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Summary: Bella feels like she has settled for the ordinary in her life. Her best friend Alice tries to help her broaden her horizons. Will it work?

Chapter 2

So now that I'd figured out that comfortable wasn't working anymore, I had to break the news to Alice.

You might be wondering where this epiphany came from. Well, it came in the 2nd hour of waiting for my supposedly loving boyfriend to show up for our date weekend. I'd turned down plans with Alice who'd invited me to some sort of event from her job where I could have met one of my favourite indie musicians but did I go. NO. I believed Jake when he said that he would be down on that tonight so we could go have dinner and a movie.

This wasn't even the first time he'd blown me off without a word. The last time, he'd begged my forgiveness that it would never happen again. So as I sat there waiting and waiting again, I felt like an utter fool for believing him.

I decided while staring at the phone, expecting it to ring, that I was done being the doormat that Jacob seemed to believe I was. I never worked on weekends so he could come and visit. In fact, I never did anything that he disapproved of. During my time waiting, I also decided that was going to change too.

I wasn't sure what to do but I knew I needed to do something and of course, the first thing was to tell Alice.

Sighing, I got up and crossed the room to grab my silent cell phone from the table just inside my door where I'd thrown it upon arriving home from work four hours prior. Two hours before Jake was supposed to be knocking on the door.

I stood there staring at the number pad for a few seconds before slowly bring up Alice's number and hitting the appropriate buttons to send her a text.

~ Hey Tinks, J no showed just as you predicted. Should have gone with you. Will need your help soon. Things are about to change.

~ Bells! No worries. Get ready! Sending a new friend over to get you. The show got delayed so you have plenty of time to see it. (insert Sqeeee here) Luv Ya!

~ What? No! I can't go!

~ Oh yes you can! Rose will be there in 30 minutes. GET READY or she has instructions to drag you out of the apartment by your hair! We'll talk when you get here.

Stubborn pixie type best friend, I humphed to myself. I really loved that girl but she was so damn pushy sometimes.

I looked down at myself and reallzed I could probably go as is but decided to just do a quick refresh on my makeup and go with it. It wasn't like I was out to impress anyone tonight. I just wanted to enjoy some really great music. I had been beyond excited when I'd heard he was playing in Seattle but then Jake informed me that he would be coming down the same weekend to take me out. Well, we now knew how that turned out.

I'd found him on Myspace just after Alice made me sign up a few months ago. She told me I needed to expand my musical tastes beyond the 80s. I'd had fun exploring all the indie music on the site and adding them to my friends list so I could go and listen to them as much as possible. Alice even had showed me how to find their music and download it to a CD so I could listen to it more often. I never realized how much fun I could have with my computer and music until recently.

Alice talked me through setting up a webcam and Skype so I could talk to Charlie more often than the occasional phone call and visit home. She'd somehow talked one of Charlie's guys on the force to setup the same thing on Charlie's office computer.

I had to admit that when Alice wanted something done, she did get it done.

I was just coming back down the hallway from the bathroom when I heard a knock at the door. I peeked through the peephole to see someone I'd never seen before. It must be Alice's new friend.

"Who's there?"

"Bella? My name is Rose. Alice sent me to pick you up."

I opened the door to reveal one of the most beautiful women I'd ever seen. She had mid length blonde hair, brilliant blue eyes and a body to die for. If this girl wasn't a model, I wanted to know why not.

I smiled shyly at her, I held out my hand. "Hi Rose. Yes, I'm Bella. Nice to meet you."

"Yeah. You too." She replied as she looked me up and down without taking my hand.. "That what you're wearing?"

I looked at her, then down at myself. "Yeah."

Shrugging, she turned back towards the hallway, "Okay, then let's go."

I quickly grabbed my bag and phone and rushed after her. She was already holding the elevator door by the time I caught up with her.

Rose didn't say anything as we made our way out to her car and headed to the venue where Alice was waiting. I was a little nervous being in the car with her. I didn't make friends easily as it was and her manner didn't exactly make me want to put myself out there.

I sighed with relief as we pulled into the parking lot and I quickly vacated her car to head to the door. A huge guy at the door stopped me but as Rose came up behind me he smiled. She put her hand on my shoulder, "She's with me Joe. Alice is expecting her."

"No prob, Rose. Go on in. The mighty organizing fairy is in a bit of a tizzy. The guy on the back door almost didn't let his mom in and she almost took the guy's head off. Just glad it wasn't me on the receiving end of her wrath!"

Rose laughed. "Yeah. I wouldn't want to be in that guy's shoes. Does he still have a job?"

"Yeah. The boss wouldn't let Alice fire him but castration crossed her mind I think."

I winced at the thought of being in that guy's position, whoever he was. An angry Alice was a sight to behold. She was normally very cheerful and happy but if something pissed her off, watch out!

We hadn't stepped more than 5 feet into the building before I heard my name squealed and a small body impacted mine. I barely managed to stay on my feet by throwing my arms around her. She leaned back grinning at me, her body quivering with unbounded excitement. Her eyes were shining.

"Bella! You're HERE!"

"Alice, we have been out before."

"Bella, do you actually remember the last time you came out with me? I barely do! You keep letting that dickhead ruin all my plans for fun."

I felt my forehead crease in response to her reference to Jacob. "Lets not talk about him right now."

She grinned back, "Fine by me! Let's get you a drink!" she replied dragging me towards the bar. "Max! My friend needs a drink!"

The handsome young man behind the bar smiled at her, then turned his vivid blue eyes on me. "What'll it be?"

I felt a warmth spread through my body as I felt his eye travel up and down my body. Whoa! What the hell? It hadn't been that long since I'd been with Jacob. What was going on with me?

Blushing, I asked for a bottle of Heineken and quickly followed Alice. She had a VIP table as the organizer of the event right up by the stage. I sat down while she flitted off to do her job, Rose joined me after a few moments. I glanced over at her but didn't speak. Her body language indicated that she wasn't interested in conversation.

The room started to fill with a variety of types of people. It appeared this musician appealed to people of various ages and walks of life. I was on my second bottle of Heineken before Alice reappeared and sat down with her drink. Her body was still vibrating with excitement.

"He is about ready to come onstage Bella. Are you excited? He's even going to do a meet and greet after his performance so you could meet him if you want to!"

I stared at her for a moment before her words registered. A meet and greet? What? MEET HIM? My breathing started to shorten as the thought penetrated my brain.

"Earth to Bella!" Rose was laughing and waving her hand in front of my face. Apparently she warmed up when someone was making a bit of an idiot of himself or herself.

I looked between the two of them and opened my mouth to reply when the music started to play. It was one of my favourite songs that he played so I just shook my head and turned towards the stage.

I adored this man's voice, the smooth, cultured sound, and the exquisite lyrics he wrote. I just couldn't get enough of it. His Myspace page gave only one name, Anthony. It was all I needed to know.

My eyes drifted closed as I listened to the song, letting the music flow through my soul. Another voice joined with his suddenly and my eyes popped open at the difference in the sound. Another man was walking onto the stage, his voice blending perfectly with Anthony's.

A sound next to me had my head whipping around towards Alice. Her eyes were almost popping out of her skull as she watched this new man walk towards the right side of the stage. Her breath was coming in short gasps as his voice reached her ears. I had to smile. Men never affected Alice, she preferred having flings with no ties so she could spend most of her time on her career.

From the corner of my eye, I saw Rose glance at Alice and smile. She turned to look back towards the stage and her smile got even bigger. Following her line of sight, I saw a third man walk on stage. He was huge, muscled and very good looking. His eyes seemed to automatically veer towards Rose and he smiled, his features softening with a look of adoration.

"Wait a minute! Rose, do you know them?"

She glanced away from the man on stage to look directly at me, "Yes, that's my husband."

"OH!" I exclaimed, my eyes widening.

Alice turned, hissing at both of us. "Will you both shut up! I can't hear them!"

I made the motion of zipping up and locking my lips, which made her roll her eyes in return, and I turned my attention back to the stage becoming absorbed once again in the music.

The played 2 sets with a short break in between. I wasn't sure how much I'd had to drink by the time the 2nd set was finished, the bottles just seemed to keep appearing in front of me. I wandered off to the ladies room as soon as they left the stage for the second time and came back to find that Alice had disappeared. Rose too for that matter.

Looking around, I saw a crowd appearing by one side of the room where a table had been setup, presumably for the meet and greet that Alice had mentioned earlier. I stood there for a few minutes beside our table before scrounging up the courage to go over to the table. Like I said earlier, meeting new people was not my forte and without my pint size courage maker at my side, I wasn't sure I could just go up to this musician and talk to him. My hands literally started shaking at the thought. If this night had been planned ahead of time and not been a last minute, drag Bella to the event kind of thing, Alice would have spent time bolstering my courage and self confidence, which I freely admit I had neither in abundance.

As I stood staring across the room towards the meet and greet area, my body started to tingle, like a wave of electricity was aimed directly at it. My eyes moved back and forth over the area, trying to find the source of the feeling and stopped when they met a pair of green eyes boring into mine. My breath caught in my throat as the feeling intensified. It was Anthony. I recognized him from pictures on the Internet. Warmth coursed through me. I was definitely not in my comfort zone. I never actually felt these feelings before. Not even with Jacob. Jacob was just comfortable, like a well-worn pair of shoes. Was this what Alice had felt when she saw that guy come on stage?

I found my feet moving of their own volition, taking me closer to him. Slowly I made my way to the table, my eyes locked to his. He smiled a crooked grin as I got closer to him. I felt the jolt to my very core, my mind seemed to go blank as my body took over. As I reached the table, a movement from the corner of my eye made me turn away from him. It was Rose in the arms of the third guy whom she had said was her husband and Alice was next to them talking animatedly to the other guy.

I was at the table before I knew it and heard a melodic voice say something, which literally sent shivers down my spine. I looked back to him, meeting his eyes that seemed to turn from emerald to a deeper green as they reflected the lust that was palpable between us. I'd never ever had a reaction to a man like this before. Never in all the times that Alice had dragged me out to her various events had this happened. I was out of my element. Completely out of my comfort zone and I wasn't sure what to do next.

It was becoming more and more obvious though, comfortable was definitely not working anymore and I couldn't have been happier about that at this moment.

Reviews welcome .. just saying…

Posted on May 2, 2010

Words: 2474