As Much Sky and Earth
Written by: applemilk

Chapter 1

She stumbled into the store and landed unceremoniously face-forward onto the thin-carpeted floor. She also managed to knock down racks of little booklets and magazines along the way.

"Must you always make that entrance?" a smooth voice cut through the air of ruckus. The voice held a sense of authority as it dripped with sarcasm.

"Must you always watch my entrance instead of helping me out?" the woman countered, pushing herself off the ground and smoothing out her clothes.

"Yes."

"Bastard."

"Boss, you mean."

"You're just a supervisor," she replied coolly as she walked behind the counter and carefully slipped on her apron. "And one who doesn't do his job properly at that!"

"Bella, I can't help the fact that you are coordinately unbalanced." The supervisor followed.

"Getting rid of that stupid rug in front of the door would help!"

He frowned,

"But it brings such lovely memories of you."

Bella fumed.

"I hate you."

The man merely shrugged and glanced back at the mess Bella had made earlier.

"I expect that to be cleaned and organized by the time I get back."

"Where are you going?" It was her turn to frown. He seemed a bit pleased at her reaction.

"Rosalie needs my assistance."

Bella rolled her eyes and muttered agitatedly.

"What was that?" her supervisor incquired. He leaned in and stared at her intently. Her cheeks ever-so-slightly turned pink before she took a deep breath and smiled sweetly,

"I bet she needs your assistance. Now if you excuse me, Edward," she left the counter as she spoke and headed for the mess, "I have actual work to do."

He smirked but left her without a word.

"How's it coming a long?" Edward casually asked as he strode towards the counter which Bella worked at. She rolled her eyes.

"How does it look?"

He scanned her counter, then the room itself, and realized that there were no customers.

"Are you driving away my customers?"

Now her eyes narrowed.

"Why, pray tell, would anyone want to drink coffee in the summer?"

"Why are you answering all of my questions with questions?" He countered.

"What did Rosalie need help with?" She ignored his last comment.

"You're doing it again."

"Just answer!"

"Why should I? You never really answered mine."

Bella breathed in deeply. Edward chuckled.

"She works in a completely different area so it doesn't really concern you."

"A much simpler area," Bella agreed," but what took you so long?"

He smirked again, but did not answer. She rolled her eyes and looked away.

A sick feeling stirred in Bella's stomach and she did not know why. She should have expected something to happen between the two. Beautiful people always get together, right?

Did she just think Edward was beautiful?

Why did she even care he was with Rosalie?

Working with caffeine really got to her.

"Well, well, well. What are the odds? Here comes a few people who actually like to drink coffee in the summer. Put on a happy face." He left her once again and she almost did not put on her best faux smile yet for her upcoming customers.

It was going to be a long day.

In the afternoon her scream could be heard throughout the whole building.

"What? What is it? What did you do?" she could hear Edward's breathless voice. He ran to see what the problem was, but she refused to acknowledge him. Even when he demanded her to tell him the problem, she would not.

Her back was facing him and he could tell she was struggling with something. The faucet was running quite loudly but not much water was being used by her. She was using it for something, however. As he walked behind the counter, he thought she most likely spilt coffee on herself.

"Honestly, why you were hired is beyond me—" Edward's foot faltered when he caught sight of what she was actually doing. There was a huge gash stretching from in-between the crevice of Bella's ring finger and pinky diagonally down to the side of her wrist. Blood was filling up quickly but she tried her best to keep her hand steady so the blood would not spill. She was breathing heavily, willing herself not to let her tears fall, as she tried to clean her hand.

"Oh Bella," Edward murmured. His eyebrows furrowed in concern and his mouth was slightly open. "How did this happen? Here, let me do it." One hand was already reaching out for her before she abruptly turned. Her words came out with much difficulty as she tried to ignore the pain,

"I can do this myself."

"Don't be silly. You need help."

"I don't want your help."

"Now you're just being stubborn."

"It's just a cut! I can handle it." But his hands were already on her shoulders, steering her back to the sink. "What do you think you're doing?!" she nearly cried.

"My job," his voice was soft but firm. The sincerity in his voice refrained her from making a smart comeback.

He released his hold on her shoulders and she felt a sense of loss momentarily until he got a clean cloth and started running cold water from the faucet. Careful to not cause her any more pain than she was already in, he gradually cleaned up as much blood as he could.

"This is a deep cut, Bella. I may have to ask Carlisle to stitch it for you." Her eyes widened and she immediately pulled her hand away from his hold, cradling it protectively. "It's just a few stitches," Edward peered at her. He took back her hand and wrapped a fresh dry cloth around the cut. She whimpered softly when he tightened the cloth, but he paid no heed.

"We should go immediately," he already started to pull her with her good hand. She stood her ground though. "What is it now?"

"I, eh… well, we can't just leave the store. I mean… who will look after the café? And… and… oh! You don't want to keep Rosalie waiting."

"I'll make a few calls when we get there," he tried pulling her but she was persistent,

"No, no, this cut is really not that deep. I'll be fine. See…?" she was leaning toward the coffee machinery.

"No!" He abruptly tugged at her hand. "I don't want you further worsening the cut nor getting blood in the customer's coffee." She grimaced. "I'm calling Carlisle right now. Come with me."

"But Rosalie…"

"This isn't about Rosalie, godammit, this is about you! You're hurt and you are acting completely childish. Get over your fear of needles and come with me."

"How did you kn—" his smoldering eyes silenced her, however, and she quietly obeyed him. He helped her get past the loathed rug and, on the way to his car, he quickly dialed Carlisle then the store itself. By the time he was through talking to everyone, they were pulling out of the parkway.

"So," Edward began once he hung up his cell phone and sped down the streets. "Explain."

Bella stared directly in front of her, not trusting her own voice.

"Well," she started when she knew Edward was getting impatient, "everyone kept ordering iced coffee so when the last customer left, I thought I'd better clean up the equipment. And I did, until I got to the blade of the blender…it was jammed so I was careful when prying it out… but somehow along the way it slipped and this," she raised her wounded hand, "was me catching it."

"I don't recall seeing a bloodied blade," his eyebrows furrowed. He glanced at her and saw that she had ducked her head in shame.

"Kicked it under the sink," she explained, "and I tried to clean this up before you came… but we know how that ended."

"You were honestly going to handle the situation yourself?"

He sounded condescending to her. She tried to keep her cool.

"Of course."

"So if you couldn't fix it, you'd just let it bleed and continue carrying on your work?"

He made everything she did sound so horrible!

"Well, I'd eventually get it properly fixed, but I would keep working."

"And you wouldn't care if the wound gets infected or if you possibly made the other customers sick with an open wound? Are you out of your mind?"

The anger building in Bella was so fierce that she had difficulty even speaking. She would have yelled at him to stop the car, but that would only prove his point. And there was no sense in arguing because she did make the decision to fix her own problem. Was it that bad of a decision? He was always telling her to figure things out herself. The one time she takes full-on responsibility, she gets scolded upon! She decided to sit in the car, without saying a word, and let Edward continue to patronize her--

"Sorry."

"What?" Her voice cracked. She did not realize she was silently crying. Edward sighed irritably.

"I'm sorry. It wasn't my place to say that."

"You're the boss," she responded quietly, "and you've proven your point. I should've re-thought my actions."

Silence.

"I was just so caught up in the moment," she continued, "I kept worrying about what I should do, what would the people think if they saw, and mostly I worried about disappointing you. I mean I've done it enough already. I don't need to add to the list of why I should be fired. I'm usually not even this accident prone."

"You don't disappoint me." He said after a long while.

She looked at him with curiosity, and a bit shock.

"Granted, you are a klutz," he smirked, "but you also put more effort in your job than most of the workers."

"I only put more effort to show you up."

"And you've succeeded."

She smiled.

"Now let's check up on that hand."