It was her, there was no mistake, the scent; it could only be her. I turned to the woman that had frozen beside me, stopped in the middle of the crowded Seattle street. It nearly broke me, looking at her. We stood in silence, shock probably in both our faces, and eyes wide with disbelief. Her mouth opened and closed, until finally she was able to break the silence that trapped us.
"Hello, Edward..." her voice was a soft whisper, full of warmth.
I looked into the eyes that had haunted me for so long, the deep brown eyes that made me drown in their emotion filled depths.
"Hello, Bella."my voice was smooth, despite the fact that inside I was breaking into pieces.
She smiled, uneven and somber unpainted lips pulled upwards; lines around her mouth pulling into a sharp and sickening relief.
"No one has called me that in a long time, call me Isabella" she said with humor, eyes sparkling.
I swallowed, feeling my adams apple move sharply along my throat. I couldn't believe it, after all these she could still make me feel like a school boy with a crush. I looked away and gazed at the shop in front of us, a coffee shop; just pulling it self together after the lunch rush. I looked back to her, and she looked at me with her damn eyes; even after so many years guessing my mode.
"Coffee?" she asked, pointing to a shop in front of us, still smiling.
I could only nod as I followed her into the shop, watching as her long blue skirt swish back and forth by her ankles, her small red pumped clad feet stepping with a grace that she never had around the time we last saw each other, so many years ago. She sat in the back, away from the humans and nearly out of site. She ignored the whispers, in the way she could never before. She sat daintily, legs crossing boldly and quite unlike her. She whistled, loudly and caught the attention of a nearby waitress. The young girl came up, eyes lighting up as she took me in; thoughts turning vulgar as she smiled eagerly.
"Can I help you?" she asked, tucking her short and falsely colored hair behind her ears, ignoring Bella completely.
"Yes, look at the person who is ordering first." came out Bella's gentle voice, not angrily but in a tone that was sharp and cutting.
The girl turned to Bella with rolling eyes, face set in a fake smile; thoughts questing why such an old lady would sit next to me. She guessed Bella was my aunt or something. I felt something break at that. Bella, on the other hand smiled pleasantly at the girl, eyes mocking.
"Coffee, milk, and sugar. And another coffee for him." her voice was soft, yet firm.
So unlike the time we first 'ate' together, her voice had been so questioning then, so full of doubt. As if she needed approval of even a stranger, but not now. Her attitude, her way of sitting had changed so much.
"Is that all you want?' she asked turning toward me, eyes and thoughts flashing with a quite lust.
"Yes, now please get us our order." responded Bella.
The girl left with a huff, thoughts heated and annoyed. I tore my gaze away from the girl, toward the person that had my heart. She had changed, not just in attitude but in appearance. Gone was the young girl that I had met two decades ago. In front of me was an aged woman. Her face was still shaped the same, yes, still the same heart, still the same soft and lively color. But age was shown, her beautiful eyes were sprinkled with just the lightest showing of crows feet, and the skin was not as firm as it had been before. Her mouth was surrounded with sharp laugh lines, and her lips were not as plump as my memories. Her hair wasn't long the long, thick wave it had been,no. It was cut in a stylish bob, two lines of sliver cutting sharply in the mahogany just near her temples. Her taste in clothes differed slightly, too. Her shirt was no longer the dark and plain blouses that kept coming to my mind, no it was a soft white camisole, and it clothed her slightly curvier torso tastefully. Her long and spindly arms were covered in a black velvet jacket, and her long neck was draped in a simple sliver necklace. She was all bold colors, whites, blacks, blues, and reds making her look like a tasteful woman. The long twenty years seemed to have treated her well.
"Twenty years." she whispered it softly, echoing my thoughts.
"Twenty, it seems like so much more." I responded, eyes prickling with sorrow.
She smiled again, eyes soft.
"A life time ago."
The waitress came back, setting down the coffees in front of Bella. She left without a word, thanks to the soft glare at the girl from Bella. Her eyes turned toward me, smiling once again as she sipped her coffee.
"You've changed." I whispered.
"Time does that, when your human." she said, surprisingly no bitterness in her voice.
That is what truly broke me. Her voice, holding no bitterness that it should have. It made everything snapped into place, made the regret that had been festering inside for twenty long years come to the surface.
"I'm sorry, I sorry for everything I was a fool Bella- A damn arrogant fool to do that, to make that happen, to make pain come to you. I love you, I have always have, will always-" I cried, grasping her hands.
"Edward..." she murmured, voice and eyes sad.
I stopped, and waited for her to continue. Breath set in a rushing gasp, eyes prickling with the almost there tears.
"You don't love me. You can never love me again, Edward. I'm not Bella Swan." she said it in the quietest whisper.
I froze. She couldn't say that.
"Then who are you? I know you Bella Swan, I love you, you are my everything" I said in a desperate voice.
Her hands tighten around mine, like a faint caress before she stood up; eyes full of sadness.
"I am Isabella Amet. I am married with a man I love with all my heart, I have two wonderful children, and I am a stranger to Edward Anthony Mason Cullen."her voice was gentle, and her eyes were full of tears.
Amet. It meant changed in Latin, it meant so much more. I felt all of my undead heart truly break.
"You are in love with a mere memory, a memory that you destroyed so many years ago, move on Edward. Leave behind the memory of that girl you left and killed behind. I left it so many years ago, and I will never revive her, even for you." her voice never raised in it's volume, and it was steady.
I reached for her, a quite plea for her to sit back down, to talk, to never leave me. She only dug in her skirt pocket, dropping a ten dollar bill on the table.
"I had truly loved you, Edward. I could have loved you again, but time has changed that; I have changed that. I'm happy and I pray that you will be again; because I still care enough for you. Good bye, truly good bye Edward." she quietly spoke.
She turned, heels clicking softly and skirt twirling wide. Then she stopped, mid step as she turned once again, right hand reaching over to the opposite arm. She slipped something off, and walked back to me. She set down the piece of metal with a soft click. She turned again, and this time she didn't turn back, she left head held high, walk purposeful and graceful. I looked down at what she had placed on the table and let out a soft laugh of hysteria. There set against the ugly wooden table was a charm bracelet, a simple thing of woven sliver. It only had one thing on it, and it made me wonder when she gave the other charm back to the mutt. It was a diamond, of the finest clarity, of the highest price. It was a beautiful, perfect heart shape. The only thing that marred its beauty was a thick jagged line that split down the middle. It was the bracelet that I had given her, all those years ago. And it showed the remains of my undead and frozen heart. And it what made me laugh and laugh; thinking if I should be truly crush at the fact that she was giving it back, or giving into the sickening joy that was threatening to coarse through me at the fact that she had kept it all those years.