Disclaimer: I do not own Twilight, Stephanie Meyers does, but the idea and telling of the tale below is a creature of my own making.
Big thanks to my Beta Jess and Pre-reader Karen. I wouldn't be able to do this without them.
Thanks to Gayle for always being my friend, supporting my writing, and always pushing me to do something I love.
~8~8~8~8~8~8~8~8~8~
Chapter 1:
It might not be a proven fact, but in life, it is easier to make friends, find jobs, and date in your twenties. By the time you're thirty, you are supposed to already be an established career woman with a husband and the requisite two point five kids. If you weren't married by the time you were thirty in the days of ole, you were affectionately put on the shelf, too old for such things as marriage and a family. Though in today's age of same sex marriages and babies at fifty, why are the rules of the dating game so much different for woman in their thirties? Especially, successful career oriented woman? Who makes these rules, and why must woman follow them? Why is it ok to be in a long-term relationship with a man who you know won't actually commit to the marriage and two point five kids but not ok for a woman over thirty to be single?
~8~8~8~8~8~8~8~8~8~
It's a typical chilly autumn morning. Four successful women in their thirties, friends who had met during their undergrad and stayed friends through graduate school, sitting around their favorite table sharing their traditional Sunday Brunch. They had started this tradition four years ago on the weekend after they had all graduated with their respective degrees. They had wanted it to be a way for them to stay in touch. It all started as a once-a-month tradition, and now, they meet every Sunday. They had all attended the University of Washington in Seattle, and while only two of them stayed there for graduate school, they had all remained friends and somehow managed to all get jobs in the city they had fallen in love with. Between them there was a journalist, an advertising agent, a fashion designer, and an assistant district attorney. They were all doing what they loved. Now, they just needed to work on the two point five kids and the husband. Ironically enough, none of them were married and only two in any sort of long term relationship.
This Sunday felt different to them as they all sat down and perused the menu they knew by heart. This was the Sunday they were getting together to talk about the breakup that had been coming for the past several months; the break up, they all knew was inevitable. Bella Swan, the journalist, had been dating Edward Mason, CEO of Mason Inc., for the past three years with no sign of a lasting commitment coming. During that time, they had broken up and gotten back together no less than ten times, but this time, this break-up, they all knew was for real. Bella was ready for the commitment, and Edward was more than happy to stay the way they were: stagnant and unmarried. So after their date Wednesday night, Bella had told him how she felt, and in true Edward Mason fashion, he told her he wasn't ready, turned and walked out of her apartment, and she hadn't spoken to him since.
"Has he called yet?" Esme, the assistant district attorney, in the group asked.
"No," Bella said putting down her menu. "I don't think he's going to."
"You don't know that," Alice, the ever present optimist and fashion designer, said without looking up from her menu.
"Yes, I do," Bella told them. "His driver brought my things from his apartment yesterday. He's never done that before. This time, it's really over, and he doesn't have the guts to face me himself."
"Maybe, this is his way of getting you to talk to him," Alice said, finally putting down her menu.
"Flowers and jewelry are the way that he gets her to talk to him, Alice, not returning her property," Rose, the "tough as nails doesn't need to rely on a man" advertising executive, stated. "I've told you time and time again, Bella, that Mr. Big Shot Edward Mason isn't the committing type. After three years, you should know this."
She should know this, and she did, but she had hoped that after three years together, he'd changed his mind. She should have realized after their talk about his first marriage that ended in complete disaster that Edward Mason wouldn't do that again.
"I still say he will call," Alice said. "He always does. He is a mess without Bella."
"He won't," Bella restated. "It's over. Done. Capute. It's time for me to realize this and move on. Be over Edward Mason once and for all."
"Maybe, it's for the best," Esme offered, trying to comfort Bella.
"How can you say it's for the best Esme?" Alice asked. "They are in love with each other. Soul mates. They are destined to be together. This is just another one of their silly breakups."
"It's not, Alice," Bella interjected before Esme got the chance to answer. "We are done. I'm not playing his game anymore. It's time. I love him. I will always love him, but I can't do this anymore. I need to find someone that wants me enough to commit to me, and Edward Mason isn't it."
"That's right, Bella," Rose said. "You stick to your guns this time. Move on. Show him that you can live without him. You're waiting for him to make a commitment, and we know he won't. It's just pointless. Find someone who will give you what you need. Edward will get over it. He always does."
"Carlisle asked me to move in with him last night," Esme added after they had given their order to the waitress.
"Again?" Bella asked glad the focus was off of her. "What is that like the eighth time this month?"
"Twelfth," Esme answered. "He says he's not going to give up until I agree to live with him. He told me that going back and forth between our two apartments was just ridiculous. We shouldn't be paying for two places when we are always together."
"He's right," Alice piped in. "Moving in with Jasper was the best decision I have ever made."
"Yes, but you've been living with Jasper for almost four years now," Bella retorted. "Which, by your plan would have you and Jasper engaged already."
"Yeah, so where is the ring?" Rosalie asked, taking a sip of her drink.
"I think he has one," Alice said confidently. "I think he's just waiting for the right time."
"That is important," Esme said, checking her blackberry. "Damn it."
"What?" Alice asked.
"I have to go," Esme said as she put her blackberry in her purse and waived over the waitress to ask for her order to go. "My star witness just got himself arrested."
"Oh, the fun of being a lawyer," Rose said with a laugh. "This is why I went into advertising, strictly a Monday through Friday job."
"Well, I happen to love what I do. Plus if I hadn't taken this job, I'd have never met Carlisle." Esme smirked thinking of her ADA boyfriend, Carlisle Cullen.
"You met him at a club, Esme." Bella laughs. "I don't think the job mattered. I think it was that pretty little silver barely-there dress that hooked him."
"Well, that too. Talk to you girls later. Drinks Tuesday?" Esme asked, grabbing her food and standing up.
"I'm in," Rose said. "I know just the place too. There is a new club opening up near the Weller building. Anyone, who is anyone, will be there."
"I can't on Tuesday," Alice whined. "I'm meeting with Saks that night, but you girls go without me."
"I'm in," Bella agreed. "Not as if I have anything else to do."
"Call me with details," Esme said, kissing their cheeks before bolting out the door and leaving them to eat their brunch.
~8~8~8~8~8~8~8~8~8~
Three hours later, after brunch and an impromptu shopping excursion to Macy's, Bella sits on the couch in her living room staring at the three boxes of items returned to her from Edward's apartment. Part of her knows she should unpack them, but the more masochistic side of her wants to leave them there as a reminder that the love of her life doesn't feel the same way about her. Sure, he's told her once or twice that he loves her, but his love for her never came before work or his bachelor status. So, she sits with tears in her eyes staring at the boxes. Memories of the three years they spent together flash in her mind. She wasted all that time loving a man that would never love her enough to want to spend the rest of his life with her.
~8~8~8~8~8~8~8~8~8~
Does a breakup truly affect men as much as it does women? Do men sit around their apartments staring at boxes of items left at their once significant others house that have now been returned and wonder where did it go wrong? Why did I waste three years of my life with them knowing there wasn't going to ever be anything more?
~8~8~8~8~8~8~8~8~8~
Bella sat staring at her laptop, praying for more words of wisdom to appear before her so that she could finish her article for Vogue magazine. She is currently writing about the dating world for women over 30, and had now realized that most of what she was writing, most of the questions she was bringing up, were the same ones she was asking herself. She sat there, letting the boxes of her belongings taunt her. Sighing, she re-reads what she'd typed, only to be distracted a few moments later by the ringing of her cell phone.
"Hey, Sue," she answered.
"Bella, where are you?" Sue, Bella's stepmother, asked frantically.
"At home, working," Bella told her. "Why? What's wrong Sue?"
"You need to come to Seattle Grace Medical Center," Sue said out of breath.
"Why?" Bella asked, a feeling of dread pooling in her stomach.
"There's been accident." Sue cried. "A very bad accident."
"What?" Bella questions.
"It's your father, Bella." Sue said. "He was hurt very badly and is being airlifted from Forks to Seattle Grace. Please meet us there."
"I'm on my way," she said, closing her phone and looking for her keys and purse. She pulled open the front door only to see Rose and Alice standing there poised to knock.
"Sue called us," Rose said. "I've rented a car. Let's go. Esme wanted to come but with the case she's currently on she couldn't."
"Thanks," she said softly as she allowed her friends to pull her from the apartment and towards the car.
"Bella," a velvety voice said, stopping the three girls as they were about to climb into the car.
"Not now, Edward," Rose snapped. "We're in a hurry."
"Bella," pleaded Edward as he ignored the brassy blonde, who annoyed the crap out of him.
"I have to go." Bella sighed with tears in her eyes as she got in the car ignoring the look he gave her.
"Her dad's hurt really bad, Edward," Alice warned. "I'll have Jasper explain it to you."
"Tell her to call me, Alice. Tell her I'm sorry," he said moving towards his own waiting car.
"You're always sorry, Edward." Alice hisses with a sad shake of her head. "I'll tell her, but right now, it's not about you. It's about her father, so don't be too surprised after everything if she doesn't call you."
"I know," he mumbles sadly before getting in his car and allowing his driver to drive away.
"He's sorry," Alice mutters as she gets in the back seat next to her friend.
"He's always sorry." Bella sighs as Rose pulled away from the curb and towards the busy streets of Seattle. "But right now, I can't think about him and how sorry he is. I have to think about my dad."
"As it should be," Rose told her with a sad smile. "Now, let's go see Papa Swan."
Smiling sadly at her friends, Bella turns to look at the window and wonders why he showed up after four days of silence at the exact moment that she has to leave to be with her father. A small part of her wonders what he was going to say to her, but the part that knows him, knows that he came with empty apologies and promises that this time will be different. She knows it won't be, but right now, she doesn't have the energy to focus on the what-if's and the why's. She needs to put her energy into her father, to making sure that he's ok, because he's the one man she's always been able to count on in her life, the one man she knows will always be there for her. So today, she's going to be there for him and thoughts of velvety voices and piercing green eyes have no place.
~8~8~8~8~8~8~8~8~8~
When the going gets tough and the man you love shows up unexpectedly but then shakes his head sadly and walks away without a fight but mutters a useless apology to your friend, is that the point when you realize that it truly is over?
~8~8~8~8~8~8~8~8~8~
A/N: What do you think of Edward having his driver drop off the boxes for Bella? Do you think he's really sorry? Should Bella give him another chance? Should she have stayed and listened to what he came to say to her?
A little clarification: all of the italicized thoughts are Bella writing her articles for Vogue.