AN: Welcome to my first English fanfic. I hope there are still people out there reading about Twilight^^. I´m without a beta at the moment, so feel free to ask for taking that position. As for the story, it´s a classic office romance, which should go to some not-so-classic parts in the future.
You know the drill: Twilight isn´t my story, the plot is. I´d love to hear what you think about it. Please review.
And now, let´s meet Alice. We´re starting decent here, but I´ve written some dirty parts for future chapters. Enjoy!
Holding her Bachelor diploma for communication and media management in her hands and going by her mothers maiden name Touilliez, Alice decided it´s time for her to swoon the only city besides Paris that could hold her attention for fashion and lifestyle: New York City. She might be spoiled but she was at least as much stubborn to proof her family and herself that she was able to stand on her own feet. With just a tad of starting capital of her trust fund she was looking for a shared apartment. That´s how you start off, isnt it? Working your way up to a full-glass rooftop apartment. In her head always several years ahead she was flipping through the pages of the real estate market brochure with beautiful pictures of master bedrooms and giant balconies, while swiping on her iphone through the shared apartments in Manhattan. Most of them were not even close to her standards. But one caught her eye. Spacious, in a nice neighborhood with only one female roommate to share. But what was really odd about it, there was no address but instead there were a lot of small circles and lines forming an unusual pattern. It reminded Alice of something from her past...
„I´ll let you know when i make my decision. See you around, Paul", she ushered him out of the apartment.
"But it´s Lewis!", he tried to argue.
"Of course it is" she shut the door forcefully and let out a long hold breath. Bella mentally facepalmed herself for this stupid idea. Angela, her only female friend, made it sound like such good plan to hide the address behind a binary code to make sure the apartment wasn´t smashed by hundreds and thousands of wannabe roomies and guarantee some brains in the candidates.
When the door bell rang again she contemplated simply ignoring the sound. Wary she looked through the peephole to see who was standing on the other side of the door. Bella was taken aback when a tiny woman smiled back at her. Slowly opening the door she wanted to ask her, if she needed anything.
But even before she could utter the words, Alice rushed into the Apartment and took in every room in merely seconds. Pure bliss crossing her face. She could see herself sitting on this very couch flipping through magazines, drinking cappuccino. Going through several more images of her in the different rooms with different activities she noticed the woman at the door seeking her attention.
"Where are my manners?",she danced towards Bella extending her hand. The brunette took it with caution, ready to shy away if this little ball of energy that Alice seemed to be exploded again. "I´m Alice Touilliez, so nice to meet you", her face was glowing.
Bella smiled when she noticed the tiniest bit of a french accent in the short girls voice. "Hi, I´m Isabella, but call me Bella. Everyone does. So you are here for the free room, I assume?" She didn´t at first. At first glance she thought Alice was some fan girl confusing her Apartment number with the young actor´s one over the corridor. But having a closer look on her now, she could see that Alice had to be the same age as herself.
"Yeah, that´s right. I can see us becoming good friends. I take the room." Alice cheered and couldn´t help herself but hug Bella tightly.
Bella pushed her away softly not wanting to hurt her feelings. But this girl didn´t seemed to be straight in her mind. She didn´t scream psychokiller either, but this whole meet ´n´greet was going too fast for her liking.
"So, Alice...uhm...tell me something about yourself. You´re from france?", she started the conversation.
Alice giggled, startling Bella with it "That´s your intro? You´ll never know if your future roomie is going to raid your fridge after binge drinking during the week or keeps you awake with loud sex noises just before your exam, when you ask 'where are you from?'".
Bella blushed but retorted "So then: are you a heavy drinker or intend to start your own sex tape production in my spare room?"
Alice laughed hearty "That´s the spirit!" and winked at Bella "I can assure you, that I really rarely drink over my limit. And I never fool around where I sleep. So I´m next: Any boyfriends? I wouldn´t want your honeybunny to run into my naked self when I need to drink a glass of water at night."
Bella wasn´t sure if she was ready to bump into a butt-naked Alice when she klutzed her way to the sink to refresh herself. "No, no boyfriends since I counted. So you sleep naked?" she couldn´t believe what a strange first conversation she was having. But Alice had a point, she was learning more from this brutal honesty then by asking her standard questions.
"Jepp. Which actor would you like to bed?" She was making herself comfortable on the big red couch in the center of the living room.
"I can´t see, how that is going to help you decide if I´m a perfect roommate." Bella tried to wiggle out of the question. But she wasn´t successful.
"Since you have no boyfriend you might sit more than once the week in front of the TV and watching Glee for all I know, drooling over some high pitched gorilla."
Bella wrinkled her nose but agreed "I´m really not a musical fan. So, if you need to know, I´m SHER-LOCKED" she admitted.
Alice squealed "Benedict Cumberbatch? He´s old. Looking for a sugar daddy, aren´t you?"
Bella blushed crimson red and throw a pillow at the cheeky pixie. " Don´t say it like that! I mean, I don´t know him in person, but every roll he played, he seems just so eloquent and overly intelligent", Bella started dreaming.
"And a tad arrogant. But I see, we have a sapiophile over here. You´re a little nerd yourself, aren´t you", Alice was looking over the desktop in the corner harboring tons of papers all filled with nothing but formulas.
Another blush crawled over Bella´s cheeks. "Yeah, I mean... I work as an IT specialized mathematician at the research part of the NYU."
"That´s impressive." This shut her up for a moment.
Just long enough for Bella to remember that somehow this tiny firecracker must have solved her code somehow. "How did you figure out the address? Had some help with it?"
There was a mischievous twinkle in Alice eyes "Why would I need help? You wrote the address in the announce didn´t you?".
Bella was fighting for words. She didn´t wanted to offend Alice. Helplessly opening and closing her mouth like a carp overthinking every word she could say to apologize, Alice burst into laughter "No harm done, Bells. People tend to underestimate me. I´m playing with it. And besides it´s not like I solved your little binary riddle with all my incredible math skills" she fidgeted in her purse and pulled out some black and white silky fabric.
"What is this", Bella took it, looked at it from every direction but couldn´t figure out what it meant.
"That, my nerdy friend, is your address translated into some loom matrix. My family", she contemplated telling Bella the truth just now, but couldn´t bring herself to do it. It didn´t matter that her instincts assured her that this girl would be a dear friend and will take every secret shared between them to her grave. She started again "I kind of grew up in the fashion industry. You know, a kind of taylor shop. And I always was in awe how the loom could produce the most stunning pattern out of these on-off codes. So I thought of it when I saw your puzzle. But..."she waved her hand in the general direction of the cloth "It´s not quite the definition of beautiful."
Bella snickered "It´s unique."
"But why on earth encrypt your address in the first place?" Alice leaned her head to the side waiting for Bella to explain.
"It was just an attempt to reduce the number of candidates. You have no idea how crazy the New York real estate market is." Bella rolled her eyes remembering the masses of people when Angela was having the same situation. Even weeks after the announce was deleted, candidates were piling up on her doorstep.
Alice nodded "And how many eligible room mates you found with that tactic?"
Bella tried to remember counting on her fingers visibly, but when reaching number ten she smiled sheepishly and pointing directly at Alice "Just you so far".
Alice face lit up "I knew it. So let me guess, the rest where mostly guys", Bella nodded "half of them the creepy stalker type of nice guys", Bella´s nodding intensified "the other half too shy to look you in the eye, i´m not even talking about having a decent conversation."
Bella wanted to shout an 'amen' but her being strictly atheist prevented it "That´s about it. So... you still want the room?" Coming to the conclusion that a female room mate was less disturbing even if she runs around naked. And Alice was the first woman till now. Plus she had to admit that she liked her even knowing her only briefly.
Alice squealed and hugged Bella again "Sure thing. I told you we will become best friends."
Bella tried to wiggle out of Alice arms. But for someone so small she had a really tight grip "I´m not used to so much body contact."
"I can tell." Alice winked and Bella nudged her with her elbow.
Alice moved in a couple of days later. Her only possession some clothes. Okay, maybe not some but some more … like a lot. She needed a group cab to fit in all her suitcases and trunks at once. Flirting with some poor students she didn´t had to carry one of them in her new room.
"I´m home Bella. I hope you´re decent. I´ve brought some boys for breakfast."
Bella came out of her room. Wearing a band shirt and an old pair of ripped jeans.
"We´re not having enough buns for more people" she exclaimed sincerely worried.
Alice rolled her eyes at so much naivety "We´re having them for breakfast, Bells" then she blowed an air kiss over to one of the kind helpers. The well-built dark-haired shared a dimpled smile with first Alice and then Bella before he found his eyes pinned at Bella´s juicy ass.
Alice was in for a little fun but saw how uncomfortable the brunette was, so she payed the students, thanked them for their help and bid them goodbye without much of playing her game any further.
There was one kingsize bed and a closet – much to Alice disappointment not a walk-in one – in the otherwise empty room. She would ask her mother to send some of her furniture over sea for a more familiar feeling. But a nice start for feeling at home was to unpack her cloth, fold them or hang them, as long as she could finally free them out of their bags. It was like cages for them. Clothes needed to be worn or at least be admired by people.
Exactly what Bella was doing while Alice was unpacking.
"That´s incredible. How can one woman possess so many clothes?" She was rummaging through some shirts, all with neat applications and in colors she was sure she couldn´t name correctly.
"That´s not even my final form, dear" Alice laughed "Most of my stuff is still in Paris at my mothers home."
When she started to organize her shoe drawer, Bella´s mouth dropped open. "I hope you don´t wear these at work" she was pointing toward some of Alice more daring shoes.
Being so tiny as she was, she was used to wear heals with 10 cm minimum. And the lovely specimen Bella´s eyes were adjusting to had 15 cm. But to be honest these specific ones weren´t meant to wear for work in deed "These are my infamous fuck-me-boots. But don´t be afraid, I would never wear them when we are on the road and abandon you for some handsome stranger." She smiled reassuring but something told Bella that at a different time and in a different city exactly that might had happened.
As I said: no beta. If my grammar or sentence structure is painful to read, please let me know. me