I rolled my eyes at the movie playing out on the screen as I turned on my TV. I was watching "Good Morning America" this morning and had left my TV on that channel, so when I turned it on, it was still on ABC. They were playing The Notebook, the scene with Rachel McAdams and Ryan Gosling going at it in the rain assaulting my eyes. I quickly flipped through the channels and settled on something much more my style, not to mention infinitely more interesting: major league baseball, Mets vs. The Giants. Granted I wasn't really fans of either teams (I am, and always will be, a Mariners girl, a result of being born in Washington and living with my dad there as a teenager), but it was certainly better than The Notebook. I may possibly be one of the only girls in the English-speaking world to not like that movie, but I didn't care. Watching an impossible love story was not exactly how I wanted to spend two hours of my valuable time.
After watching the game for about ten minutes, a commercial came on between innings. I took this opportunity to venture into my small kitchen in my apartment. I opened up several cabinets, sighing as I didn't see anything that particularly appealed to me. I took two steps over to the fridge and peered inside, also not finding anything I wanted to eat in there either. After standing in front of my fridge for a few moments, I decided that what I really wanted was Chinese food.
However, I didn't really feel like being a complete recluse and order take out, so I decided to text my two best friends, Jessica and Angela, seeing if they wanted to go out for some dinner and drinks afterwards.
Chinese then drinks tonight?
I entered both of their numbers into the recipients list and pressed send. Not ten seconds later, I got both of their texts back confirming.
Awesome. Meet at the usual place in 30. I replied.
Jessica, Angela, and I had been friends since high school and subsequently went to college at Northwestern University in Chicago together. We were all quite different but one thing we always agreed on was our love of Chinese food and one of the first thing we did when we got to Chicago was find an excellent Chinese restaurant. We found one within a month of moving here and had been going there for the past six years, eating there so much we just referred to it as "the restaurant" or "the usual".
Twenty-two minutes later, I was heading out the door, on my way to the restaurant. The walk there (yes, it was close enough to my apartment to walk to, another plus) only took three to five minutes but I couldn't stand the thought of being late for anything, even a simple dinner out with my two best friends, so I always left with a little extra time to get there.
After the short walk (which didn't feel so short, since it was winter in Chicago and the icy wind was brutal), I stepped inside the Chinese restaurant. As I walked in the door, the host smiled at me, grabbed three menus and led me to a table. We came here so often, all of the hosts and hostesses knew our faces and knew that if one of us walked in, the other two weren't far behind.
"I'll lead the other two back here when they get here," the host told me with a smile.
Not two minutes later, Jessica and Angela were lead back to the table. I stood up and gave each of them hugs and then sat back down. We quickly told the waitress who had come over what we wanted to eat and drink, obviously not even having to look at the menu.
"So ladies," I began, "how was your day?"
Jessica simply groaned and that said it all. After getting her undergrad degree, she decided to go to Northwestern's law school and it was definitely tougher than she had anticipated.
Angela shrugged. "It was ok. I had lunch with Ben."
Jessica and I both raised our eyebrows at her.
"Details please," Jessica urged.
Ben was Angela's on-again, off-again boyfriend. They were currently off-again, with their last break up being the worst of them all. Ben had apparently been flirting with some girl at a club they went out to, so Angela started flirting with other guys just to piss him off. Well, it worked because when they got back to Angela's apartment, Angela said they fought for about an hour, before she threw a curling iron at him and he threw three TV remotes back at her. That was about a month ago, and her and Ben had only texted once or twice, neither one of them apologizing for what had happened.
As Angela was about to speak, the waitress came with our drinks. We all smiled at her and took our straws.
Angela took a quick sip of her sweet tea before beginning.
"Well, we just went to Chili's," she began.
"Classy," I mumbled sarcastically under my breath. She just shot me a look. I never did think Ben treated her like he should, like she was the princess that she was.
"Anyway, he called me up this morning while I was at the office and said he missed me. He said he missed talking to me and that I was his best friend and that he just wanted to have lunch and catch up. So I agreed, and it was nice. We just caught up and talked. He said he'd call me sometime next week to see if I wanted to go out again."
"Are you getting back together?" Jessica asked.
Angela shrugged. "I don't know. I mean, it's Ben. It's always a possibility. I'll probably always love him as long as he's in my life."
"All the more reason for you to let him go," I stated. "Did he apologize for throwing the remotes at you?"
She shook her head. "But I didn't exactly apologize for throwing the curling iron, either. We're both at fault on this one so I don't really see the need for either one of us to apologize."
I just rolled my eyes and took a sip of my drink. At that point, the waitress came back carrying our three plates of food. I unrolled my fork from my napkin and took a bite of my sesame chicken.
"All I'm saying is," I started after I had finished chewing, "is that you can do so much better than him. Trust me, Ange. I mean, you guys are either always fighting or you're not together and he's taking you to Chili's. I mean, if you're going to insist on being in a relationship, you might as well be with someone who makes it worth your while."
"But he does," she argued back. "We've just hit a bit of a rough patch in our relationship. We'll be ok. I mean, we love each other, so we'll work through it."
I caught Jessica's eye across the table and we both just rolled our eyes. We both thought that Angela's whole 'love will find a way' attitude was ridiculous.
"Whatever, Ange. Just when you're stuck in a boring marriage with him in the suburbs with a mortgage and a mini-van and three kids, don't be jealous of me and Bella when we're still living the high life here in the city," Jessica told her.
"Amen," I agreed and raised my Dr. Pepper to toast with Jessica.
"You guys," Angela whined, "you can't seriously tell me that you really want to spend your life single. You don't want to find that one person who just completes you, who just makes you whole, and who loves you unconditionally?"
I didn't respond and just continued eating my chicken. Personally, I thought the whole idea of soul mates and there being just one person out there for you was ridiculous. There are billions of people in the world. What are the odds that, even if there is a such thing as soul mates, that you would even meet them?
"Sure, that'd be great," Jessica responded. "But I'm going to take care of me first. I'm just saying that I'm not going to settle and I don't think you should either. You and Ben, you're just too…too…I don't know the word, but he's not the one for you."
Jessica wasn't quite as cynical as me. She believed in soul mates and true love but, like me, was fiercely independent and wanted to take care of herself and her goals first.
I, on the other hand, didn't believe a word of it. There is no such thing as true love and other halves, so I figured why waste my time marrying someone who was only to going to make me happy for a max of ten years. Then, I'd be stuck in a dead-end, boring marriage, when I could still be single and living a more interesting life.
"Ok, you guys. I get it. You don't like Ben. Let's move on," Angela insisted.
The rest of the meal, we made general conversation about our days and our jobs, or in Jessica's case, school.
Angela worked at a book publishing company, doing mainly boring, tedious tasks while trying to work her way up the corporate ladder. I worked for an advertising firm and while I enjoyed my job, I wasn't entirely sure it was what I wanted to do with my life. Several times I had caught myself wishing I had gone into the medical field, but the thought of going back to school was daunting.
After we had finished our meal, we paid and left, stepping out into the cold night air. We began quickly walking to our favorite spot for drinks. It was a little bar, tucked into a corner. It never got to crowded because it didn't really look like a bar from the outside, so only locals knew it was there. There were never lines to get in, but it was never totally deserted either.
We quickly stepped inside out of the freezing temperatures and headed over to the bar. The bartender came over to take our orders and we picked back up on our conversation from the restaurant.
"Excuse me, miss," I heard as someone tapped me on the shoulder. I turned around and came face to face with a gorgeous man. He had emerald green eyes and the sexiest smile I had ever seen. He was unbelievably attractive. And I had seen some gorgeous men in my time. "I believe you dropped this on the way in."
He handed me my wallet, which I had just shoved into my coat pocket after paying at the restaurant, not bothering to put it back in my purse. It must have fallen out when I took off my coat before sitting down at the bar.
"Thank you," I told him as I smiled at him, even though I was sure it wasn't nearly as dazzling as his.
I didn't know it was possible, but he smiled even bigger at me, really turning on the charm. "No problem at all."
At that point, he looked so gorgeous all I wanted to do was drag him back to my apartment. It had been awhile since I had really great sex and he looked like the kind of guy who knew how to show a girl a good time.
"You know," I began, "most people probably wouldn't have given it back. Let me buy you a drink as thanks."
I could tell he was a little shocked that I offered to buy him a drink, since it was normally the guy who bought the girl a drink, but he quickly recovered. "No, that's not necessary. I would want someone to do the same for me."
"Oh, come on. I wouldn't be able to function without the stuff in my wallet. It's the least I can do."
He was quiet for a few moments, contemplating whether or not to accept my offer.
"Ok," he replied, sitting down at the bar next to me. I could practically hear Angela and Jessica wishing they had dropped their wallets. "But if you leave here with an extra ten in your pocket, I swear it wasn't me."
I smiled genuinely at him and extended my hand. "I'm Bella."
He extended his hand as well and grasped mine in his. "Edward."