Chapter Two
Bella's POV
It had been two days since I had broken my finger and had it operated on by the most gorgeous man I had ever laid eyes on. Two days and I could not for the life of me get him out of my head. He was amazing. From the moment he had stormed into the exam room I had been captivated by him. He was tall and lean, but from what little I could see of him under the shirt he had been wearing, also muscular. He had piercing green eyes which were so clear I was sure I could see right through to the depths of his soul. He had a rugged jaw-line and looked like he hadn't shaved that morning. His hair was messy and the most amazing bronzy-brown color I had ever seen. I worked with men who were supposedly the best looking in the world every day. But none of them had a thing on Dr. Edward Cullen.
Like I had a chance. He'd been mad at me from the moment he walked into that exam room for taking away his family time. Of course he had a family. He was probably married to a sexy academic, like those girls in librarian fantasies and they probably had beautiful little bronze haired, green eyed babies. He'd thought Rose was the movie star, not the mousy little girl in the corner in her dirty chucks and giant scruffy sweatshirt. And then I pretty much told him he could play doctor with me before I left. Freaking anesthetic. That type of thing is exactly why I don't drink, my brain to mouth filter switches off with any mind altering substance.
I was in the kitchen cooking for my usual Sunday night team dinner with Rose, Jazz, Ange and Ben. That's right. I'm a celebrity and I know how to cook. In fact, not only do I know how, but I'm also pretty fucking good at it. Tonight we were having my infamous lasagna, homemade garlic bread and a green salad. Rose and Jazz were bringing the wine and Ange and Ben were on dessert. Sunday nights were when we planned for the week ahead and discussed anything that needed discussing. We had been doing this for two years now, ever since I got discovered and made it big, all at the same time.
My parents divorced when I was young. Up until the divorce we lived in the tiny town of Forks, Washington, where the trees are green and the sun never shines. My Dad, Charlie is the Police Chief there. When my parents divorced, my Mom ran screaming for somewhere as polar opposite of forks as we could find. That place was Jacksonville, Florida. When I was twelve, and my Mother was thirty, she met a twenty-two year old 'up and coming' baseball player named Phil Dwyer. When I was sixteen, Phil finally made the major league and was signed with the Florida Marlins. To let her travel, I moved back to Forks to live with my Dad. That was where I met Ange and Ben. We were all English Geeks. Ange and Ben were an item, even back then. We all ended up moving to California for College. I was at Berkley and they both went to Stanford. We made the effort to see each other at least once a month. I'd go there or they'd come to see me.
Rose was one of my first year English Lit tutors. By that stage she was already well underway with her law degree, but English had been her undergrad and she needed the money that came with tutoring. She was a hard assed tutor and worked me really hard. I spent that whole semester thinking she hated me, she now claims she just saw my potential and wanted to get the best out of me. I was discovered at the end of my final year at the tender age of 21. I had been bullied into the drama club and was doing an apparently engrossing rendition of Ophelia in Hamlet. There was a kid called Felix in my drama club, and his Dad is a hot shot director. He liked me and wanted to cast me in his next film which was a low budget indy flick about a drug addled musician having an incestuous affair with his second cousin who eventually saves him from himself. I was to play the second cousin. Fate had it that this happened just after Rose, who had become one of my best friends by this stage, had completed her bar exam and was now a bona fide lawyer. Rose, wanting to get to become an agent and entertainment lawyer extraordinaire signed on as my lawyer/agent and helped me sign the contract with Felix's Dad, Aro.
Fast forward one year and I had won my first Oscar for my role as a supporting actress, had shot two more indy films and was inundated with scripts and movie deals. I was becoming a hot commodity in Hollywood. Rose had her hands full with me full time, and I was all over the place. Most of my shoots were on location and I was hardly ever at the apartment I shared with Rose. Money was coming in thick and fast and Rose convinced me to buy myself a house. She lived with me for a few months, but with the commission she was earning on what I was making, she eventually bought her own place.
Cue Ange, Ben and Jazz. Ange and Ben graduated at the same time I did. Ange had her heart set on becoming a novelist, and Ben wanted to break Hollywood as a script writer. I needed a PA part time to keep up with my now crazy schedule, and Ange needed an income. It was a win-win situation. Somewhere in amongst the craziness that was my life, Ben and Ange got married.
Jasper Whitlock Hale was Rose's twin brother. With two degrees, one in Psychology and one in business, he was the perfect person to help Rose with my now skyrocketing career. Jasper became my PR man and resident therapist. I don't think I've ever met someone who can spin a story quite like Jasper can. He's a god send. About six months after I first got signed, him and Rose Started up 'Hale and Associates', a firm specializing in all things entertainment. They are a one stop shop for all your agency, public relations and legal needs. I was their first client, and they were the only two working there. Now I'm one of about one hundred celebrities they deal with and they employ around fifteen people, but I like to think I'm still the most important client.
Which brings me to now. Now I live in a huge house in Beachwood Canyon, Los Angeles. My house has twenty rooms. I use four of them. Rose convinced me real estate was a good buy, I wish she'd let me choose somewhere smaller. Rose has eased off on the amount of films I have to do. Apparently I am now considered Hollywood elite. A-List if you will. Apparently I'm a shoe in for an Oscar Nomination for best leading actress for my latest film about a young Russian woman who escapes the siege of Leningrad and manages to walk to Finland and safety. The down side of this is that now that I'm known, the paparazzi follow me everywhere. And I mean everywhere. To the supermarket, when I go clothes shopping, when I go to have coffee with my friends, and to the hospital. Everything I do is splashed across the pages of magazines. I'm linked to every single male co-star I've ever had, and some of the directors too. Hell, I've even been linked to Jasper and he's like my brother. People who knew me as a child, as a teenager and at college have sold their stories of me to tabloids, most of the stories are untrue. I avoid clubbing like the plague, I very rarely drink. I keep my nose clean. I'm friendly to the press, but I never give anything away. I am America's newest girl next door. But really, deep down, I'm just me.
So here I am, cooking in my kitchen, waiting for the few people in the world I can trust so that we can have our weekly meeting about my life, and how I need to welcome a couple of new people into it. A prospect which is scary to say the least.
XXXX
"Bella" Rose began as she passed around the Garlic Bread. We were perched around one end of the giant table in my dining room eating. Why I had a dining table this big was beyond me. I only had four friends. You'd have to ask Rose.
"You need a bodyguard." She continued. "I know you think we're being ridiculous, but seriously, you saw how it was the other day when me and Jazz had to get you out of the hospital. It was crazy. There were at least fifty photographers there and that was a mild day for you. It's not safe anymore. You're tiny, I mean come on, you weigh like a hundred pounds, your only five three. And it's not just the paparazzi, there are the fans, some of them mean well, but they all want to get close to you, to touch you, to see you closer. It's getting dangerous Bells."
She was right, I knew she was right. It was petrifying being in crowds like that. I was petite, and most paparazzi are big, and there are a lot of them. It does get intimidating. I've fallen before because I got shoved by someone trying to get a closer shot. I try to be friendly, smile at them, be nice and understand that they're just doing their job, but sometimes all I want to do is cry because I'm so terrified.
"I know Rose. But you know how I am with new people. This guy would have to be with me pretty much all the time. He'd have to come with me to set, come with me when I wanted to go to get coffee, when I wanted to go shopping, all the time. What if I don't like him? What if I can't trust him? What if he sells me out to the paparazzi like that last guy, Dmitri did?"
"I've got someone in mind." Jasper spoke up. "My Roommate from college was Quarterback for the Dallas Cowboys. He got another concussion recently and won't be able to play football again, so he's moved back to LA to be closer to his family who live here, but he wants to work. He's a huge dude, quite intimidating looking, but one of the most stand up guys you'll ever meet. His name's Emmett. Rose has arranged for him to come meet you tomorrow."
"Ok, I feel better about the fact at least one of us knows him. I guess I'll meet him and give him a shot." One down, one to go.
"Right, so we've got one of the three positions most likely filled." began Rose "Next up is the fact that Ange here is three months along and will not be putting up with your shit in a professional capacity for much longer. I know you're not going to like anyone who comes along seeing as your current PA has been your BFF since high school, but we have to at least start looking for someone."
"I know, I know" I grumbled. I was not looking forward to replacing Ange, but I knew it had to be done. I'd been lucky enough to have my best friends around me in a professional capacity for far too long. "Wait, did you say three positions? What in the hell is the third?"
"Well B, as much as I love to play Bella Barbie, it's turning into an almost full time job. Dear God, did you see what you rocked up to the hospital in?"
"I was trying to go incognito!" I grumbled.
"Well sugar, it didn't work. Instead of looking like an injured celebrity, you ended up looking like a degenerate injured celebrity. You're lucky I was able to swing past yours and pick up some decent clothes for you to wear before you were discharged. You need a stylist B, pronto. Preferably one who can not only dress you and shop for you, but one who can also do hair and make-up for events. I know I passed on my love of Louboutins, but the red soles won't get you by every time."
"A stylist?" I shrieked. "I don't need a freaking stylist! I don't wanna leave the house on a daily basis not looking like me, with my hair all done up and some freaking skanktastic dress on!" Rose was right though. Every stylish piece of clothing I owned had been purchased for me by Rose, I hated shopping with a passion. Except for the Louboutins, they were my weakness. Despite my inherent clumsiness which hadn't changed any when I became an actress, I ordered hundreds of pairs of Louboutins off the internet in my size. Every season when the new collection came out, I was the first one on that website.
"That's the point of a stylist, B" Jasper cut in. "They aren't supposed to force their style on you, but help you come up with a style that is you and makes you look like the Hollywood Royalty you are. So all that means is that we have to get you a good stylist"
"Who forces some style on you" muttered Rose. I glared at her.
"Fine, whatever. You two are in charge of my career so I'm trusting you not to fuck this up. Set up some interviews for…" I got out my blackberry and checked my schedule "set them up for Monday fortnight." What in the hell was I getting myself into. I was turning into one of the pretentious celebrities I hated. One of the ones with an entourage of people.
XXXX
My alarm blared the next morning at 7am sharp. I got up and stumbled my way into the kitchen to make myself some coffee. Mm, morning caffeine fix. I couldn't live without it. I was going to throw a pop-tart in the toaster when I realized Jazz would be here at eight with my new Bodyguard in tow. I decided to have a shower and get dressed, then make them breakfast. Jazz was a sucker for Eggs Benedict with my special homemade hollandaise sauce, and I loved to spoil him and Rose when I could. They had been so good to me, and even when I first met them they had been wealthy, trust fund babies, so it was the sentimental shit I did which counted to them.
I washed my hair with my favorite Strawberry shampoo and went to my closet to see what Rose had hung out in the Monday section for me before she went home last night. Bitch was right. Dressing me was a full time job. I was meeting with the producers for the movie which I was to start filming next week, so Rose had laid out a royal blue, belted wrap dress and charcoal cashmere cardigan. I paired it with some plain, patent black, pointed toe flats, Louboutin of course and my favorite Lanvin metallic lambskin bag. I threw my hair back in a pony tail and put on one coat of black mascara and one coat of clear lipgloss, then went back downstairs to make Eggs Bene for three.
I heard Jazz's car pull up out front at precisely five to eight. I was pouring the hollandaise over the eggs, bacon and toasted ciabatta when Jazz stauntered into the Kitchen with the largest man I'd ever seen before in my life. He had dark hair, cropped close to his skull. It looked like it would be curly if he'd let it grow out slightly. He was at least six foot four and had the broadest shoulders ever. He looked like a body builder. No, he looked like a football player. He was very, very frightening.
"Bells, I'd like you to meet Emmett Cullen. Emmett this is Isabella Swan." Jasper introduced us.
The giant gave me a huge smile which accentuated a deep dimple in each cheek. He suddenly looked more like a cute little boy than a scary man, and I couldn't help but smile back at him.
"'Sup B, nice to meet you!" he exclaimed walking towards me.
I extended my hand thinking he was going to shake it, but instead he picked me up and enveloped me in a bear hug. "It's nice to meet you too Emmett" I responded, but my face was muffled in his chest. "I made you guys breakfast." With that comment I was placed back on my feet and rewarded with another face splitting grin.
"Aw B, I like you already!" exclaimed the big man, then he took his place next to Jasper at the breakfast bar and inhaled the plate I had laid out for him.
Note to self, make more breakfast tomorrow. Because at this stage, I had already decided that I liked Emmett already too, and despite his intimidating size, his innate ability to make me feel comfortable despite having been in the same room as him for all of five minutes had won me over. He was fantastic. I nodded at Jasper.
"Well Em, I'm getting the nod from the little boss lady, so I'm gonna say welcome to the team!"
