AN at the bottom of the page.

Enjoy.

Searching for O

Chapter Two

Rosalie Hale and Alice Brandon were already at Café on the Corner when I got there the next morning. I walked in and breathed a big sigh of relief. Outside, the noise and smog of New York City in the spring was stifling, but in the café, everything was calm and peaceful.

The furnishings were simple: scattered tables, comfortable chairs and a coffee bar. The walls were painted warm brown with old-fashioned floorboards

Rose, Alice, and I were all born in the same small town of Forks in Washington State. We had made friends on our first day of school and had remained that way ever since. People always said that three was a crowd, but in our case, three was a party, and it was perfect for us.

Growing up in the Middle of Nowhere, WA, however, was not a party. Forks was a logging town…and that's about it. There was nothing there apart from a forest, a beach, and a few shops. It was also one of the wettest places in America. Not the most exciting place to grow up.

So, when we had finished high school, we moved to the Big Apple as fast as our teenage legs could carry us. We got jobs, a shitty apartment in the Bronx, and four years later we had managed to scrape together enough money to open a coffee shop right in the center of the city.

I loved the Café on the Corner. It was ours, an achievement that we all shared. The café had turned into a success. We were known for our strong coffees, range of paninis, and the second best cupcakes in the city. We did so well that we managed to move out of our Bronx apartment and move into individual ones of our very own. We were constantly busy, constantly working, but we were happy.

I was content just knowing that I had succeeded in something, that I was securing a future for myself. It was an amazing feeling, to know that I had built something from scratch and it had turned out really, really well.

As soon as I walked in, Alice bounced over to me. Alice always bounced; she didn't walk like a normal person. She was short and thin with black, spiky hair, and was always freakishly bubbly.

"So, how did your night go?" she asked coyly.

I huffed. "Not very well."

"Could he not make you cum?" Rose asked from behind the counter where she was getting the coffee machine ready for the day. Rose was the complete opposite of Alice. Rosalie's hair was platinum blond and fell half way down her back when she wore it down. She had curves where Alice didn't and was a foot taller than her. She was a straight talker, and she took absolutely no bullshit.

I was somewhere between them both. We complemented each other well. Alice was the dreamer, Rose was the tough nut, and me? I was the happy medium. I think this was why we worked so well together; we were neither too alike nor too different from one another.

I walked over to Rose and sat on a stool next to the counter. "I didn't even get my clothes off, let alone come anywhere close to having an orgasm."

Alice came and sat next to me. "What happened?" she asked, her face full of concern.

"When I got home, I found James- or Jasmine, as he now likes to be known- sitting on my bed dressed as a woman."

Both Alice and Rose looked at me in disbelief. Before she could stop herself, a snort erupted from Rose's nose, and she broke down into giggles.

Alice looked over at her. "Rose, stop laughing. It isn't funny."

Rose eventually calmed down. "I'm sorry, Bella. It's just… How do these things happen to you?"

I shook my head. I had no idea.

"I can't imagine James in drag. I find the whole thing quite disconcerting, actually. Was he wearing blue?" Alice asked, her brows pinched with confusion.

"No, pink."

She smiled and visibly relaxed. "Oh good, pink would suit his complexion much better."

I frowned at her. I had stopped trying to understand Alice a long time ago. To say she was strange would be an understatement. I loved her just the way she was, but I often wondered if she had been dropped on her head numerous times as a child.

"Anyway, so it turns out that he has been repressing his more feminine side for a while now, and then he met a drag queen named Greg, who also happens to be an accountant…"

"An accountant?"

"Yes, Alice, an accountant."

She thought about it for a second. "Hmm, accountants always seem so boring…Anyway, carry on."

"So, Greg has introduced James to the 'other side' of himself, and they want to be together."

"Oh, Bella, that is awful. I am so sorry," Alice said as she rubbed circles on my back to comfort me.

"It's ok. I mean, James and I were never really, you know, meant for each other anyway. I will get over it; it was just a bit of a shock."

I got up off my stool and walked through a door to the back. I dumped my coat and bag and put on my apron before heading back to the front to start preparing for the day.

"I can imagine you were shocked. Gosh, I just don't know what I would do if I found a boyfriend of mine dressed up like that. Although I would have many questions. Did you happen to ask James where he tucks his penis when he is wearing a tight skirt or something? I have always wondered about that," Alice asked as I rejoined them.

"What? No! I was too busy coming to terms with the fact that my boyfriend is quite possibly gay and that he likes to be called Jasmine. I did not ask where he hides his…his…peen." I said in horror. Only Alice could come up with something like that.

"I think in James's case, the question is- what peen? It's common knowledge that he has a pencil dick," Rose added.

Alice and I started pulling an assortment of cakes and desserts out from the fridge behind the counter and putting them in the refrigerated display case.

"James does not have a pencil dick," I muttered.

"You know that time when we all went out to that new club in the meat packing district, and my friend, Pete, came along?"

"Oh yes, I liked Pete. Wonderful hair," Alice said.

"Well, he said that he was standing next to James in the toilets and had a little peek over, like guys do, and noticed that James's cock was…well…pencil-ly. Let me tell you right now, Bella, you are not going to reach orgasm if your boyfriend has a pencil for a dick," she said matter-of-factly.

"I don't think a pencil dick is the problem," I said. "Remember when I went out with Sam 'The Horse' Uley? He couldn't get me to the special place, either. If size is the magic bus ticket to Orgasm Land, then Sam was the guy to get me there, and he didn't."

Rose turned on the panini toasters and started getting out the tubs of ingredients that we used to fill the paninis. She put them in the display unit on the other side of the coffee machine. It allowed the customers to come in, see and pick their ingredients, and then watch us make their paninis to order.

I walked over to the front door and switched the sign hanging there from closed to open.

"Why did you and Sam split up again?" Alice asked.

"Because he used to bark like a dog whenever he came. I was so shocked the first time I gave him head that I nearly bit his cock off."

That had been an interesting night, one that neither Sam Uley nor I would forget in a hurry.

"It's a shame that he barked when he…you know. I have never been a dog person. I have always preferred cats," Alice said thoughtfully.

"So you would prefer it if he meowed then?" Rose asked sarcastically.

"Definitely."

I moved back behind the counter and slouched on it heavily, putting my back to the door.

"I think the problem is the men you pick. I mean, look at your history, you have never been with a guy that doesn't have some kind of weird sexual tick," Rose said.

I thought back, hoping she wasn't right and fearing that she was.

"Mike was normal."

Mike had been my boyfriend throughout school. He was a typical blond-haired, blue-eyed, small town boy. Sweet, bored, and innocent just like the rest of us. Before I left, I decided to lose my V card to him. I didn't want to go to New York a virgin. It had been his first time, too. I remember it being uncomfortable and short, but that wasn't his fault. First times are a bitch for everyone.

"Mike doesn't count. Your first never counts when you're talking about good sex. What about the people after Mike?" Rose said.

"Well, there was Sam 'The Horse' Uley- hung like a horse, barked like a dog," I giggle-snorted at myself.

I was so caught up in my own mirth that I didn't notice neither Rose nor Alice was giggling with me. I also didn't notice how they were looking not at me but behind me. Nor the fact that they had significantly paled.

"Who was after Sam? Oh yes, Paul. He liked to do me from behind whilst looking at his muscles in a mirror. I even caught him kissing his own bicep once. Next was Jasper, he was nice, but he was so emotional that he used to cry during sex. Not just cry, sob. He would get so embarrassed about it that he would cry even more, which was off-putting. Then came Alec, who called out his sister's name once during sex. Needless to say, our relationship ended right after that. Then James/Jasmine, who turned out to be a drag queen, and in all likelihood, gay."

When I looked back at the men in my life, there was nothing to really smile about.

"Why me? Why do I pick these weird guys? Are all guys that weird? Because before the sex, they all seemed pretty normal to me…apart from Alec. Alec always was a little weird. I think it's me. I just attract these…these sexual mutant freaks to me. It seems like no normal guy in his right mind would be interested in me. Can you blame them? I am as freaky as those guys are. The weird girl who cannot have an orgasm. I am broken, barren even. I'm destined to remain alone and orgasm-less for the rest of my life. It's just not fair. I bought a vibrator, and even that didn't do the trick…Although, I never used it at its highest setting. I was too scared that I might be pinged off the bed with the vibrations, or go off pop like a balloon, or that I would…"

A sharp cough pulled me out of my never-ending monologue. With absolute horror, I realized that the cough didn't come from the ladies in front of me. It came from someone behind me.

I slowly turned around and came face to face with that stupid, beautiful, motherfucking,

sexiest-thing-on-the-planet smirk.

Edward Cullen, man of my fantasies, was standing there with one eyebrow raised sexily. Instantly I knew he had heard the whole thing, because I was not a lucky enough person for it to be any other way. I had literally exposed my entire sexual history to him. Including facts about my vibrator.

I didn't know what to do. I could feel my cheeks burning. I imagined that I was past red and well on my way to turning purple.

I had never been the best person under pressure. I always made the wrong decisions, and this time was no different. I ever-so-slowly sank to the ground, aware that I resembled an elevator, but I was too panicked to stop myself. When I was safely hidden from view behind the counter, I repeatedly banged my head against the display case's door. I hoped that I could either:

A) Knock myself out, or

B) Knock some sense into my thick skull.

Time passed. It could have been minutes, or it could have been seconds. I was not sure. Silence filled the room; no one had said a word since I had slowly descended to the floor. I hoped that he had walked out.

"Is he gone?" I hissed up at Rose, whose legs I could see next to me.

"No, I'm still here," his voice replied. "Are you going to get up yet?"

I gathered the shreds of my dignity and stood up.

"I…um…dropped a pen." I muttered trying to explain my sudden sink to the floor.

I chanced a look at him. His smile was the widest I had ever seen it. He looked amused. I had clearly given him his entertainment for the day.

"Can I…um…get you something?" I tried to ask in my best customer service voice. Instead, I stuttered, and my voice shook, making me sound like I had Tourette's Syndrome. By that point, however, I figured it was impossible to be more embarrassed than I already was, so I tried not to worry too much about it.

"Yes, can I have a black coffee, please?"

"Is that to have here, or to go?"

He leaned forward on the counter slightly. "I would love to stay here for a little while longer. This place has so much…character, but I have a meeting, so I will take it to go, please."

Rose rushed to the coffee machine to make his beverage, while I entered his order into the cash register. He only wanted a coffee, and yet somehow I managed to fuck up entering his order and had to void it twice.

"Oh, fuck a duck," I murmured as I pressed the wrong button a second time.

Edward laughed lightly and smiled in disbelief. "What did you just say?" he asked.

"Um…nothing." I murmured back. I mentally kicked myself; I had to get out of the habit of saying that.

"That's a dollar thirty, please."

He handed me a five and put the change I returned to him in the tip jar in front of the cash register. Rose handed him his drink. I thought he would leave. He didn't. He stood there for a moment, gazing at me with a mixture of confusion and wonder.

"I'll see you around, Bella," he said. Winking, he walked out.

The second he was out of sight, I started jumping around uncontrollably.

"Oh fuck a duck, fuck a duck, fuck a duck!" I screeched.

I was beyond embarrassed. It was, without doubt, the most humiliating moment in my life.

For once, Rose had no words of comfort, nothing to say to calm me down.

Alice was looking at the door, puzzlement clear on her face.

"Bella, wasn't that your neighbor? The one you have a mega-crush on?"

"Yes, Alice."

I leaned my head on the counter and focused on breathing deeply and evenly.

"Oh dear, I hate to tell you this, but he was standing right by you the whole time you were talking. I think he might have heard you."

I stopped myself from informing her that I was already quite aware that Edward "Fuck me long and deeply" Cullen had been standing behind me the whole time I was talking. Instead, I groaned into the smooth white surface of the counter and yet again wished the world would swallow me whole.

.

.

.

.

Thank you so much for all the alerts and reviews. I am blown away by the response to the first chapter. I hope you liked chapter 2 and hope it was not a disappointment.

I did try to send replies to all reviews, however had a funny 5 minutes and wouldn't let me send out messages.

Thanks to Jackie and Alice my lovely pre-reader and beta. This story would be nothing without you.

Let me know what you thought of Chapter 2. Love or hate it? Feel sorry for Bella? Ever had a boy friend who barks when he orgasms? LOL

Reviews are love and smiles to me.

Update coming soon.