Thank you so much to everyone who sent me reviews and put my story on alert, I really can't tell you how much it means to me, I was so excited every time I checked my email!
As always, please let me know what you think? S&S x
AH/OOC, rated M for both language and lemons.
Twilight character names and where appropriate canon words belong to Stephenie Meyer. No copyright infringement is intended. Full disclaimer: Chapter One. Thank you. December 2009.
Cullen Technologies Inc.
Chapter Two: Secret Signals and Creamy Desserts
Pausing to check my watch I knocked gently on the apartment door. Angela and Ben had spent the day together for her birthday, leaving Seth in charge at the coffee shop. Ben had planned on whisking Angela off for a private tour he had organised for them at The Art Institute after an indulgent lunch at the Four Seasons Hotel. I really hoped she had enjoyed herself, there was a exhibition of Japanese prints she had been pining after seeing a while back, and I was happy to clue Ben in when he came looking earlier in the year for suggestions for the day's activities.
We were planning on spending the customary couple of hours at their apartment getting ready for our night out. We realised pretty quickly once we moved into the building that there was no point in trying to glam ourselves up in my apartment. I could barely fit into it myself, let alone two girls trying to decide on outfits and fixing hair and makeup, besides, experience told us that if we left the guys to their own devices they were bound to cause trouble and make us late for our reservation, so I was used to carting half my wardrobe and my makeup bag down one floor to Ben & Angela's apartment.
Their space was about three times the size of mine. I had always harboured a suspicion that my apartment had originally been planned to only be a general storage area at the top of the building under the eaves. Yes, it was cramped, but technically it had everything required, a tiny kitchen and bathroom, a cute if petite living area and a bedroom dominated by the largest bed I could find that physically fit into the room, I definitely appreciated my full eight hours a night.
Although small it was mine and I loved it dearly. To maximise the lightness and feeling of space I had spent weeks after I first moved in painting everything in calm creams and pale greys. The majority of space in the living room was taken up by a comfy dark grey couch and an endless supply of books; I had learnt to incorporate a rotation system as there were only so many I could fit on the shelving. Occasionally when I went home to Forks to visit Charlie I would send a large crate of books on ahead of me and would then return freight a crate of different books from the huge selection he had graciously allowed me to store in my old bedroom.
I admit the thing I missed the most was a properly laid out spacious kitchen, mine could happily fit the dictionary definition of minimal, only one person could safely squeeze into it at a time, but Angela was always very gracious in allowing me to indulge my love of cooking in her large, sleek modern kitchen, many a happy evening had been spent there with good friends and a few bottles of wine.
The sound of booming laughter from Angela's apartment when I knocked made me break into a big smile, Jake's here already. Holding a bottle of bubbly up as a shield in a futile attempt to avoid the inevitable, I braced myself as the door was flung open and I was gathered into a huge hug, before being swung around wildly.
"Bella babe, you're here!" he shouted excitedly, grinning down at me as I attempted to wriggle out of his embrace and land safely on the floor without breaking anything.
I hadn't seen Jake for all of, oh, three days…
Jacob Black and I had grown up together. When I moved with my mom Renee to Phoenix we kept in touch and spent every summer together. After moving back in with Charlie in Forks during my junior year to give my mom & new step dad some quality time together we were inseparable, our friendship continuing as if we had never been apart.
After a few too many illicit beers snuck out from Charlie's one night our senior year, we sat down and had a frank and open discussion with one another. It made sense for us to try dating, we were planning on moving to Chicago together as we both had places at the University, and had arranged to share an apartment off campus to save on bills, actually becoming a couple would just tidy things up nicely.
A plan was made, an official first date was both requested and accepted, dinner reservations were made, a movie was chosen. He brought me flowers and knocked on the front door, rather than just barging in as usual, that confused Charlie, he had never seen Jake behave in such a manner.
I walked down the stairs in my new shoes (this was of course before Angela had taught me the importance of practising before attempting to walk in heels in public), when I got to the last couple of steps, as was inevitable I tripped and tumbled down, landing in Jakes arms. Unfortunately he was still holding the flowers he had brought, and they didn't survive the encounter, but it certainly broke the ice.
The dinner was lovely and the movie funny, but there was a strange atmosphere bubbling below the surface throughout the entire evening, the elephant in the corner of the room just wouldn't go away, all I could focus on was the thought of a good night kiss. We had held hands, hugged, laughed, hit each other, even broken bones together, well, I had broken the bones, he had rescued me and taken me to the hospital on numerous occasions, but we had never tried the whole kissing idea.
I knew Jake was considered a good catch by the female half of the population, when we were out and about together girls would almost swoon at the sight of him, he was tall, muscular, with a bright white, wide smile, silky black hair and beautiful russet skin, but to me he had always been just Jake.
After the movie and a stop for ice cream, we arrived back at Charlie's. I had already warned him to be on his best behaviour and not decide to be amusing by opening the door brandishing his shot gun, or dragging Jake in to watch highlights of the game from earlier that evening, so was relieved to see the house in darkness, only the porch light left on.
Jake ran round the car to open the door for me, another new departure for him. Grabbing my hand he entwined our fingers together and guided me up the path to the front door. He seemed almost as nervous about this as me, clearing his throat and rubbing his chin thoughtfully with his free hand.
Once under the soft light of the porch, he let go of my hand, only to move his fingers up to gently stroke the side of my face from my cheekbone along my jaw line to my chin. He looked deeply into my eyes, almost as if he were searching for the answer to an unasked question.
"I had a great time tonight," I whispered, watching as his features broke into a relaxed smile.
"Me too, thank you, it's been a lovely evening," he replied softly.
"Bella, may I kiss you good night?"
In reply, I tilted my head up towards him, answering his question silently. He leaned towards me, and lightly held the back of my head with one of his large hands. He wrapped his other arm around my waist, pulling me gently towards him, and I closed my eyes, feeling rather than seeing his lips as they softly, hesitantly brushed against mine.
When I didn't pull away he repeated the soft kiss twice more before deepening it, tightening his arm around my waist, drawing me further into his embrace. I reached my arms around his neck, to guide his head down closer to mine, willing myself to feel the passion of the moment.
My mind was racing as I felt his tongue run along the edge of my bottom lip, gently asking for permission, it was just such a bizarre experience, I had dreamt of my first kiss, even practising for the occasion on my pillow, but this wasn't at all what I had dreamt of. As soon as my mouth opened a giggle escaped me unconsciously, and I pulled back embarrassed, wondering if Jake would be cross with me for ruining the moment.
We stared at each other as we calmed our breathing. I felt myself blushing and dropped my eyes, unable to continue looking Jake in the face as he reached for my hand again and dragged me over to sit on the swing seat on the patio at the side of the house. I just didn't know what he was going to say and I was petrified that our friendship was going to be affected by this new development.
Jake seemed to be having the same problem as me, we sat there, his feet pushing off from the ground several times, swinging the seat beneath us back and forth. He opened his mouth several times to speak, but each time shut it again with an audible snap, seemingly unable to find the words. Eventually my nerves got the better of me and I decided I was just going to have to be brave and get this out in the open. I set my shoulders straight, staring ahead rather than trying to look at him.
"So, um, I don't have any experience with kissing boys before…"
"Yep, I don't have any experience of kissing either, that was my first…"
We lapsed back into an awkward silence, neither one of us willing to be the first to speak. The tension continued to build until I suddenly blurted out my thoughts, unable and unwilling to hold on to them any longer.
"I kind of thought there would be fireworks, flashing lights, passion you know, but um, it sort of felt like I was kissing a brother or a cousin…" I peeked up at his expression, terrified that I was hurting his feelings but unable to lie to my best friend.
Jake let out a huge breath he had apparently been holding unconsciously, "Oh, thank God, I was so worried you were going to tell me you liked it and I just didn't know what to say, I didn't want to hurt your feelings."
"Check, feelings are definitely not hurt, but um, if you don't mind, could we just jump in a time machine and go back to the way we were before we tried this whole dating thing?" I emphasised the word dating with exaggerated air quotes while grinning up at him, thankful that he felt the same way about our shared experience.
Jake stood up suddenly, picking me up in his arms and swinging me around, whooping exuberantly before setting me down on the patio and initiating a tickling war.
"Excellent idea Bella babe, I definitely don't want things to be awkward between us," he laughed as he continued tickling me mercilessly "it's probably best if we don't try that again anytime soon, it's just too fucking weird!" he scrunched his face up in a pretend grimace before relaxing back into a cheeky grin.
By the time I had cried Uncle to get Jake to release me we were back in best friends mode, the awkwardness of the whole evening forgotten as I dragged him indoors to have an all night movie and popcorn session, by the time we had fallen asleep together on the couch, it was business as usual.
Jake had continued to be the best guy friend a girl could have, we had still shared an off campus apartment while at University, and hung out constantly even after we each got our own place once we had graduated. I knew I could trust him with my life and I relied on him for everything from a drinking partner when I needed to drain my sorrows about my abysmally lacking love life to emergency rescue if I got trapped by an unwanted admirer at a party. I willingly and happily did the same for him, indeed as his appeal to women had not diminished over the years I had been required to wrestle him from the clutches of a persistent if undesirable female more times than I could remember.
~~~~~~**~~~~~~
"Come on in Bella," Angela called as I playfully thumped Jake in the chest once he had finally put me back on my feet. He grabbed my bags that I had dropped during his enthusiastic greeting and ushered me through the front door before him.
"Hey honey, Happy Birthday!" I launched myself at her for a hug, "Hey Ben!"
I waved the bottle I was still clutching as Angela grinned at me from ear to ear; it was immediately grabbed by Ben who kissed my cheek and then headed towards the kitchen to open it.
Jake like Ben knew his place during a girl's glam up session; he had deposited my bags in the bedroom and retreated to the safety of the couch to await Ben's return. Once glasses of champagne had been distributed and toasts made, Angela and I headed off to begin preparations, leaving strict instructions for both Jake and Ben's outfits, and how long they were allowed to play until they were required to drag themselves away from the Xbox to get ready.
Once my choice of outfit had been approved by Angela she started work on my hair, all the while telling me about her day, the exhibition had been a great success and she was thrilled with Ben's present of a beautiful Tiffany silver and pearl necklace, it suited Angela and her personality perfectly, understated and chic yet completely gorgeous.
Once I saw what Angela was planning on wearing I decided it would be the ideal time to give her my present, I had taken a leaf out of her book and bought her the most insanely sexy plum coloured bandeau bra and matching panties, they just happened to coordinate perfectly with the knee length silk brocade dress with satin waist tie that she had chosen to wear and I was pretty sure Ben would be drooling later this evening when he saw what she was now wearing underneath it.
I was wearing a black crepe vintage inspired mini dress, although the billowing sleeves and slash neck were demure, the low v-back and exposed zip meant I got a round of appreciative whistles when I followed Angela back into the living room and turned around to get approval from the guys.
"Fuck, you're going to give some poor guy a heart attack wearing that babe," Jake warned me, his eyes wide as he spun me around to check out the outfit again.
To accentuate the neckline of my dress Angela had managed to tame my hair into a sleek and elegant chignon secured at the side with an onyx hairclip. Some smoky eyes, nude lipstick and a pair of precariously high black heels and I was all set to go.
Angela's poker straight dark hair had been left loose so it billowed around her shoulders and her new necklace and matching plain pearl earrings looked both stylish and elegant. Jake and Ben as usual had spent 20 minutes in typical guy fashion showering and changing and both still managed to look gorgeous. Jake's shiny black hair had been trimmed since I last saw him, so it flopped sexily in his eyes, and his and Ben's dark suits and shirts with black dress shoes meant that our escorts for the evening were well up to the task.
In the cab on the way to the restaurant, Jake and I decided on our emergency rescue signal for the evening, to keep us on our toes we chose a new signal each time we went out, this evening if either of us clasped our hands together behind our backs and rocked back and forth on our heels this was the cue for "get me the fuck out of here now, please."
Upon arriving at the restaurant we were met by Sam, Emily and Seth, who were all old friends who had grown up together on the tiny reservation of La Push in Washington with Jake. I had known them all pretty much my entire life from spending all my summers with Jake on First Beach. When everyone left the reservation and Forks for college and work, a strange gravitational pull seemed to call us all towards the Chicago area, and I now considered them my second family.
Sam and Emily had gotten married a couple of years ago and had recently announced that they were expecting their first child. Jake breathed out a small sigh of relief when he discovered that the final member of the group, Seth's older sister had been unavoidably detained and was unable to make it this evening. Although Leah was a lovely person in her own right, being the older sister she had a tendency to boss Seth around and by extension Jake, being the same age as Seth, got caught in the crossfire.
I had tried explaining that it served him right, he and Seth had terrorised Leah constantly when they were younger and they were now getting their just comeuppance, but he would hear nothing of it. As the three of them were always bickering with one another about something I was secretly relieved too, although I would miss her company, it would be nice to enjoy an evening without all the arguments and sulking.
As soon as we walked into the restaurant I knew Jake was going to have a problem this evening. The hostess was eyeing him appreciatively the second he stepped over the threshold. I watched as she adjusted her cleavage and fluffed out her overly bleached hair before sauntering ahead to show us to our table, wiggling her hips suggestively as she went.
Raising my eyebrows, I risked a look at Jake's face after she peeked over her shoulder at him and winked, he was already rolling his eyes and mouthing the words "oh fuck no…" at me.
I had managed to suppress a giggle as we were being seated, careful not to catch anyone else's eye, as I knew they would be struggling to hold it together too, but then the hostess asked us to let her know if there was anything, absolutely anything she could help us with, while focusing all her attention on Jake, leaning in to give him an extra eyeful of her cleavage and running her red painted fingernails over his shoulder as she spoke.
I decided it was high time to give her a heads up, and try and get her to back off before she got too excited, so I grabbed Jake's hand in mine, making a big show of lacing our fingers together and placing them on the table in front of her, he smiled and leaned towards me to gratefully place a small kiss on my forehead and then stare adoringly at me while completely ignoring the hostess.
I looked up and smiled sweetly at her, she huffed in frustration and glared at me, before informing us in an icy tone that our server would be joining us shortly and stomping back to her podium at the front of the restaurant to sulk.
The drinks were flowing nicely, the conversation was both stimulating and hilarious in equal measure, the food was fantastic as always and the hostess was glowering in my direction every time I looked up, all in all it was turning out to be a pretty good evening.
We had ordered a few different desserts to round off our meal, and got them set down in the middle of the table with a pile of cutlery to allow everyone to help themselves and try a little of everything. I made sure to make a big play of seductively feeding some tiramisu to Jake to reinforce his unavailability to a certain someone watching, unfortunately once I had tried some of it myself I refused to allow anyone else near it and insisted that we order an extra portion for the table, there was just no way on earth I was relinquishing my hold on that plate.
After more toasts to the birthday girl we finished off dinner with the obligatory round of "what embarrassing thing has occurred to Bella recently that we can tease her about?" I was pretty sure this competition was supposed to be open to the entire table, but it always appeared to me that my ratio of embarrassing incidents was exponentially higher than everyone else's.
By the time I had the table in hysterics as I finished recounting various trips, spills, and random crashes into both people and inanimate objects, (conveniently forgetting to mention yesterdays disaster) along with a discussion about the creepy guy I met randomly on the street last week who had spotted me in my coffee shop t-shirt and wanted to know if I was the real Buffy Summers and was I free next Tuesday to "stake him?" I knew that more margaritas would be needed and fast.
Ben and I had already agreed before the evening began than he would whisk Angela off with Seth and claim a table at the nearby club that they fancied visiting while Jake and I dealt with the restaurant bill before joining them. Sam and Emily made their excuses to leave, with promises of a lunch date later in the month; Emily obviously wasn't drinking and had been dealing with a fair amount of morning sickness recently, so was more than ready to call it a night.
Jake had followed the server up to the front of the restaurant while she processed our bill, so I took the opportunity to freshen up. Looking in the mirror I noticed my face was a little flushed, my brown eyes sparkling. I knew it wouldn't be wise to go too mad on the margaritas or my head would definitely be suffering in the morning.
Checking my appearance, I noticed that Angela had brushed some sort of gold flecked powder over the exposed skin of my back; I seemed to sparkle gently in the warm light of the powder room. I was thrilled that my hair had stayed up with little complaint, so with a final quick spin to check I headed back out to our table to collect my coat.
As I reached the table I glanced to where Jake was still standing next to the hostess podium in the entryway to the restaurant, unfortunately our server had disappeared and had been replaced by the over enthusiastic hostess from earlier who was now leaning into Jake, whispering in his ear and stroking his arm.
I recognised Jakes uncomfortable demeanour immediately, always too polite to tell a girl to just leave him alone, he was trying to lean his head further away from her discretely. His hands were clasped tightly behind him and he was rocking frantically back and forth on his heels begging me to rescue him.
Okay, its game time, I plastered on my most seductive smile, grabbed my coat and sauntered over to the pair of them, as I reached them I spun on the spot so that I was standing next to Jake. Leaning in towards him and resting my head against his shoulder I felt a rush of cold air on my bare back as someone walked into the restaurant to stand behind us. I decided to ignore them figuring it was best to get this over with as quickly as possible so we could make our escape.
Summoning my huskiest - I'm going to rip your clothes off the second we get home - voice I purred in Jake's ear, "everything ok, honey?" making sure that I was loud enough for the hostess to hear as well.
Jake trailed one hand slowly down the bare skin of my back; gently squeezed my ass, damn method acting just went a bit too far, before wrapping his arm possessively round my waist pulling me closer to him.
"Everything is fine, babe," he looked down, smiling at me tucked into his side and gently kissing my forehead before turning his attention back to the hostess and raising an eyebrow questioningly.
"Um, yes, Sir, um, everything has been dealt with, I hope the meal was to your satisfaction?" The hostess appeared a little flustered by our united front.
"The meal was great, thanks, although next time we should probably just take the tiramisu to go, don't you think darling?" Jake winked at me, knowing full well my lifelong passion for indulgent desserts. I snickered quietly at him, blushing as I remembered my earlier childish behaviour when I refused to share with anyone else.
Turning back to look once again at the hostess I sighed internally in relief as she appeared to have finally been distracted from her pursuit of Jake by the person waiting patiently behind us. She kept craning her neck, trying to see past me as Jake helped me into my coat. I guessed she had spotted someone else she considered worthy of fawning over. I hoped for their sake they appreciated the art of overzealous flirting otherwise they were going to be in for a very long and tiresome night.
Once I was safely bundled against the chilly Chicago weather we turned towards the door to leave. I heard someone gasp sharply and looked up, my face flaring immediately when I saw the person waiting patiently behind us was none other than Green Eyes and it seemed as if he had just recognised me. So that's who the hostess was eyeing up as her next potential victim, well she certainly had good taste; I'd give her that…
Green Eyes was looking particularly edible this evening in yet another sharply cut suit, under a dark full length coat. A faint hint of stubble was beginning to show on his previously clean shaven, strong jaw and he looked as if he had been wrestling in vain with his hair, trying to exert some form of control over the messy bronze locks without success. A charcoal grey scarf was casually flung round his neck and he was removing black leather gloves as he looked at me.
As we began walking towards the door he continued to stare, his eyes raking over my body from head to toe, before glancing over at Jake. His focus then appeared to narrow in on Jakes arm which was wrapped tightly round my waist again, before his eyes snapped back up to mine again. I flinched when I saw a flash of what appeared to be fury briefly run through his expression, his previously emerald shaded eyes had darkened considerably, and I shivered briefly as the phrase if looks could kill suddenly ran through my mind.
