The Man She Never Knew
Chapter Two:
I stared at him as he pulled out of the parking lot. He was beautiful, but green eyes that reminded me of deep emeralds that sparkled like the midnight stars, a perfect nose, and a half smirk that made me think that he had a secret that no one else in the world knew. He was lean, but not overly so, muscle where it needed to be. I would have to watch myself with him; doctors were arrogant and egotistical when it came to women and though he was beautiful and mystifying, I refused to be another notch in someone's bed post.
He was staring at the road, and weaving through traffic as though the hustle and bustle of everyday travel was nothing. He was a man among men from what I could see so far, and though I knew this trip would be different somehow, sort of life altering in some sort of way, part of me wanted to know more about the man sitting to my left. It was as though there was a pull to him that no matter how hard I tried, I could not get away from it, and I could not explain it.
"So have you lived in Chicago your whole life?" I asked him to break the silence. It wasn't an uncomfortable silence; I just liked the sound of his rich voice. It reminded me of warm summer nights beneath the stars at the Jacksonville Beach. It was calming, and just what I needed at the moment for my nerves.
He looked over at me then back at the road. I guess it was to let me know that he had heard my question. "Umm, yeah for the most part, I went away to college of course, but other than the time I was gone we have always been here."
"And you are a doctor." It was more so a statement then a fact.
"Actually I am chief of staff at the hospital, and also the head surgeon. What about you? Carlisle said you are a travel agent?" he had asked me.
I didn't know how to answer him. Yes I was a travel agent, but there was more to it than just that. I took pride in helping people take their much needed vacations, couples planning their honeymoons, family vacation, even the trips that were heart breaking to put together I enjoyed knowing that I was making that persons burden just that much easier helped me. Most people wouldn't understand that I looked at my job as though it was a calling to help others, but I loved it all the same. "Yeah, something like that." I answered him.
Just then we pulled into this little parking lot that held maybe ten cars total when full. The place was a dive, a hole in the wall if I were to be honest with myself, and looking at it, I knew that inside would hold some of the best food I had probably ever tasted. One of the few things Charlie had taught me about eating out was that ninety nine percent of the time, if the place looked as though it were about to fall apart on the outside, the food inside would be to die for. I stepped out of the car and Edward was right there to close my door and take my arm to gently lead me into the diner.
We quickly found a table, and sat down. A moment later a waitress came over to the table and smiled at Edward. "Back again Mr. Cullen? Is this some record, or are you trying to give my mother a heart attack with your good looks. You know she practically faints every time you walk in here."
I stared at the young woman and thought that she was rather attractive. She was about five foot eight, chestnut curly hair that reached her mid back, bright blue eyes, and a soft mouth, I hated her on sight. She was beautiful and well put together, where I was clumsy and not well proportioned. Men flocked to women like her and when it came to women like me, they would politely turn in the other direction and walk away.
I couldn't help but inwardly sigh as I heard Edwards laugh, and secretly wish that it was I who had made him do so. His laugh was joyous and beautiful, everything a laugh should have with it. "Oh I don't know Erica, I just wanted to give your mother something to compare to, and get some breakfast for my friend here." He said finally directing the conversation towards me.
Erica looked over at me and smiled. "Mr. Cullen has been coming here for years, and he is our best customer." She said sweetly. "He always get's the same thing, but you are the first person he has ever brought with him. I had to be nosey."
I couldn't help but laugh at her explanation. "Well I'm just visiting the family for a little while. I'm Bella." I said reaching my hand out to her.
She took it and gave me a once over, still smiling. "I bet I know what you want. You want some strawberry stuffed French toast with extra cream cheese, and instead of coffee, you want warm sweet tea. Am I right?"
I stared at this woman in shock. She only had my looks and two sentences to go on and nailed me spot on. I couldn't believe it. "Umm, yes. How do you do that?"
She took a moment to think of the answer then sighed. "It's all in the eyes. Your eyes are sweet, and heavy with emotion, and that breakfast was the first thing that popped into my head. Mr. Cullen get's the same thing with the exception of wanting coffee with no milk and only sugar instead of the warm sweet tea."
"She had me pegged the first time I walked in, which is why I always come here. Plus their stuffed French toast it to die for and I thought I'd be generous and give you what it is that you wanted."
I couldn't help it, I laughed. "Well thank you for being so generous to me. I will have to remember your kindness and bring it back to you sometime."
~ * ~
Her laughter was made me smile. "Well thank you for being so generous to me. I will have to remember your kindness and bring it back to you sometime." She laughed.
"I'll be waiting." I answered smiling. She truly was a divine creature. "So." I said staring at her after Erica brought our drinks over. "Why did you pick now to come to Chicago? I know Carlisle has been inviting you here for a couple of years now."
She looked at me for a moment contemplating her answer. It was as if she didn't know how much information she should give. Finally she sighed. "Well the truth is I couldn't keep putting it off. I was worried that if I didn't come here soon, your father was going to come to me, and I couldn't have that. I have been putting this visit off for three years and I just couldn't do it anymore. A girl can only come up with so many excuses."
I looked at her then. "So you don't want to actually be here, is that right?"
I studied her for a few moments, her facial expressions I found to be rather intriguing, but for the first time, at a loss to guess what was actually going through her head. I had always been good at reading people, but her, there was nothing, not a clue to what it was that she was thinking at all. Personally I found it to be rather refreshing. She was different from other women I knew, and I liked it.
"It's not that I don't want to be here, it's more so leaning to the fact that I have no reason to be here. Carlisle hardly knows me, and as far as I know only saw my father once in the entire time I was a child, I don't feel as though I have a right to be here." She said softly.
"Your father was a good man." I couldn't help but reassure her of that. "He taught me a lot."
Her head snapped up to look me in the eyes then. "You knew my father?" she asked me, and the way that she had said it made it sound as if it were a loaded question. So instead of answering her I just nodded yes. "Then you would have known that he was a piece of shit that didn't give a damn about me." She said with softness to her voice that sounded as if she truly hated the man.
"That's not the Charlie I know, and I knew him rather well. We had a yearly fishing trip up until I went to college. He taught me a lot." I said again. I couldn't understand the hatred that laced this woman's voice. It was as though she saw my childhood hero as a murderer of some type. "Charlie gave me a lot of live and learn advice when we were together, and I wouldn't be the man that I am today if it wasn't for him."
Bella looked at me then with an emotion I couldn't place hiding in her eyes. "Charles Swan may have been that for you, but he was never that to me. The man hardly said fifteen words to me on any given day other than 'Do your damn homework' 'There better not be a B on your report card' Or the best one was 'Don't you have a friend you can stay with instead of always being here?' The man was a grade A asshole who didn't appreciate my mother, which is why she left his sorry ass, and he sure as hell didn't appreciate me."
I stared at her for a moment thinking that she had some serious daddy issues, but then realized that I had known Charlie my whole life, and he had never mentioned her ever, and then I began to wonder if what she was saying was the truth about Charlie, though he was wonderful with me and my family, maybe he did treat Bella wrong, maybe she did have the right to think of him as a sorry excuse of a father.
We sat there for a few minutes in an uncomfortable silence, neither one of us knowing what to say to the other, and yet part of me wished to know her story. The problem was I found myself truly wondering what it was that Charlie did to upset this beautiful woman sitting across from me. Just then Erica came back to our table with our orders, placed them on the table and smiled. "I suggest you dig in before momma comes out and gives you a hard time." She said walking away.
Bella looked down at her food and smiled as she unwrapped her silverware, taking her napkin and gracefully sliding it onto her lap, and then took her fork and cut a piece of her French toast shoving it into her mouth. After she chewed it and swallowed, she sighed happily. "Who would have thought I could find a place that makes better French toast than I do."
I couldn't help but laugh at her outburst. "I told you the food here was good."
She smiled. "Well I normally don't listen to a man when they talk food; most men can't cook other than in the microwave."
"I bet I could cook circles around you Miss Swan."
"Oh do you think so?" she said looking me straight in the eyes. "Well I will have you know sir that I have won many awards for my cooking, and I would take that bet."
I stared at her a moment noticing that she was being completely serious. "How long are you here for?"
"I took seven weeks off, but I was only planning to stay till the new year." She said softly.
"That's five weeks, plenty of time to wipe you across the kitchen floor." I laughed. Cooking was one of the few things I actually enjoyed doing since childhood, I just never had the time anymore with work. I was going to have to see about getting time off of work so that I could take her up on a kitchen cook off.
Bella looked at me and smiled. "Why don't we make a little wager on this then?" She couldn't suppress the laugh that was hiding within the chocolate pools of her eyes. "Winner gets to rub in the others face the rest of the time I'm here that they are better than the other."
"Don't you think that's a little too easy?" I asked her.
"No, but what do you have in mind?"
"How about if I win, you have to sit down and listen to stories about Charlie."
She looked at me with anger in her eyes but sighed. "Okay, but if I win, you have to never talk about him to me the whole time I am here."
"Deal." I said extending my hand to hers. She took it firmly into her hands and we shook. We made small talk through the rest of breakfast and then when the bill came argued about who was going to pay, which I had finally won. We got in the car then headed over to my parents house.
