Aaaaaaand we're back!
Here is Chapter 2 of As If You Have A Choice brought to you by Bella

We should have probably mentioned earlier that I will be writing Bella's POV while my partner in crime, Jessica0306, will be giving you Edward's POV.


SM owns it all! We just make them do wild and crazy things!
Enjoy

*****

Life's a game but it's not fair
I break the rules so I don't care
So I keep doin' my own thing
Walkin' tall against the rain
Victory's within the mile
Almost there, don't give up now
Only thing that's on my mind
Is who's gonna run this town tonight

Run This Town ~ Jay-Z, Rihanna & Kanye

****

"Bella," I heard my assistant, Angela, call over the intercom.

"Yeah, Ang. What's up?"

"Just wanted to let you know that ESPN is about to run the spot on Emmett and announce his new contract."

Shit, already? The spot wasn't supposed to run until 5:30 PM, I thought to myself as I glanced at the clock on my office wall. 5:32 PM. Well, fuck. Where did my day go?

"Um, thanks Ang," I said. I got up from my desk and ran over to the black leather couch in my office. Positioning myself on the arm of the couch, I quickly turned on the TV and flipped to ESPN, just as the announcement was about to start.

"In other sports related news, running back, Emmett McCarty, will sign an eight-year deal with the New York Giants worth $50.5 million which also includes $17 million in combined signing and option bonuses..."

I couldn't help but smile as the ESPN commentator went into detail about Emmett's new contract. Emmett played football at the University of Southern California during college and had amazing talent. The boy was six foot four, 230 pounds of solid muscle and he was born to play. The first time I saw him on the field was like a breath of fresh air. He was quick, graceful, sure of himself and players knew not to fuck with him. After watching him during practice one day, I knew I needed to work with him. I knew I could make him the next big thing.

At the time, I was working for Strategic Sports Group, Inc., a large sports agency in Manhattan, and was quickly coming to realize that in this business, you needed to be a shark. It was hard enough being a female sports agent, a tiny one at that, but no professional athlete wanted his or her agent to be meek or a fucking pansy ass. No, they needed someone tough as nails and I was just the girl to get the job done, considering my tolerance level for bullshit was less than zero. I was a pure spitfire.

I approached him after practice that fateful day, all five foot two, 110 pounds of me, and tried my hardest to convince this huge oaf of a man that I could get the job done. I was basically asking him to put his professional football career in my hands and trying to convince him that I was capable of doing the best job for him. He had no reason to trust me, but after I was done with my speech and stepped off my soapbox, he just threw his head back in booming laughter, put his arm around me and said "Ok, Tink, let's talk more. I like you."

And that was that. Emmett gave me a chance, which was all I really asked for, and I fucking ran with it.

From that moment on, Emmett and I were partners. He signed on with me as his agent and our business relationship, and friendship, was off and running. It was slow going at first...really slow going. After college, Emmett was drafted by the Miami Dolphins as a second string running back. He didn't get much playing time, but when he did, he made sure to play his fucking heart out. The problem was that owners, coaches and managers all saw him the same way. They mistook him for a cocky, arrogant, know-it-all football player who thought he was better than the legends of the game, and who wanted nothing but big money and instant fame. What they neglected to see was that he didn't give a rats ass about the money, even though he fucking deserved it. All Emmett cared about was playing the game he loved and being the best he could be at it. He was a team player through and through. He never looked out for just himself, although at times he should have. He looked out for, and took care of, the other players as well. If they hurt, he hurt. If they played badly, he felt badly for them. He was the epitome of class, honor and professionalism and he deserved better than what he was getting.

Unfortunately, at the same time, I was becoming increasingly unhappy at Strategic. Sports were my life and I loved my job, but Strategic just wasn't doing it for me anymore. I constantly felt like they didn't want me to further myself and advance within the company, and they sure as shit didn't take me seriously most of the time. To them, I was just a little girl playing with the big boys in a place where they felt I had no business being. It pissed me off and only made me want to tie all of their nut sacks together in a giant fucking knot and sing Kumbaya around a campfire. But, I digress. I knew I needed to make a move. My career was very important to me and, at the time, I was stuck. Not moving forward...not moving at all. I'd be damned if I was going to sit around and watch it all go to shit. A change needed to be made, and it needed to be made fast.

If Strategic wasn't going to let me advance, then I was going to advance myself.

I talked to my friend, Rosalie Hale, the only other female sports agent at the firm, and Emmett, and after much discussion, a plan was put into action.

Rosalie and I had each called our respective parents that night to explain our situation and what we perceived to be the best course of action. The plan was simple...well, at least to us it was. Rosalie and I wanted to open up our own sports agency and Emmett promised to follow me wherever I went. We knew it would be hard, but we also knew we could make it work. We were smart, savvy, strong-willed, and we knew our stuff better than some of the men in the business...and I'm sure the fact that we both had amazing racks didn't hurt, either. The part of the plan that wasn't so simple, however, was the money.

Obviously, starting a company from the ground up wasn't cheap and Rose and I were young so we didn't have the means, capital or credit to do so. That's where our parents came in. I knew my parents would be supportive, Renee and Charlie had always stood by my side, but I also knew that they didn't have much in the way of money to contribute to the cause. However, I wanted to let them know of the significant changes being made in my life and I wanted their approval. Of course, they were happy for me and Rose, and proud of me for being a go-getter and taking the initiative to start my own company, but what shocked the hell out of me was when they told me they had set up a savings account for me when I was born and had been putting money into it since then, hoping they would have enough in there to pay for my wedding one day. They gave me the option of taking the money now or keeping it for my "wedding" and, since I had no intentions of getting married at any point in the distant future, I gratefully accepted their offer to take the money.

With the money given to me by my parents, the amount of money Rose's parents contributed, and the loan we were able to take out from the bank, BelRo Sports Agency Inc. was born and instantly successful.

Thinking about my parents brought a whole new smile to my face.

My father, or Charlie as I called him everywhere but to his face, was a police officer in the small town of Ringwood, New Jersey. He was, by far, the sweetest man alive and I thank him whole-heartedly for my love of sports. I was a daddy's girl from the start and ever since I could remember, I would sit down on the couch with Charlie at nights and on weekends and watch the games with him. It didn't matter what the sport was, I loved and enjoyed them all just as much as I loved and enjoyed the time it allowed me to spend with him. Charlie was my rock and, as far as I was concerned, the only man I would ever permanently need or want in my life. He was always good for a hug and he knew how to comfort his little girl when she needed it.

Renee, my mother, God bless her soul, was Charlie's polar opposite. They didn't make any fucking sense but they fit together like two pieces of a jigsaw puzzle. If Charlie said 'up', Renee said 'down'. If Charlie went left, Renee went right. I'm not sure they had anything in common except for the fact that they were crazy in love and devoted to one another completely. She was the peanut butter to his jelly, the ying to his yang and every time she walked into a room, his face lit up like he was plugged into the wall socket and was emitting radioactive light.

It was impossible not to love Renee. She was a free-spirit. Her energy was magnetic. She never had a bad thing to say about anyone, always seeing the good in others, and she made friends wherever she went. She was constantly pulling my father out of his shell, adjusting his comfort level, and he loved her for it. Their love was unshakeable, unbreakable and constantly shocking the shit out of me. So much so that when they announced four years ago over breakfast that Renee was pregnant, I choked on my coffee and literally spit in poor Charlie's face. As they told me the news of the new unexpected bundle of joy we were going to be welcoming into the family, I almost threw up at the thought that I was going to have a brother or a sister twenty-four fucking years younger than me. But, it was just another testament to how crazy in love with one another they were and, apparently, how...um...active, I guess, their sex life still was. I suppose we all had Renee's profession as a sex therapist to thank for that one. I shuddered at the thought.

Seven and a half months later, Renee gave birth to a beautiful baby girl they named Jane. The first time I held her, or saw her even, she became the light of my life. The age difference didn't matter anymore. All that mattered to me, to any of us, was this baby girl who captured all of our hearts the moment she entered the world. Being a big sister to someone so precious meant so much to me and I vowed to look after her and protect her with all of my might.

One would think growing up surrounded by Renee and Charlie's love would make me yearn for the same type of thing in my life but that wasn't the case. Watching them revel in each other and be blissfully happy knowing they had found the other half to their whole was more than enough for me. I had always been focused on my studies, my friends and my career too much to worry about anything else. Don't get me wrong, I wasn't innocent by any stretch of the imagination. No, no, far from it, in fact. I had plenty of boyfriends in high school and college...none that really held my interest for too long, however, and I was the master of casual sex. But finding the all consuming love my parents had was never at the top of my priority list. They knew I was content with leading the life I was living, but Renee, whose one flaw was that she didn't know how or when to mind her own fucking business, was constantly trying to get me to open my eyes to what she thought I was missing out on. What she didn't understand, though, was that my eyes were wide fucking open.

I didn't see things the way Renee did and Charlie was always trying to get her to ease up on me. I was perfectly happy pouring all of my energy into my work and my business and I had no problem providing myself with any amount of self-love my trusty vibrator was willing to give me. In my mind, the vibrator was better than any sort of relationship I could have had with a man anyway. It got the job done, didn't pressure me for more of a commitment, didn't want to cuddle after sex, didn't ask about my work, and didn't need me to talk about my feelings. God, I sound like such a dude right now. Whatever. I just didn't think there was anything wrong with the way I chose to live my life. I wasn't lonely. I wasn't afraid of becoming a spinster and I fucking hated cats so I didn't see myself winding up as a cat lady in the distant future. I was sure that, one day, Renee would accept the fact that my life would be different from hers, although no less complete in my book. Plus, if I really felt the need to actually fuck a member of the opposite sex, I would just turn to James.

James. The guy was an absolute ass-hat, to be honest with you. I had worked with him at Strategic and, while he never made me feel like I had no place in working in a man's business, he had an arrogance about him that irked the shit out of me. The guy thought he was God's gift to everything. Every athlete and every woman he met he was sure he was the answer to all of their prayers and he had a way of convincing you that he was. I never bought into his line of crap, but one night when a few of my co-workers and I went to grab some drinks after work, James and I got hammered and wound up fucking in the bathroom at the bar. It was dirty...and by dirty I mean unclean, because I don't care what anyone tells you, sex in a bathroom stall in a hole in the wall bar in New York City is not hot but it sure does scratch the fucking itch. James was an okay lay, had a decent sized cock and 70 to 75 percent of the time got me off. The sex wasn't mind-blowing or anything but when I felt the need to be fucked and not just rely on my vibrator, I went to him. We were fuck buddies, nothing more, nothing less. Our relationship was purely 'Wham, bam, thank you ma'am, see ya the next time around' and both of us were more than okay with that. He never asked about my work and I never asked about his because, honestly, I didn't fucking care. It was the perfect arrangement.

I was brought out of my musings by a knock on my door, followed by Rosalie coming into my office.

Rosalie was what some, and by some, I meant most, people described as being flawlessly beautiful. She was tall, had piercing violet eyes, blonde hair, a killer body and legs that went on for days. She looked like a supermodel, but she didn't need the airbrushing.

"Nice that you waited for me to tell you to come in," I said, laughing slightly.

"Whatever, hooker," she greeted as she walked over to the couch and sat down next to me. "I'm assuming you watched the ESPN announcement on Emmett?"

"Of course I did, Rose," I stated as I flipped off the television. "Emmett played his heart out for years to get a deal that lucrative. You know there was no way I was going to miss it." I didn't look at or make eye contact with Rose as I said this, knowing that I almost missed the announcement because I was too focused on putting the final touches on a pitch for a potential new client and wasn't paying attention to the time.

"I'm calling it a night," she said as she ran her fingers through her perfectly styled golden locks. "Do you want to go grab a drink or something? I could use a stiff one after the day I've had." I turned my body to face her as my lips lifted in to a sarcastic smile. By "stiff one" I wasn't sure if she meant drink or dick. Honestly, it could go either way.

"Can't, Rose," I mumbled as I got up from the couch, walked back over to my desk and sat down in my chair. "I have a ton of work to finish up here on Alice Cullen and then I need to run down to Duane Reade to pick up some things," I said as I shuffled some papers on my desk and marked an appointment on my calendar.

I felt the heat of Rose's intense glare on me. "Bella," she said, casting daggers my way as she got up from the couch and walked over to stand in front of my desk. Placing her hands on top of my desk and leaning forward, she asked, "What time did you wake up this morning?" Ugh, here we fucking go again.

"4:30 AM," I sighed, exasperated. "Why Rose?"

"And why were you up so early?" she questioned, the tone of her voice showing just how aggravated she was with me.

"To go for a run in the park, Rose. You know this," I said, sounding just as aggravated as she had.

"And what time were you here this morning?" she demanded. We had the same fucking god-damned conversation once a week. I should just fucking record it one time and replay it when she started in on me again so we could save ourselves the time and the breath.

"5:45 AM, Rose." I folded my arms in front of me and stared at her, waiting for her to blow up at me. By my calculations it would happen in five...four...three...two...one...

"Oh, fuck me, Bella. I bet you don't even know what time it is now, do you? It's 6:30 PM. 6:30, Bella. Which means you've willingly been here for almost 13 hours. Jesus, Bella, that's not even healthy. Have you even eaten today?"

Now that she mentioned it, I don't think I ate lunch...wait, did I eat dinner last night? What was last night? What day was today for that matter? Shit, where was my Blackberry so I could pull up my calendar? Maybe I should look into buying those panties that had the days of the week printed on them...

She removed one hand from my desk and pointed a finger in my face. "You need to get out of here, relax, have fun, go on a fucking date for shit's sake."

"I date, Rose," I said, sounding a little too wounded at her words for my liking.

"Oh yea?" she spat. "When was the last date you had?"

"August eighteenth," I mumbled as she stared at me, disbelievingly. I looked away from her as I quietly added, "2007."

"Bella" she gasped, as she collapsed into the chair behind her.

"Oh, close your mouth, ya tramp. Just because I haven't been on a date in a while doesn't mean I haven't gotten laid recently," I argued. I could feel my face heating from anger and embarrassment and I wanted nothing more than to put an end to this conversation.

"Your vibrator and James don't count, Bella. Trust me, I love my rabbit just as much as the next girl but I'm convinced that if the next guy you fuck doesn't run on batteries, or have a nub attached to his cock that simultaneously rubs your clit while he pounds into you, you aren't going to know what to do with him. And James doesn't count. That boy is a sleaze and a shitty lay, you've said so yourself."

"You really are a foul individual, you know that Rosalie?" I said, as I got up from my desk chair and walked over to the tiny refrigerator I kept in my office to grab two bottles of Fiji water.

"Oh please, Bella, I'm just trying to point out to you that it's the same fucking thing every day," she said as she grabbed the bottle of water I handed her. I walked back over to my desk and sat down as she continued. "You get up, you work out, you come to the office and you drown yourself in work to the point where you have no fucking clue as to the time or the day. You stay here until all hours of the night and then you go home to your large, lavish, empty apartment, order shitty Thai food, go to bed and then wake up the next morning to start the same pitiful routine all over again."

Lather, rinse, repeat...

I opened the bottle of water and took a sip. "Wow, Rose. Tell me how you really feel and don't hold back. I don't want you keeping all of this stuff bottled up. It's bad for your chi and all," I snapped, as I felt myself getting increasingly angry at her words. What the fuck did she know?

Realizing she had crossed a line, she sighed and slumped her shoulders. "Look, I'm sorry, Bella. I'm just worried about you. You have yourself so tightly wound up in your work and this company that you are neglecting other important aspects of your life." I could tell she was being sincere by the look in her eyes and she was genuinely concerned about me, however, there was no reason for her to be.

"I'm not neglecting anything, Rose. I love what I do and I don't feel like I need a man in my life to make me complete," I said sternly, trying with all my might to make her finally understand what I was saying. "Besides, last time I checked, there was nothing wrong with working hard to ensure that our business was successful."

"Uh, take a look at your bank account, Bella," she argued, as she rolled her eyes at me. "Here's a newsflash for you. We. Are. Successful. We have some of the biggest names in sports signed on with us and more and more signing on everyday. But, you're right," she said, admitting defeat. Although I knew this was more of a 'you've won the battle but not the war' type of situation. "Your personal life and how you live it is your business and I'll try not to bring it up again."

"Uh-huh. Until next week, right?" I chuckled.

"Look," she said as she got up from her chair and walked around my desk towards me. "I can't help that I worry about my best friend, ok? And I'm sorry I snapped. Let me make it up to you. What do you say we head over to Barneys and try on some new Louboutin's?" She asked as she gently started to play with my hair, knowing how it relaxed me. "Maybe even buy a pair to go with that new, gorgeous Badgley Mischka dress you bought for the cocktail party next Friday?" Shit. She was using my very own kryptonite against me. She knew I could never turn down a shopping trip for new Christian Louboutin shoes. Use the force, Swan. Don't give in to her now.

"I honestly can't, Rose," I sighed. "Now that you've mentioned it, I'm exhausted and fucking starving and I still need to run to the pharmacy. But how about tomorrow? Can we go shoe shopping tomorrow?" Please, please please...

"Sure, Bella," she chuckled as she patted the top of my head and made her way to the door. I grabbed my purse from my desk drawer and got up so I could leave with her.

"Oh hey, do you think you can pick some things up for me at the pharmacy?" she asked, as I turned off the lights to my office. I sighed, slightly annoyed about the fact that this 'quick' trip to the pharmacy was turning into a huge ordeal.

At the time, I had no way of knowing that the quick trip - turned huge ordeal - was about to spin my world off of its carefully structured axis.

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