A weeks, and a few phone calls later, I was officially moving into the elusive Edward Cullen's apartment. Of course the Cullen's had hired a moving crew so Alice and I hardly had to lift a finger, we only needed to lead the moving van to Edward's apartment. I felt my nerves growing. Jasper was set to move in a week from now, and had gone to visit Emmett, so it would only be myself, Alice and Edward in the apartment for the time being.
"Alice, are you absolutely sure that Edward is okay with me being here?" I asked for the thousandth time this week.
"Bellaaaaaaa!" Alice rolled her eyes at me. "Look, my brother he—he has a hard time letting his guard down. He hasn't had the easiest life-"
"Well none of your siblings have had the 'easiest' lives, but you all are all nice and welcoming not rude and cold like him. I've never met someone that was so cross before they even knew me, except for that horrible Lauren Mallory" I exclaimed. Alice gave me a look.
"You just need to give him time! He has reasons for why he is the way he is..." She looked out the windshield of her red porche, and a rare sad look crossed over her face, her eyes masked by her huge designer sunglasses. An awkward couple of minutes of silence passed between us, and I could tell Alice was still thinking about my comment. I shouldn't have said anything, I knew how much her family meant to her, but Edward had just gotten to me!
"Hey, Alice, I'm sorry. I know he's your brother and you love him. I'll give him a chance." I looked at her hopefully, but she just nodded slightly, and continued to watch the road out in front of her. "Alice," I placed a hand on her arm, "I'm sorry, I didn't mean to offend you or your family, I shouldn't have said anything. Really." Alice thought for a few more moments then replied,
"My brother….he has never made friends easily…growing up, all he had was our family. He's a very private person, and would probably be furious with me telling you this, but since you're moving in I guess you should know a little more about him than what he puts out for you to see." Alice paused, and glanced at me, this might be the most serious and calm I had seen Alice since I had met her. "Growing up he had a lot of health issues… and was held back from doing a lot of things that the rest of us took for granted, honestly we weren't sure that he would make it to be this age in the first place," Alice choked up and brushed a tear off of her cheek.
"Alice, You don't have to tell me-"
"No, let me finish. With not being able to get out much, Edward poured everything into his studies, and built a company from the ground up. He took a bad thing and turned it into something amazing. He is one of the strongest and most diligent people I know, but he has built up anger against the world and he's lost faith in humanity. He puts up walls before people can hurt him. He just needs some light in his life, to eclipse the darkness. Don't take personal offense to how he acts, its purely a defense mechanism, I've seen it a thousand times with my brother, you just need to ride out the storm before you can see him fully. Trust me, Bella."
"I will try my best, Alice, you know I love your family and they have been nothing but good to me. I wouldn't want to do anything to put our relationship in danger!"
"I knew you would understand Bella!" and just like that Alice's chipper mood was back. "Now we have to go shopping tomorrow to decorate our room of course! Oh, and we'll need new 'grown-up' clothes for your interview and my internship!" Alice squealed, but internally I groaned. Alice's shopping trips were more closely kin to shopping marathons.
"You know I don't have any money, Alice! That's why I'm living here remember?"
"Oh don't be silly Bella! Edward is paying, he said it's my graduation present!"
"Exactly, your present! Not mine."
"Well I'm sure Edward wouldn't mind. And he can't say "no" to me. I mean look how cute I am!" she lowered her sunglasses and batted her eyes while pushing out her bottom lip.
"You are a devil in disguise! He'll see right through you!" I mocked, and we both laughed.
"Just you wait, it's going to be SO fun!" I highly doubted it on my end.
We finally pulled into the parking garage, underneath a gargantuan sky rise, and parked the car. Alice instructed all the movers to the service elevator while she and I took the more elegant main elevator to get to Edwards Apartment. Edward lived at the top on the skyscraper, on floor 65, and Alice assured me that it would be a sight to see. As the doors opened we walked down a short hallway until we reached what I presumed to be the entrance to Edwards place.
"Ready?!" Alice squealed, then opened the door, leading us into a massive room overlooking Seattle. Today was a foggy day, but still the view was breathtaking. A black grand piano was situated in the large room pushed towards a wall. Of course Edward would play piano, seems like all broody successful men do. Other that the black piano, everything else in the apartment's entry room was white. Cream wooden floors, white marble counter tops, white sofas, and white cabinets. Not a single personal item was strewn around in the apartment, no clutter, not dust, everything was fresh, crisp, and formal. My heart pounded. White was a very bad color for me to be around, with as clumsy as I am, I've learned over the years to avoid potentially damageable white surfaces in order to avoid embarrassment of tripping and spilling things on them. Please, God let me have minimal tripping in this castle, I thought internally. He must have his own cleaning people.
"Isn't this fantastic?" Alice gushed. I just nodded my head with my mouth agape slowly spinning in a circle trying to take in the massive size of the great white room. "It's a little bit too simple for my tastes, but it's very Edward. And the view is what people really look at." We stood there in silence for a few more moments until Alice decided we should go look at our rooms. We went up the stairs that originated in the great room, where we found three more bedrooms, a pool room, and a TV lounge. The white theme continued thought.
"I'm going to paint my room a pale yellow I think, bring some personalization into the house! Tomorrow we can pick out bedding, furniture, and other stuff while we're shopping"
"Are you sure Edward won't mind painting the walls?" I asked
"Oh no, he'll just hire someone to repaint over it once we leave! He never uses these rooms anyway, his room is downstairs, so he will not have to see the 'atrocity' of color very often!" We heard the service elevator ding. "That'll be the movers!" I followed Alice back down the stairs and into the great room that was attached to the kitchen, where the movers were patiently waiting for direction. It only took them a few hours to move our stuff in, I had sold my bed and dresser because Alice had assured me that Edward already had bought them for us, and some money would be nice at the moment. After the movers left, Alice and I went into the kitchen and sat down at the breakfast bar.
"Would you like anything to drink? I'm sure Edward has something in here," she asked me. I nodded and she grabbed me a bottle of water from the fridge. "Also, Edward told me to tell you to make a list of things you want from the grocery store, and his assistant will be by at three to pick up the list and go shopping for us. Edward usually eats out or drinks the shakes, so the choices of food her are extremely bare." She explained to me as she typed away on her phone.
"Shakes?"
"Oh…"Alice looked up and blushed, "I just assume you know these things Bella, because you're practically family. But Edward has a very sensitive stomach, so he drinks these shakes that are pretty much a meal replacement a lot." Alice pulled on out of the fridge to show me, it just looked like a regular bottle.
"Hmm, does he like them?" Alice laughed.
"No! When he was younger, he would throw a fit about drinking them. There's a few brands that are supposedly worse than others, but I think he's sort of used to the taste now. He says it taste like chalk to him, but enough about Edward! Let's talk boys, Bella we need to find you a man. That's my goal this summer" her eyes twinkled with delight. I groaned.
"Alice, we've talked about this! Ever since Jake, I just don't feel like dating anyone."
"Bell, come on! You have to put yourself out there! Not every guy is going to be like that jerk."
"I understand that Al, but I just don't think I'm ready for anything right now, and I have more pressing things to devote my time with right now."
"Maybe I should sign you up for some online dating!"
"Alice Cullen, if you do that, I'm going to release every embarrassing picture I have of you to anyone who will look at it." She shrugged her shoulders and laughed,
"I can live with that!" Time ticked by slowly as we talked, until we heard a knock at the front door.
"Oh shoot! That must be Mike!" I looked at her in confusion, "MIKE! Edward's assistant, we haven't made the grocery list!" Oh yea, it was so odd to think about someone else buying groceries for you, I usually just browsed isles and picked up things that looked good. Alice ran to the door to let Mike in, she hugged him like they were long lost best friends, but then again Alice was touchy with everyone she met. She and I scribbled down a list of things off the top of our heads, then handed it to Mike, who told us he would be returning shortly. Alice and I took this opportunity to shower and get changed for dinner, Edward was going to be coming home around six so that we could all go eat at a restaurant. As I let the warm water cascade over my body I couldn't keep myself from thinking about Edward. It hurt my heart to hear what Alice had said about him being a lonely child, and I wondered what else she wasn't telling me about her brother. I wondered about how long I could take Edward's rudeness until he finally let me see his "true self", and if I would be strong enough to handle the glares and harsh words, even if I knew they were a defense mechanism. Edward frightened me, in more ways than one. Something inside of me yearned for him to like me, and I didn't know if it was because of the fact that he was so mysterious or if it was because of something more. I turned off the shower and dried off before padding my way into my new room, it felt empty even with a queen sized bed and a large dresser, I was guessing because there was nothing personal added yet, instead of my room, the bedroom was more like a hotel room at the moment. I picked out my "nice" pair of jeans and a plain short sleeve shirt, hoping that the restaurant wouldn't be too fancy. I began the process of blow-drying my long brown hair and attempting to being some color into my pale face by pinching my cheeks. Before I knew it, it was 5:45 and Edward should be arriving soon. I waked down the hallway and could hear girly pop music blasting from Alice's room.
"Alice!" I called, but figured she couldn't hear me over her music so I walked into her room. She was dressed in a pretty halter dress that showed off her flawless body, her pixie black hair was spiked to perfection, and her makeup was put on perfectly. Alice was stunning.
"Ready?" she smiled.
We walked down stairs, and waited in the great room, once again admiring the view. At promptly six o'clock, Edward walked into the apartment. He was wearing a tan suit with a green tie, and for the first time I noticed his emerald eyes. I continued to gawk at him with my mouth slightly ajar, as Alice danced over to hug him.
"Miss Swan, it's very rude to stare at people. Perhaps a simple Hello would suffice." Edward sneered.
"Oh um…uh…hello?" I babbled. Edward rolled his eyes and then walked back towards the front door,
"We need to leave, I do not want to be late." Edward said without turning around to face us, but he held the door open for us to walk through, "Mommy said I must be on my very 'best' manners. After you, Ladies." I walked through the door and in my nerves stumbled a bit, catching myself on the door frame. "Graceful as ever I see, Miss Swan." Edward chuckled without humor. This was going to be a very long summer, I could tell.
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