I was again running late for my work today. We have a presantation today and to my most unfortunate fate, I was the one presenting it. Oh! And by the way, I am the executive manager of this travelling company named 'Take a Break'. Yesterday night, I was prepairing for the presentation the whole time and because of that I woke up late today, again! Not that it is the first time, I am always late. If anything that can be said about me, its that am not a morning person. Not at all.
I was on my way, driving towards the office when my phone started ringing. It was from the office.
"Hello" I said, picking it up.
"Where the hell are you?" came the voice of Alice, my assistant-cum-best friend. She was whisper-yelling at me and that means only one thing. The boss was already there.
"I'll be there in 5 minutes. Please handle it for me Ally. So sorry … but please, last time! Promise" I said, changing my gear and speeding my way to the office.
"Just get in here, the boss is asking for you. The clients will be here in the next half an hour. Just be quick" she said before hanging up. I drove as fast as I could, without creating any fuss in the trafic. It took me almost 5 more minutes to reach my office. I gave the watchman my car keys and asked him to park it in my place and ran straight to the conference hall. As soon as I entered, every eye on the room turned towards me, except for one.
The boss. I inhaled sharply.
"About time you got here Ms. Swan" came the husky voice of our boss.
"Sorry boss. Umm… the traffic always gets on my way" I said looking down. Alice snickered beside me. I shot her a glare.
"I see … Every day the traffic gets on your way that is. Very well! Anyways … we shall discuss this later in my office, for now, are you ready with the presentation?" he asked, turning to look at me for the first time today.
If I have not told you earlier, than I must tell you now, my boss, our boss is a very young man. In his early thirties. He joined this company 10 years back which was run by his father back then. I joined that same year, few months after him. He is one of the most good-looking men I have ever laid my eyes upon. May be not the best amongst all, I prefer to keep that place for my favourite Robert Pattinson. He is not like a film-star may be but definitely like a super-model. He has those green orb eyes and chisseled jaw that can get any girl on her knees. And then that toned body which can beat any model out there. In these 10 years that I have worked with him, I have had the good fortunate to see his chest and the abs and those broad shoulders and the perfect amount of muscles in the right places. He was bit tall compared to me. I was 5'4" while he was almost 6'2". Like I said, he is one of the most good-looking men I have ever seen in my entire life. Most of the women in our office has a crush on him, may be all of us. And yeah, I said 'us' which means I too am there in that list. Mine is a bit too big of a crush for that matter.
I took a brief look at him before responding back. "Yes boss! Its in my laptop" I said taking my laptop out of the bag. He motioned me to show it to him. I walked towards the table where he was sitting and put it on. He patted the seat next to him for me, all this while sipping coffee from his coffee-cup. I quickly sat and put my laptop on and turned it towards him. Our boss likes to work, we are not to do what he can, that's what he says. I was looking at the table when I heard him chuckle. I looked at him and saw him smiling, looking at the screen of my laptop.
And then it clicked, my wallpaper. Shit! I quickly turned the laptop toward me and changed the wallpaper and gave it back to him. All this while he was snickering under his breath. My wallpaper was a pic of me, where I was eating icecream, looking like a girl on christmas morning, opening her presents. I had that stupidest grin on my face while I was licking the spoon. I had totally forgotten to change it last night and now my boss, the boss whom I had my biggest crush ever had seen my like this. Whatever chance I had till today flew out of the window at this moment. I was again looking down at the table while he checked all the information in the presentation.
"Good work Ms. Swan" he said giving me a nod.
"Thanks Boss" I said looking down, not meeting his eyes. I was already more than embarresed.
"The clients are here Boss" came the quiet voice of Alice. There were 3 of them and after we all got settled in our seats, boss asked me to present it. The presentation went quite good. He even helped me at few points, explaining it to our clients. After it was over, the three of them left and the rest of our members went back to work. Boss asked me to meet him in his office after 5 minutes so I walked with Alice to my cabin. After dumping my laptop on the table and sipping on a glass of water, I walked to the boss's cabin. He was talking on the phone when I knocked on the glass door. He motioned for me to come in and take a seat.
"Kay … I will see you tonight then" he said smiling at the phone before hanging up. We always heard that our boss has a girlfriend but we never got to confirm it since we never had it in ourselves to ask him. He took his seat opposite to me. I was sure he was talking to his girlfriend now, afterall he was goodlooking, a millionare, had his own company, why the hell will he not a have a girlfriend? He might have many for that matter. The fact made me frown. He must have seen my frown since he asked.
"Any problem Ms. Swan?" I quickly shook my head no. "Good" he said before looking over at his laptop and putting it to sleep. He then looked at me. Though I was looking around the room but I was sure to look at him once in a while when he wasn't looking. This time he caught me though, since he too was looking at me. Getting caught made me blush *stupid* and him smile *blush some more*. I quickly looked down at the table again.
"So Swan" he said clearing his throat. I looked up at him and he was looking directly at me. I shifted in my seat and he looked away from my eyes. "umm … you did good. The presentation I mean" he said a bit nervously. I just barely managed a "thank you" in return. He looked nervous, a lot, which was unlikely him because he is always so confident.
"Are you ok?" I asked, gaining some confidence of my own. He looked at me for a split of second before he got up from his seat and walked toward the glass window that was now closed and took a deep breath.
"I am leaving" he said. I almost choked my breath. Leaving? What does he mean? "I am going to Berlin. Our new office there needs to be headed by someone and right now we cant recruit someone new, so I have to go. Emmett will be taking over here in this office" he sais, sounding almost sad. Emmett is his cousin, though he lived with them after Em's parents died. I loved Em, he was like the brother I never had but right now none of it made sense. The fact that he was leaving and that he sounded almost sad when he told me about it, was killing me. As much as I knew, our boss loves Germany. He talks about German almost all the time. He did his college studies from German itself. This was one of the reason that a branch was being opened in there. But that was not the matter now. He was leaving. I felt my heart getting heavy. At that point of time, I realized that this was not just some stupid cruch that I had on him. The thought of him leaving made my heart stop. I realized that in these 10 years, I have grown to like him, a lot, making him a part of my life. I didn't wanted him to leave me, ever.
I was quiet all this while. I didn't even notice when he came and stood infront of me, looking at me. Nor had I noticed that a tear had escaped from my right eye thinking about all this until he wiped it away with a finger. I quickly stood up from my seat and turned to go. But he was fast, he grabbed my arm to stop me. Its not that he held me too strongly that I couldn't go, it was more like I didn't wanted to. He was touching me for the first time, except for the times when his arms would brush with mine accidentally or sometimes when we would shake hands. The feeling was beyond explaination. I looked up at him and his eyes were boring into mine. For the first time in my life I couldn't break the gaze and look away from him. We stood like that, looking at each other, not talking, nothing, just staring for a immeasurable time.
The moment broke when someone dropped something in the next room. I suddenly felt self-concious, almost vulnerable that I had him look too deep within me in those few moments. He eyes never left me. They almost looked sad. I am sure my eyes reflected the same. I was beyond sad at this moment. I looked away again.
"I should go now" I said turning away from him. As I reached the door, I turned back at him to see him standing at the same place and forced a smile at him. "Congratulations boss. You are going back to the place you love. I am happy for you." with that I walked out of his room and ran towards the elevator. I went straight to the terrace. It was the most quiet place in this building. I came here often, whenevr I was sad or wanted some alone time. My secret place, as I like to call it.
I had tears streaming down my cheeks. I don't know, but the things I was feeling now was not something I was acquinted with. And it scared me to shit. I suddenly heard footsteps behind me. I turned to look who it was, and it was none other than my boss, looking at me. I quickly turned and wiped my tears away.
"Sorry boss. I will get back to work" I managed to get those words out of my lips. I started walking towards the door but he stopped me.
"Why were you crying?" he asked me. I couldn't get an answer out of myself for that question. Instead my eyes were filled with tears again. I took a deep breath to stop them from spilling. "Look at me Bella" he said, calling me by my first name for the first time in all these years. I couldn't stop the tears that spilled this time with a sob coming out of my lips and the next move he made took me off-guard. He hugged me. Close. As close as he could. I held on to his shirt collar and sobbed uncontrollably. Like my life depended on him. Like I would fall apart if he let me go.
"Shhh… its okk baby! Am here!" he said, trying to soothe me. That made me cry even harder. Once, coz he called me baby and second coz he was leaving. He wasn't gonna stay here with me forever. He will be gone, too soon. I don't know for how long I cried, staining his shirt with all the salt water and how long he held me like I was a baby who was lost. To be frank, I was quite lost at this moment. I looked up at him after I was able to gain some control over myself and the look on his face almost made me cry again. It screamed pain. He looked broken and helpless, almost vulnerable. I reached to trace the stress lines on his face and he leaned into my palms.
He closed his eyes before he asked me the same question again, "Why were you crying Bella?" I was struggling to form a coherent thought but I had to tell him. I couldn't keep it in me anymore.
"I … don't … want … you … to go" I managed to say. I looked down again at the revelation I just made. He held my chin and made me look up at him, "and why is that?" he asked again.
"I don't know" I said in a haste.
"Really?" he said. A smile tugging the corner of his lips. That made me frown and I shook my head no.
"Would it be easier for you if I said it?" he asked again. So many questions. I looked at him confused, not totally understanding what he meant.
"I too don't want to leave Bella. Atleast not when you are here. I have always loved Berlin but if I go this time, without you, it will be … I cant! Not without you." He said. I didn't know what he meant by that because all could focus on was that he didn't wanted to go without me. I was still looking at him. He traced his thumb across my cheek and then my lower lip. And then he said something that made my world still.
"I love you Bella. I always have. From the very first day that you joined this company and made this place worth being in. I have loved you since I saw you smile and shake hands with my father while receiving your acceptance letter. I always thought it was just some crush that I had … but last night when dad told me that I had to leave for Berlin and I saw your smiling face on my phone" he said taking out his phone and I gasped when I saw that his wallpaper was a picture of mine. It was from the picnic we went few months back from the office. "I knew it right then that no matter what, I can't go to a place and try to be happy if you wont be there to share it with me. Berlin is undoubtedly the best place for me, I love it there but I'll hate Berlin if you 're not there with me." He continued.
I was still in shock becoz of what he said. I didn't know what to say. He just confessed to me that he loved me, what was I to say to it? I just stood there, staring at him. I never thought that what I had for him was love, but right now, at this moment, I knew that I loved him. That I had always loved him. I just didn't realised it before today.
"Bella?" his voice pulled me out of my inner monolouge. "Are you okay? I mean, its fine if you don't love me. I know it mght be too much for you to take. Its just that, I had to tell you all about it today, before I left. I don't want to push you into anything. I am fine with whatever you want. I …" he was about to say some more of whatever he was saying but I had to stop all this rambling so I did something that was quite a stunt itself. I kissed him.
EPOV
At first I was too shocked of what just happened. This moment I was talking to Bella and the next moment she is kissing me. And she's kissing me hard. It took me few seconds to process everything, but once I came out of the "shock phase" I started kissing her back. I kissed her for all those 10 years that I had wasted by chickening out every time I had thought of asking her out or taking her to a date. I kissed her for all those moments I had missed to be with her. I kissed her for the time that we could have spent together, talking, sharing jokes, laughing or may be by just sitting, enjoying each others company. But mostly I kissed her for the love and passion I felt towards her. The love that I knew had always been there, the passion that I knew will always be there.
She sighed softly when we parted. Oxygen is necessary, remember? But I didn't left her hand. They were firmly held on to my chest and our forehead pressed together. She was panting and so was I but I just loved to be in that moment with her. She looked up at my shyly through her big lashes and dropped them when she saw me staring at her. I chuckled softly at her cuteness. She was the most adorable person I have ever know. She heard me and looked up again, confusion marked across her face.
"Why are you laughing?" she asked, her eyebrows creased. "You are not laughing at me, are you?" she asked conciously, looking down at herself.
"No, love" I said smiling at her. "I was just thinking what an idiot I was that I let all this feelings be buried inside me and never telling you for all these years" I said caressing her cheeks with my thumb. She blushed like a cherry red. I loved to see her blush. And the best part? I was the reason behind it. I smiled like a fool watching her.
She looked up at me again after sometime. "So … what now?" she asked a bit hesitantly.
"Whatever you want" I said, smiling down at her. She smiled slyly at my answer. "For now am just content to hold you in my arms" with that I again wrapped my arms around her and held her close to myself. It was as if however close we were, it was never close enough. We had to be closer. This time, though a bit hesitantly, but she too wrapped her small arms around me. I was complete at that moment. I had everything in my life that I had wanted.
Suddenly my phone started ringing, breaking the bubble we were in. She quickly let go of me, much to my displeasure but she never left my hand. This made me happy. I took my cel out of my pocket and saw it was Em.
"Yes, Em? What is it?" I asked, a bit too impatietly. Bella must have seen it becoz she was smiling.
"Chill brother … I can just call you for no reason sometimes" came the voice of my dearest cousin's.
"If you called me just to say hi, they 'hi Em' but sorry I cant talk to you now. Am busy" I said, irritated.
"well well … as much as I know the meeting ended almost 2 hours back. Anyways, I just called to ask you about your ticket. Carlisle wanted to know if he should book it becouse there's no much time left." He said, reminding me about the most important work in hand.
"err … Em, I'll call you back after 5 minutes and then let you know? I have some work pending" I said and haang up before he could say anything. I looked at Bella whos brows were creased with confusion.
"umm … Bella" I started slowly and took a step towards him. She was still standing there. "I don't know how to say this and I am without preperation but I have to do this." She was beyond confused at this moment. But I had to do this right now. I sat on one knee and she gasped. Her eyes went wide and I could see the tears swimming in her beautiful brown eyes.
"Isabella Marie Swan, I promise to love you forever, evry single day of forever. Will you marry me?" I asked, taking out a ring of my own and presenting it to her. "I know its not a proper proposal and I don't have a ring to gift you, a proper one that is but I promise that once you say yes, the first thing we will go and buy the best ring for you" I said. She was still standing there, shocked, not saying anything. "Bella?" I tried again and this time she responded. The tears were flowing down her cheeks and her lips broke into the biggest and the most beautiful smile I had ever seen.
"Yes" she said very lowly looking at me. I was beyond happy at that moment. I slid the ring into her finger and stood up, scooping her in my arms and laughing with her. She was smiling happily and that made me more happy. I wanted nothing more than her happiness. I kissed both her hands once I let her keep her feet on the ground.
"Lets go" I said, tugging her along with me. She just kept giggling like the adorable girl she was. Once we were back in the office area, Bella and I went to our respective cabins to get our stuff and met in front of the elevator. I was waiting for her when she came, Alice walking with her. As soon as she saw me, she too was grinning. I shot her a genuine smile. All this while she was the only friend, I know, Bella had. Both in and outside the office. Once Bella came upto me, I took her hands in mine and we got on the elevator.
"So … Alice knows huh?" I asked her. She sheepishly nodded her confirmation. I chuckled. "Its very hard to keep things from that pixie, aint it?" She just giggled. We were outside the office by now and afer getting on my car I drove towards the best jewellery shop. I didn't knew much about this stuff. I should have asked mom or Rose, Em's wife, to help in this but I never got the courage. Both of them knew though, that I liked Bella. They just didn't knew that I loved her, or may be they did, I was the fool along to take so much time to realize my feelings for her.
Before I pulled in front of the jewellery store, I quickly called Emmett.
"At last little Eddie got the time to call" he said.
"Look Em, not now. I just called you to say that you can book the tickets after 2 weeks from now and there will be two tickets." I said looking at Bella. She was looking outside the window but as son as she heard me, she snapped her head at me and I just smiled.
"okay .. so two tickets. What? Two? Why two? What am I missing?" there was a short pause which was followed by a scream. Well whenever Emmett is a bit too excited, he screams. "Two tickets? You mean you told her? Really? Rosie? Esme?" he was screaming at the top of his voice.
"Okay now Em, I am a bit busy. So I will see you later, okay?" I said before hanging up on him the second time for the day. I came out of the car and helped Bella out. She was looking at me the whole time like I had three heads or something. Everytime she will open her mouth to say something and then again she will shut it. I just chuckled at her cuteness. Once we got inside the shop, I asked her to choose a ring for her. She was still in some kind of shock or something so I took her hand in mine,
"Bella, did you really thought that I was gonna leave you all alone here? When just moments ago I just asked you to be mine forever? I cant stay away from you love and I thought you knew that by now. Though its upto you if you wanna come with me as well. I do realise now that the moving part might not be something you have thought of and I should have asked you before saying anything to Emmett but I was just so happy within that I totally forgot about it" I really had not given a thought about what she will think about moving with me to Germany. I didn't knew much about her family except for that she used to live with her father in Austria, before she moved to London.
"Look, you don't have to come with me if you don't want to" I told her but she was standing stil like a doll. "Bella? Will you please say something? You're killing me here like this" I said and after sometime she seemed to come back in life.
"Sorry!" it was the first word she uttered. I felt like everything came own crashing for me. She might have seen my face because suddenly she started rambling about something. I couldn't understand a single word of what she said so I just stood there, waiting for her to complete. When she saw me looking at her like this, she looked down, embarrased.
"Now, can you tell the same thing with more clearity? So that I can understand?" She nodded, blushing.
"I am sorry. I was just shocked to hear what you said. Even I had not given a thought but I am not sorry that you thought something like this about us. I will be wherever you are Edward. There is no other place I'll ever be. Living here in London, all alone without you, holds nothing for me." She finished smiling.
"So it means that you are coming with me right?" I asked, mirroring her own smile.
"Yes" she said, ever so softly.
"Okay, choose your ring then" I said tugging her towards the ring section of the shop. I had already informed them to get me the best for display. Bella was a bit hesitant at first but once she started looking through it I could see the smile in her eyes. She suddenly stopped in front of one ring and I stepped to have a look at it. The moment I saw, I knew this was the one and only ring I wanted to give Bella when I married her. It was our ring. She picked it up from the case so delicately, as if it would break if she didn't handled it with such care. I smiled at the tenderness.
"This…" she started.
"is it .." I ended for her.