A/N: Hello there love's, yup.
Here is my second attempt at Twific. Once again it's AU-Human, all Canon pairings and is of course, ExB. I have this entire story planned out in my head so it should only be about 20 chapters tops unless I dramatically change my mind.
And away we go…
DISCLAIMER: All things Twilight related belong to Stephanie Meyer. The events depicted in this story are entirely false and fictional and any similarities to real events are simply coincidental. All fictional text is owned solely by RainerNight and is not to be reproduced or redistributed without express written authorization RainerNight 2010
COFFEE MOURNINGS & COCKTAIL KNIGHTS
Black Coffee -extra Espresso shot/ Dirty Martini- extra dirty.
"If he calls again, you ignore him, honey. You hear me!?" Angela screamed from behind the counter. Her Starbucks apron sitting high in an attempt to hide her ample cleavage in her 'customized-by-Alice' Starbucks polo shirt. The things Alice could do with a pair of scissors blew Bella's mind continuously.
Bella gripped the coffee holder in one hand, her Blackberry in the other. Her coat was hanging off the crook of her elbow and her black leather Big Bucket bag was barely keeping its place on her shoulder. "I promise, Ang. I'm so late! I'll see you later, Sweets!" Bella called over her shoulder.
She almost ran into 3 different people just getting out of the Starbuck's but she was late. Carlisle and Edward would be waiting, and if Edward called her again she was going to go nuclear on his ass. She knew she was running late, no need to rub it in.
Bella ignored the insistent throbbing of her feet. She knew she wouldn't have time between her apartment, the coffee shop and the office to change her shoes before the meeting with Carlisle so she skipped the sneakers and went straight for the Louboutins. It was a silly idea, also one she was now regretting as she near hobbled the 3 blocks to the office.
Bella couldn't stop the grin that spread across her face when her favorite place in the world came into view. Cullen Tower was the proud home of a magazine empire, Breaking Eclipse. One of the hottest most sought after, most well known entertainment magazine's in the world. Bella was one of two Editor-in-Chiefs at BE, the other, being the one and only -Edward Cullen.
Edward Cullen was the youngest son of magazine moguls Carlisle and Esme Cullen. He was the town's quintessential playboy with a knack for expensive whiskey, fast cars, sly smiles and the world's most infuriating wink. And for some unknown bizarre twist of fate reason, he was Bella Swan's best friend.
Bella Swan had no desire for car's, playboy's or smiles but she was, just as every other female in the city, aware of the power of and Edward Cullen wink but, unlike every other female in the city, had managed to withhold pouncing on him like an un-fucked rabbit. Not because Edward wasn't gorgeous, or smart, or hilarious, he was all of those things, and he excelled at all of the above, but he was Bella's co-worker, support, and family. That had always been enough. Not to mention he was married.
Bella strode confidently into the building, still with a little speed to her step. She ignored the greetings, smiles and waves from her colleagues as she pressed the button for the top floor relentlessly, willing the private elevator to go faster.
"Bella," she heard, the moment the doors opened with a welcoming ding. Kate, Carlisle's receptionist was waiting for her as she exited the lift, taking her coat and the coffee's immediately from Bella. "Finally you get here girl, Edward's been pacing outside Carlisle's office for the past half hour." She crinkled her nose and walked along side Bella, matching her step for step.
"I'm sorry, this morning's been crazy." …and I'm battling the year's worst hangover so Carlisle better not yell at me. Bella kept that last bit to herself. The way Kate was smirking it wouldn't surprise her if Edward had already informed her of her fragile state, and no doubt the cause of it. Kate slid her security card through the panel beside the frosted glass doors. Bella thanked her internally, knowing her own card could be anywhere by now. On the other side of the frosted glass stood Edward grinning from ear to ear leaning casually on the edge of Kate's desk. "…get that god damn smirk off your face, Edward!" Bella pointed, dropping her bag on Kate's desk to pull out her notes and the mock up copy of the following month's edition of BE.
"My you're cranky this morning." Edward teased, his green eyes sparkling almost mockingly at her. She almost slapped him when he winked, holding up one half of a bagel smothered in cream cheese. "Breakfast, dear?" He offered, waving the bagel under her nose. Temptation set in.
Bella narrowed her eyes and opened her mouth, allowing Edward to hold the bagel against her lips so she could take a bite. "If you taunt me in any way today, I'm leaving. You understand Cullen?" Bella threatened, pointing her manicured finger in his face.
He wrapped the bagel in a napkin and handed it to her, taking her notes for her. He added them on top of his own folder that he lifted off Kate's desk. Bella's death grip remained on her Blackberry as she shoved the bagel in her mouth and chewed so hard and fast she thought her jaw would drop off. "How's your head this morning?" Edward asked, grabbing the coffee holder off Kate's desk, giving her another playful wink.
"Fuck you, Edward." She closed her eyes tightly then opened them, licking her lips of the last crumbs and fell in step with Edward as they wandered the long hallway to Carlisle's office, or as everyone referred to it, the Green Mile. Bella actually found it quite ironic seen as Carlisle was more of a mouse than a warden. Edward thought he got a kick out of being intimidating so we kept his little secret. "How are you this morning? Still getting divorced?"
She heard him scoff and turned to see him nod his head. "Yup, Jessica still plans on staying with her Yoga instructor so he can downward dog her ass all day. And yes, before you ask, she still insists on compensation for the 'emotional betrayal' I caused her while she was cheating on me, on my yacht on my fucking birthday." I nudged his side and he took a breath, reigning in his anger. "But my lawyer costs more than her tit's so I think I'll be fine." Edward's tone was so calm and so controlled you'd have no idea he was talking about a woman he once loved. Bella couldn't blame him though- she was a sadistic cold hearted bitch at the best of times.
"I still have no clue what you saw in her." They stopped outside Carlisle's office and straightened their clothes.
"When we first started dating I saw a C-Cup and an ass so tight you could bounce a quarter off it."
Bella laughed at his honesty. "You're such a charmer."
Edward shrugged as he picked a speck of lint off her Prada blouse and moved her necklace so it sat in the middle of her chest. "Charm is my middle name."
Bella reached up, realigning Edward's tie for him as he arranged her mahogany curls so they fell around her face, sliding her bang's to the side so they didn't hang in her eyes. "Have you got Newton's promotion notes?" Bella checked.
Edward nodded.
"Did you remember to print off the roster for next season?"
Edward nodded.
"Did you forward the guest list for tomorrow night's function to me?"
Edward nodded.
"Fantastic." Bella tucked her Blackberry into her pencil skirt pocket and turned to face the door. "Tylenol?" she held her hand out and Edward placed the 2 pills in her open palm. She threw them in her mouth and swallowed them dry, trying to rid her face of the horrible look that gave her before she put her hand on the door.
"Tonight I'm buying." Edward whispered to her as he leaned against the door on his side.
"Damn straight you're buying. And I'm getting cocktails. No more fucking whiskey!" She said and they pushed the doors in unison. Carlisle looked up from his desk, grinning at the sight of them.
"My two favorite people," Carlisle stood up, holding his arms out in a welcoming gesture.
"Good Morning Carlisle." The two replied letting the doors shut behind them.
-_-_-_-
Bella made her way to Kate's desk after the very short meeting, still sipping on her black Coffee. She hated the stuff but it was the only way she'd get through the day. Edward waited for her at the elevator, watching as she slung the large bag over her shoulder.
He pushed the button and smiled at her. "I like your bag."
She chuckled. "That's because you bought it for me."
"And it was the best anniversary gift my personal shopper ever bought you." He reminded her.
She couldn't disagree. "I still don't understand the need for the anniversary." She told him as they entered the lift. Edward pressed for the floor below and they stepped back. "I remember when I started here -you remember when you started here. Why do we have to commemorate it?"
Edward toyed with his trade mark hair in the mirror, tousling it just right so that all the ladies on their floor would swoon and make the peacock feel worthy of his feathers. Bella rolled her eyes. "It's because I have an underwhelming sense of self awareness and I need other people to buy me things to make up for it, and I can always use more socks." He explained.
"I'll always give you socks."
"I do love the novelty ones. I now have a different pair of Christmas socks for every '12 days of Christmas' and the red satin one's you gave me with the fur trim go perfectly with my Santa boxer's." The elevator doors opened and they stepped out into the front foyer.
"I'm very happy for you and your feet." Bella said nonchalantly, stepping to the front desk. "Good Morning, Eric." She smiled at him, ignoring Edward who'd stepped up beside her, pouting.
"Morning girl," Eric smiled at her, his black on black waist coat and button down shimmered under the harsh lights. "I heard you two had a hard night last night. May I congratulate you on your divorce honey, I think it's fabulous." He reached up, tapping Edward's forearm with a wink. Eric was fabulously gay and fabulous at his job and everyone at BE loved him.
"Don't start him again." Bella rolled her eyes and pushed off the desk, heading through to the sliding doors which led to the main office.
"You be brave Edward, you'll find a man one day!" Eric yelled after letting her know Edward had indeed followed her.
"It still won't be you Eric!" Edward laughed sliding through the doors at the same time as Bella did. She turned and looked at him. "Wish that man would realize I'm not gay."
"You're pretty, Edward. He just wants to be a part of your pretty."
"Well he better stay away from my pretty butthole."
Bella laughed and turned to him. The smile disappeared and she frowned seeing a pout on his lips. "Why are you still pouting?" She asked against her better judgment.
He shrugged, "I had a great Santa sack joke I wanted to use but you blew me off after the sock talk."
"Oh god," Bella snorted heading through the sea of glass creative room's and cubicles towards their office's at the other end of the floor. The two of them smiled, waved and greeted the writers, photographers, and other creative minds that worked on their floor with a grace, likeness and friendliness that had given the magazine its reputation for the past 25 years.
Of course, Bella and Edward had not held the reigns for that long. Edward's stint had started 6 years earlier when his father, Carlisle had thrown him straight into Editor-In-Chief so he could move into his gargantuan office on the top floor and spend more time with Edward's mother, Esme. Bella came into the magazine two days after that. She'd walked into the magazine wanting an internship. She had more experience than Edward and Edward had hired her and sold the co-editor idea to his father in a matter of minutes. And there they were- two fresh out of college, baby faced dreamers with no clue what they were doing. They were so far out of their depths they both threatened to quit a combined total of 84 times in that first week alone.
But they never let the other follow through with the threats. They were a team from that first day. They shared an office, they shared ideas and some of their fellow employees also thought they shared a brain. The magazine was only what it was because of the team, and they were well aware of that, as was the rest of the world. Bella & Edward's team work had led them to grace opposing magazine covers including O Magazine (which was the first three-some to make the cover),Time Magazine (as two of the most influential people of 2006) and many more, including year after year their inclusion's in bachelor of the year, sexiest and most beautiful people…it was impossible to ignore. BE was a force to be reckoned with and Edward and Bella, the photogenic, intelligent, creative, endearing duo were the push behind it all.
"Good Morning shitheads!" Rosalie, their secretary smiled. Her legs were thrown up on her desk and she held up a handful of fluro post-its. Bella grabbed them as they stopped at her desk. "You're looking incredibly crappy this morning." She laughed. Of course everyone knew by then.
"Morning," Bella said trying to the hide the message's in her hand from Edward and his curious eyes. They weren't for him. Rosalie always IM'd his messages straight to his PC. Edward was pompous like that. Bella liked the old school approach plus the post-it's made her desk look like a bowl of fruit loops and the colors gave Edward a migraine which entertained her to no end.
"Emmett's inside waiting for you two." Rosalie scowled and pointed towards their office door which was partially open. "Butthead doesn't listen to me." She rolled her eyes and the phone began to ring.
Edward and Bella headed into the office and Rosalie got back to work, tossing her blonde hair behind her shoulder with a quick flick of her head.
"There you two are, took your sweet time, huh?" Emmett's jovial laugh bounced off the walls and Bella smiled, seeing him seated in the hanging red chair that sat in the center of the window on the far wall of the office. 'The Thinking Chair' as Edward had dubbed it.
"Morning Emmyboo!" Bella's smile stretched to her ears. She dropped her bag down by her desk and fell into her own purple leather chair with the high back because it made her feel as if she could sink into it.
Emmett frowned at the nickname. "Emmyboo has no ring to it. What happened to the one from last night?"
Edward smiled, sitting in his own Victorian style leather winged seat in deep brown. "She'd go into a fit of giggles every time she said poo so we had to change it to boo."
Emmett guffawed loudly. Bella scowled at Edward, "That's a lie. Edward laughed every time I said poo so I had to change it to boo."
Edward's face crinkled adorably as he began to laugh, "She said poo…" He trailed off, turning to his PC.
"Your maturity astounds me Edward." Bella shook her head in amusement as she began to sort out the cluster fuck of mess on her desk.
"What can I do for you Emmett?" Edward asked, looking up at Emmett who was now spinning the hanging chair around in circles. Emmett stopped and climbed out of the seat, heading to the chair in front of Edward's desk.
Emmett was Edward's older brother and the chief sports writer at the magazine. He wasn't the only Cullen to land a job at the magazine. Edward's twin sister Alice was the chief fashion reporter at the magazine and her fiancé, Jasper is the head political reporter.
The day wore on slowly for Bella and nothing was going her way. Her computer decided to have a freak out just after lunch and she had to call the tech department to come up and reboot it. She got the hem of her skirt caught in her desk drawer without realizing and got up in a hurry, ripping the bottom half off. Edward got a good laugh out of it though.
Jacob had called her cancelling their dinner that night because he had to fly to Toronto for a Tattoo convention he was speaking at so she was mad at him for the rest of the afternoon and to make matters worse Edward had asked her to go with him to meet Jessica the following Monday with their lawyers to discuss their assets.
Bella watched the clock from 4:30, counting down until 5 and the glorious beginning of Happy Hour at the bar and restaurant 'Dawn & Twilight'on the 2nd floor of Cullen Tower.
"If you watch the clock it goes slower." Edward informed her from his desk. He'd taken his suit jacket off and was now walking around in his white button down and black tie, his sleeves tucked up to his elbows.
"I don't care. I'm not working for the next half hour as a sign of protest."
Edward laughed, "Okay, I'll bite. Protest for what?" He moved from his seat to come and perch on top of Bella's desk.
"I'm protesting peer pressure in the work place. If it weren't for you and your god awful sibling's I would not have been so useless today and I might've gotten something accomplished."
He laughed, flipping through a magazine. "You did get something accomplished." He winked at her.
Bella sighed and rolled her eyes, reaching over to push him off her desk, or at least attempt to since he didn't budge an inch. "And what was that Cullen? Get your ass off my notepad!" She pushed him again, still to no avail.
"You managed to alter your skirt into a mini which in itself is a skill to rival Alice." He winked, leaning over the desk to glance down at her legs earning a punch in the arm. "You powered your way through 2 and a half sandwiches at lunch which is more than Emmett had."
"Fuck you, I was hungry."
"And as always Bells," He reached his hand out, running it down Bella's cheek. "You've managed to entertain me all day and I will never be able to put into words how grateful I am that you are the least coordinated person I have ever met in my life." He smacked her cheek playfully and hopped up off the desk before she could retaliate.
"I hate you, Edward." Bella grimaced, packing her things into her bag.
"I love you too, Bella." He returned, sliding back into his chair with a smirk.
-_-_-_-
"How many Martinis have you had, Bella?" Edward smirked from the opposite side of the booth, leaning across the table to talk to Bella.
She shrugged and downed the rest of her glass bringing the one Emmett had bought over for her into her hand. "Probably too many…." She hiccupped. "…but its Friday and my boyfriend's out of town because he's got too much ink so, whatever the hell fuck!" She took a large gulp and set the glass back down on the table.
Edward tilted his head. "Are you okay Bella? Like…is everything okay between you and Jacob?"
She scoffed, waving her hand at him. "I don't want to talk about Jacob. I don't want to talk about Jessica. I don't want to talk about work."
Edward ran a hand through his hair, sipping at his whiskey. "What would you like to talk about Bella?"
She sat back in her seat, trying to ignore Jasper and Alice who were currently making themselves at home on the seat beside her. Emmett was talking to a group of interns at the booth behind us. "I don't know." She sighed, pulling a strand of mahogany hair into her fingers.
A smile came to Edwards face and he leaned towards her. "You're drunk, Bella."
She shook her head relentlessly. "I'm not drunk. I'm…my blood to alcohol ratio is just…uneven right now. But I'm not drunk." She took another sip.
"I think you've had enough." Edward reached forward, placing her hand on Bella's. She felt anger rise in her as she looked into his stupidly green eyes. He was smiling gently at her and she sighed, pushing her glass away from her.
"Will you take me home, Edward?" Bella asked, moving to pull her bag out from under Jasper and Alice.
"Of course Bella," Edward downed the rest of his drink and grabbed his messenger bag, pulling it over his shoulder so that it hung across his chest. Edward took her hand, leading her out of the bar after they said goodbye to the other Cullen siblings.
Bella kept her hand in his, liking the way it felt in her intoxicated stupor. Trust Edward. He was always there for her.
He pulled her hand through his elbow, linking them together as they started the walk to Bella's apartment. She felt his eyes on her but kept her own vision aimed at the footpath in front of her. "Bells?" Edward asked timidly. "Can I ask you something?"
Bella looked up at him and nodded silently.
"Is Jacob making you happy?"
Bella looked away, suddenly not like the idea of having Edward walk her home. "I already told you I didn't want to talk about this."
"Why not? We talked about Jessica last night. I just figured you might have some things you want to get off your chest about Jacob."
Bella shook her head, "I wouldn't know what to say."
Edward held her hand a little tighter, pulling her a little closer. "You know I think he's a great guy. right? A little intimidating, sure, but great all the same," his words made her smile.
"He is pretty great." Bella agreed. "I don't know what it is. I guess I'm just nervous about Newton's promotion at work and I miss Jacob and you're still a douche so…all of that is a lot to handle."
Edward chuckled, "I am not a lot to handle."
Bella looked up at Edward, doe eyed and sarcastic. "But you are a douche."
"Okay fine, maybe I am a lot to handle. But it's part of my charm. Nobody wants a guy with no issues, no aspirations to be the neediest guy in the Unites States. I think the women I take home like worshipping me. And I like it too."
Bella rolled her eyes. In fact, she rolled her eyes around Edward a lot. "I think he has too many tattoos."
"Too many tattoos in Jacob's book would require for him to have more tattooed skin than regular skin."
"I used to like his tattoos."
"What happened?"
"I started missing his skin." She said sadly.
Edward could sense Bella's sudden change in mood and her train was heading straight down emo track. "He's just a creative guy, Bells. The same way you and I project creativity into the magazine, and I into my love making, he does it into his tattoos. I think it's admirable. I for one will never get a tattoo because I'm a pussy."
"Finally he admits it." Bella giggled, rubbing her face against Edward's sleeve. He smiled down at her droopy eyelids.
"We're here Bella." Edward stopped outside Bella's apartment building and let her arm go, reaching into her bag to pull her key out for her. He held it up in front of her and smiled. "I'll be here bright and early tomorrow morning for your run, okay?" He dropped it into her open palm.
Bella nodded with a yawn. "Bring coffee."
"What will it be tomorrow, sweetheart?"
Bella smiled. "Surprise me." She reached up to press a kiss to his cheek but Edward being Edward moved his head to the side to catch her lips. She growled as they met, feeling Edward smirk before they both pulled way. She shook her head at him as he smiled smugly and winked, adjusting his bag.
"I'll see you in the morning Bells. Sleep tight."
"I hate you, Edward!!" She called after him, moving to unlock her apartment door.
"I love you too, Bella!" Edward called back before he disappeared into the night.
TO BE CONTINUED…
A/N: and there we have it.
Let me know what you think.
This story has me very excited.
Edward will bring you a Dirty Martini if you review. True story…
Extra dirty, even. If that's how you roll.
-Rainer