A/N: Yes, yes I know, I need to stop starting stories and getting bored with them and starting new ones. But in my defense, I don't think anyone was especially interested in my other stories, so I don't feel like I am disappointing a lot of people or anything. But on the chance that someone really wants to know what was going to happen in any of my stories, let me know which one, and maybe I can find time to get something done about it:) Sorry again guys, it's just that college is ridiculous, man.
Ps: Anyone want to be my Beta?
EPOV:
Seattle during Christmas-time was hectic and depressing.
The large number of people bumbling about trying to find that perfect gift, coupled with the dreary skies, constant rain, and overall greedy attitude in the air left me with a less than cheery Christmas spirit. I didn't think anything could turn the people of Seattle more self-centered, but apparently Christmas was it.
Everyone needing to just check that one last thing off of their list, find that perfectly awful wrapping paper for that last minute gift that will only see the light of day once and never again, shoved to the spot at the back of the closet assigned for Christmas presents of Christmas' past, full of hideous scarfs with fringe and large, obnoxious ties with images of Mickey Mouse, Donald Duck, or some other "lovable" cartoon character wearing a Santa hat repeated over and over and over until you feel like you would rather shoot yourself than make one more fake "Oh, I love it" face at the frumpy, in need of a haircut acquaintance who felt the obligation to get it for you in the first place.
Not that I'm feeling a bit bitter, or anything.
My driver honking the limo's horn at a car pulled me out of my depressing and entirely accurate thoughts on the holidays.
I looked through the divider and the windshield to see a the shiny red sports car that had cut us off slow down ridiculously at a light just turning yellow and stop so we would be forced to as well. The older man kindly waved his middle finger at us, and then went back to his phone call. I sighed, shaking my head as I turned to look out of the tinted windows on my side of the car.
Merry Christmas to you too, arsehole.
We were just getting into downtown so we would be home in 20 minutes, give or take a blading, middle age man driving a Porsche at the speed of a snail.
Downtown Seattle about a week before Christmas was a wreck. The people seemed to multiply and it was hard to even make out anyone's face through what seemed like a sea of multi-colored umbrellas bobbing in the drizzle.
As we sat at the stoplight, I noticed a small store on the corner right beside us that didn't look at crowded as the rest, and there was a woman with a rolling stand of what looked like hats and scarfs that was huddling under a large attached umbrella.
The shop sign read Angelines.
In boredom, I watched as a petite woman with spikey black hair walked up and said something to the one working the cart. I was about to turn away, but in the second the hat seller turned to face the other woman, and inadvertently my limo, I could see her face as she rolled her eyes and looked amusedly at the black haired girl as she wrapped her arms around herself to shield off the wind.
She looked cold, was the first though that went through my mind.
The second was about a few things I could do to warm her up.
This woman was absolutely stunning, in an unconventional way. She had a heart shaped face and red lips and curly brown hair that was tumbling down her shoulders from under a white knit hat. I watched as she sighed and nodded at the smaller woman and motioned for her to go inside the shop. Fascinated, I watched intently through the drizzle the little one hugged the brunette and then ran into the shop by herself.
The brown haired girl, now alone, looked down and shook her head in an way that seemed to say "unbelievable" in an amused sort of way, and suddenly she was getting further and further away as the light turned green and Kenny drove us away.
We were a few blocks away and had just rounded a turn when I realized that something significant had just happened, though I wasn't sure what it was.
Why did I care about the interaction of two people on the street? Or was it more who was having the interaction? What was so remarkable about The Hat Girl, besides the fact that she was so beautiful?
…Lord, was she beautiful…
I mean, with that long curly brown hair, and those red lips she was practically perfect. She had such a perfect shaped face too, high cheek bones…
And that hair…
"Stop…" I heard myself whisper suddenly.
"What was that, Mr. Cullen?" Kenny asked as he drove down the road, further and further away from The Hat Girl…
"Stop the car." I told him, unintentionally demanding.
What the Hell was I doing?
Kenny looked confusedly at me through the rear-view mirror.
"Mr. Cullen?" He said, as she slowed down, looking at me like I had sprouted another head.
"Um, I just need to go back there. Er, to the shopping area."
"Ok, well, I'll just turn around then –"
"No! I-I mean no, no, just let me out here, I'll walk, it's only a few blocks."
With furrowed brows, Kenny pulled the limo over to the side of the road.
"Mr. Cullen, Are you sure? I can wait for you –"
"No, why don't you go pick up pizza for dinner, I'll call you when I need you to come get me."
"Er, yes sir, but –"
"Thanks, Kenny," I interrupted, and shot out of the car with nothing but my phone and wallet in my pockets, heading down the street.
"What kind?" He called to me through the window.
I shrugged at him as I started to jog through the drizzle and saw him watching me as he slowly pulled back out into traffic as if waiting for me to return to my normal frame of mind and get back in the limo.
What the Hell was I doing anyway? I could literally have any woman I wanted in my bed tonight, not that I took advantage of that, but why was I running through the rain with not even a raincoat toward some random girl on the side of the street selling hats because I liked her hair?
I've gone insane, I thought, but I still continued down the road.
As I turned the corner and came into view of the store, I slowed down to walk.
What did I even think I was going to do when I got there? Tell her I saw her from my limo and thought she was pretty so I jumped out and came to say hello, and would she mind if I touched her hair?
God damn it, I've literally lost my mind.
Sighing, I continued walking in her direction hoping inspiration would hit me before I got there. What did I even want to happen anyway? She was probably just as shallow and vapid as every other girl who came on to me or my band mates because we were musicians. She would be self-centered and annoying and it wouldn't matter if her lips were shaped so perfectly…
Still, I couldn't make myself turn back now.
Deep breaths, deep breaths. If she's unbearably awful, it will just prove my point and I can pretend to be looking at the hats and then leave…
Steeling myself and trying to calm my heart beat, I walked through the bustling crowd and over to her hat stand.
I bet her voice sounds like nails on a chalkboard. Please let her voice sound like nails on a chalkboard…
"Hello, welcome to Angelines, How are you today?"
Of course she has a fucking cream and honey voice…
"I'm lovely, how about you?" I can do this…just normal conversation…
"I'm good, thank you. If you don't mind me asking, where are you from? I'm sorry if that's rude, it's just, your accent…"
Fuck, make her stop blushing, I can't take it…
"No, not rude at all. I'm from London, we've just moved here a few years ago."
"Oh wow, that's so far! Do you miss it?"
"Bits and pieces, yes. It's very different here. Though that weather does remind me of home, it tends to rain a bit more here than in England." I smiled at her, and received on in return.
"You get used to the constant rain, I suppose."
Trying to look like I was browsing the hats, I shuffled through a few on the table while glancing at her form the corner of my eye. She was biting her lip and I wanted so badly to be the one sinking white teeth into her plush lower lip. She was turning it a rosy pink tint and I longed to run my tongue over the inside of that pillow-y lip, wetting it…
God, she was even more gorgeous up close.
Slowly, I looked up into her eyes and gave up the pretense of hat shopping when I saw her staring right back at me. I watched her big brown eyes get even bigger and they locked with mine, and she let her lower lip out of the trap her teeth has made for it and looked to the ground.
I stepped further under the umbrella covering the cart and ran a hand through my dampened hair.
The rain was picking up now.
She didn't look up as she started straightening the already organized scarfs. I watched her hat slide down her head, revealing a snoopy Band-Aid near her ear. Curious, I couldn't stop myself from commenting.
"Snoopy?" I grinned, finally catching her eyes again.
"What? What do you…?" She started, and I tapped my finger on my jaw in the spot of her Band-Aid. She furrowed her eyebrows and touched her face in the same spot and her eyes lit with understanding.
"Oh, I'm sorry. I forgot that was there. Um, my little girl has a mean throwing arm when it comes to Play-Doh cups."
I laughed and watched as she smiled back at me. She had a pretty smile…
"Trouble maker?" I asked, wanting her to keep talking.
"Oh yeah, that's Lilly. Her twin sister is the exact opposite though, so they kind of balance each other out."
"Twins!" I exclaimed. "How do you do it? Finn is 7 and he's a handful by himself. I don't know how I'd manage."
"Well, it's just the 3 of us, so sometimes it gets hard, but I wouldn't trade them for anything in the world. They're my best friends." The sincerity rang in every word she spoke, and as it became clear to me how much she loved her kids, my fascination with her grew even more. It was so refreshing talking to her, and I felt like doing a fist pump when she said it was just the 3 of them.
…But did that mean she was just living alone, and still had a boyfriend, or…?
"I completely understand. I don't know how I could even want to get up in the mornings without my son. He's the highlight of my day." I smiled at her, and watched as she tucked a piece of her wavy, chocolate colored hair behind her ear.
I wanted to touch it so bad my fingers twitched.
Suddenly, she blurted out "So is it just the 2 of you or –" and then cut herself off with a gasp and buried her face into her hands, blushing.
My heart pounded as I processed her question.
Oh my God, what do I say? Does this mean she likes me too?
Fuck, what am I, 12?
I opened my mouth to say something, anything, when she started talking a mile a minute, muffled through her hands.
"My God, I'm so sorry, that was completely unprofessional of me, I'm so, so –I apologize sir, I –Oh my God, I'm an idiot –"
Eyes wide and hands trembling, I gently removed her hands from her face, taking in her red cheeks and downcast eyes.
"Hey, look at me please? Really, I don't mind at all. Yes, it's just Finn and I here, and you aren't an idiot for asking. I would have asked you the same if you hadn't already said so."
Reluctantly, she looked up at me. "I really am sorry though, sir –"
"The only thing you should be sorry for is calling me sir." I grinned.
She was so different than any other girl I had ever met. She was sweet and shy and sexy and so real.
"You can call me Edward, however." I told her.
With a soft smile, she said "Nice to meet you, Edward. I'm Bella."
Fuck, my name on her lips…
"It's wonderful to meet you, Bella." I said truthfully, and we both went to shake hands, only to realize I was still holding her hands from when I took them from her face, and they had somehow become clasped tightly together. It felt like the most natural thing in the world. Easier than breathing.
Shit, I'm such a pansy.
We looked up at each other without releasing our grip and slowly shook our clasped hands. We both chuckled quietly and I watched as her lip found its way back between her teeth.
I didn't want to say goodbye now. I wanted her to keep talking; I wanted to know everything about her.
"So, Bella," I started, reluctantly releasing her hand, not because I wanted to but because it was impossible to tell how she felt about the hand holding and I didn't want to freak her out. "How old are your girls?"
I watched as her eyes lit up. "Oh, they're 6. I think I have a picture somewhere on my phone."
She slid her hand into the pocket of her jeans and pulled out a black bulky flip phone with an antenna.
"Lord, look at that dinosaur!" I joked.
Bella laughed and rolled her eyes. "I know, I know. I keep waiting for it to break so I'll have an excuse to buy a new one, but it's as durable as a brick."
"Shaped like one too." I mumbled, and heard her giggle.
I had never met a woman who only bought things when there was a reason. Tanya, my ex, would have thought a justifiable excuse to buy a new phone was because there was a new model out. Or the color of the phone didn't match her nail polish that week. And Bella was walking around with a brick in her pocket because it hadn't broken yet.
"Alright, alright, enough picking on my phone. Here's the photo."
She handed me her cell and I looked at the screen. Smiling back at me were 2 identically adorable little girls smooshing their faces into the screen of the phone. One little girl had her curly brown hair, exactly like her mothers, up in a messy ponytail and was wearing a long strand of pearls wrapped around her neck 3 times. The other girl had her hair loose and framing her face as it was pushed partly back with a plastic tiara. They both looked like they had haphazardly put bright red lipstick on their whole mouth. They looked absolutely adorable, and like miniature versions of the woman in front of me.
Smiling at her, I slid my iPhone from my pocket and handed it to her so she could look at the screen-saver, where a picture of Finn resided. In the photo, his hair was as messy and wild as ever, just like mine, and he had drawn tribal war marks on his face with face paint and was barring his teeth at the camera evilly.
As Bella looked at my phone, I looked back at hers again. They really were the cutest little girls I had ever seen. Their eyes shined up at me and I thought I had never seen anything sweeter until I looked back up to Bella and into her eyes.
We were both quiet for a minute, just looking at each other.
"They have your eyes." I whispered, staring at her.
Bella's lips parted and I saw her tongue peak out to lick her lip. I gulped audibly and her eyes darted to my throat, assumedly watching as my atom's apple bobbed.
She seemed to take a shaky breath and as I watched, her eyes traveled down to my chest.
Since she was checking me out, whether knowingly or not, I decide turnabout was fair play.
Hungrily, my eyes roamed down her body, sliding over the curve of her breasts and her tiny waist covered by a fitted pea coat jacket. Her waist flared out into rounded hips and her jeans fit her too perfectly I saw.
Fucking Hell, to be able to lick her neck…Oh, her jaw…
I bit my own lip as I imagined nibbling on her earlobe.
As I looked back into her eyes, we both locked gazes at the exact same moment. It was quite obvious that we had just been checking each other out. Did she want to pretend we hadn't just totally had a simultaneous eye-fuck? I didn't want to pretend I didn't find her sexy as fuck, because I did.
Her eyes were wide as she looked at me, and mine were wild, I'm sure.
How do I say this? Smooth…Be smooth, Cullen…
"Edw –"
"Have dinner with me."
Shit, shit there went smooth right out the window. Bella's eyes got even larger and she gasped quietly.
"I –I…"
"Please, Bella? I'll be a perfect gentleman, I swear. Just as friends."
"I don't know, Edward. I don't really know you, um,"
"Let's get to know each other then. I'll tell you anything you want to know."
She started to say something, but I stopped her again, holding out my hand.
"Hello, my name is Edward Anthony Cullen, I have a 7 year old son named Finn who I love very dearly and a large white shaggy dog named Ellie. My past times include watching re-runs of House late at night, and I have an intense love for really spicy foods. I am a musician and I am ticklish on my right side, and the only things I can cook are breakfast foods. I hate okra, so Finn never has to eat it, and I really, really like you hair. What's your name?"
She was starting to smile as she slid her hand into mine.
"Nice to meet you Edward, I'm Bella Marie Swan. I have 2 twin 6 year old girls named Lilly and Lacie and I have a very large, very lazy fat cat named Leo. I enjoy reading anything I can get my hands on, and I love watching old Disney movies with my girls. Lions are my favorite animals, and I hate spinach so Lilly and Lacie never have to eat it. And I really, really like that mole on your neck." She said the last part so fast that when I finally understood, I let go of her hand and covered up the mole on my atom's apple in shock.
When she giggled, I dropped my hand from my neck and smiled at her.
"Why thank you or the complement, Bella Swan, it is lovely to meet you. How would you feel about joining Finn and I for a night of pizza and movies? Lily and Lacie are welcome too of course." I tried to make it sound as convincing as possible. I wasn't above groveling to get to spend the evening with her.
Please, please, please Bella, won't you come to my house and eat pizza and cuddle while my cock-blocking son is there watching a movie? And maybe tell me some more parts of my body that you "really, really like" too…
I held my breath as Bella exhaled and started to answer me.
"I would love to join you and Finn for pizza, Edward. Where would you like for us to meet you?"
Yes, yes, yes, she said yes!
Grinning uncontrollably from ear to ear in excitement, I asked if she knew where the Edgewater Hotel was. With furrowed brows, she said she did and asked if we were staying there.
"Erm, well, yes. We own the pent house suit there."
"Whoa, wait, you own it?"
"It's, um, more private than renting…er, anyway, I can come pick you all up, if you'd like?"
"Oh, no, it's fine. We'll just drive. Do they have parking for non-residents, or do we need to find parking elsewhere?"
"No, no, just drive up to the front of the hotel and a valet will come up to you, just tell him you're a guest of Edward Cullen, and he will take it. Um, it's a lot less fancy than it sounds…"
Bella's eyebrows shot up, and she looked at me in disbelief. "You sure, because it sounds really fancy…"
I smiled and told her not to worry, and we would be in our jeans and tee-shirts when they arrived. I asked for their preference in pizza, and she said that she would eat any kind, and the girls liked cheese.
"What time would you like us there?" She asked, getting shy again. I glanced at my phone and saw that it was a few minutes before 5.
"When do you get off of work?"
"Oh here you mean? I don't actually work here, I'm just helping out a friend for a bit. Business is bad, you know. I'm actually an author."
"Oh! Do you have anything published?"
"Er, a few things," She told me uncomfortably, and I decided to let it go for the time being.
"Well, alright, what time are you leaving here?"
"I usually leave around 5 and the days I help out."
"Great, that's great! Could we say at 6 then? Does that sound good?"
"Sure, that sounds great Edward," She smiled, looking at her feet.
"So, I'll see you then? Just to be clear, you all can just go in the front, and tell the doorman you're guests of Edward Cullen. He's the sweetest old man, his name is Sam and he will help you right up to the pent house. If you have any trouble at all, you can call me alright? W-would it be okay if I got your number too, just in case?"
Just in case I want to hear your sexy voice over the phone and can't wait even an hour…
She nodded shyly and we both plugged our numbers into each other's phone.
"I'll…I'll see you soon then, Edward?" She said, blushing. Taking a deep breath, I watched as she twirled a piece of her long curly hair around her finger.
"Yes, Bella, and it was so very nice meeting you today. The absolute highlight of my day." I told her sincerely.
I started to back out into the rain, and then suddenly stopped and walked closer to her.
"And Bella?" I whispered.
"Yeah?" She breathed back.
We were inches apart.
"I'm so glad you said yes." I said quietly and then leaned in slowly to kiss her cheek. What was supposed to be a quick kiss goodbye, turned into a lingering, sensual brush of lips on her cheek and I felt her breath in as I slowly pulled away.
God, she was beautiful.
"See you later, Bella." I told her, backing down the street. She seemed to regain her senses and waved to me as I got swallowed up by the crowed.
I waved back and smiled and I turned around and pulled out my cell, grinning.
"Hey, Kenny? I hope you haven't got the pizzas yet, because I'm going to need to change the order. Finn and I will be having guests tonight."
A/N: Phew, that was a lot longer than I thought. 11 pages…don't expect this length on other chapters, haha. I had to literally force myself to stop on this one though. They just wouldn't shut up. Well, anyway, let me know if anyone wants to Beta for me. Also, follow me on twitter if you want! It's cuethesunsett , let me know if you're from here, and I'll follow you back. And my tumblr is cue-the-sunset , also let me know if you're from fanfiction and I'll follow you:)
Review if you liked!