miscarried." It was so quiet that I nearly missed the words.
My eyes burst open. "Oh, Edward, I'm so sorry." I tighten my hold on him.
I could feel the silent tears in my neck as his face took refuge there. "She told me this morning. I was so happy, that it blinded that fact that she was just… awful. I feel so stupid."
"No, you're not. You loved it. That's perfectly normal. It was your child," I reassured him.
He was quiet for a while, and I thought he might have fallen asleep until I felt his lips on my neck, kissing and nibbling. "I love you, Bella. You know that, don't you?"
He rolled me over and underneath him. I reached out to cup his face in my hands. "Of course, silly," I said, and for once I could tell him with the same level of devotion as he feels for me. "I love you, too."
Fin
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