Without A Smile: Chapter Seven

Edward watched as Miss Swan walked back to her desk and he couldn't help but smile to himself. He supposed what he was doing was a little cruel in its unassuming simplicity but damn he was kind of having fun.

Edward's mind had been preoccupied that morning when he arrived at work. In fact, it had been preoccupied all weekend which was why he ended up leaving the house earlier than usual and taking a different route to work. That led to him stopping off at a coffee shop to get a latte. Juggling the latte and his briefcase meant his hands and mind were occupied when he arrived in his office and he didn't notice the blinds to his inner office windows were open until he sat down at his desk. Normally the cleaning crew shut them – or kept them shut, he never bothered to think about them before really – but as he sat there staring at this unexpected change he noticed just how perfect was the view of Miss Swan's desk.

That view prompted a series of 'what ifs' to roll around in his brain.

What if he didn't close the blinds?

What if he kept them open and watched her while he worked. Would that be creepy?

Too creepy or just a little creepy?

What if he opened up this one layer to his closed-off self?

With that last thought he shook his head and rolled his eyes – he could almost hear Tanya laughing at him in his head. He decided it was a little too early on a Monday morning for such inane introspection and he felt silly for all the self-analysis he had been doing lately. Stuff like that was better left up to his brother-in-law Jasper.

As he put his hands on his desk to hoist himself out of his chair, with the intention of getting up and closing the blinds, Miss Swan entered the office.

He quickly sat down again.

Miss Swan had that look of someone who had been walking for a while in cool temperatures – all red cheeked and bright eyed. She wore plaid tights – a theme in her wardrobe Edward was starting to notice – a green dress and a little hat. She didn't see Edward staring at her.

Edward came to the realization that he no longer had any desire to close the blinds.

A couple days later the blinds were still open in his office. Edward had been in a phone meeting for an hour and a half with a company in Japan that Cullen Incorporated had dealings with. He had gotten used to the blinds being open and was training himself to not stare out his window at Miss Swan.

At least not too much.

The thing with Edward was that for all his money and good looks he was surprisingly socially awkward – at least when it came to women. Oh, it wasn't a surprise to his family or the McCarty twins who knew all about his past but to a stranger who looked at him and saw a young, handsome CEO of a successful company it may have come as a surprise.

After his parents died Edward spent a lot of his time and energy focusing on getting Alice to talk and smile again. When she finally did he felt an enormous responsibility to make sure she stayed smiling and talking and singing. The expression 'doesn't play well with others' wasn't entirely true in his case but it wasn't too far off the mark either. Edward didn't bother trying to make friends – the McCarty twins just kind of took him under their wings (or fists). When it came to making friends Alice tried too hard – which made the girls who were in the same grade or older take advantage of her. This drove Edward crazy and made him suspicious of all girls, at least while he was in high school.

Things calmed down emotionally for both of them when Alice met Jasper. At that point she had enough confidence in herself and her talents not to mind what other people were saying. When Jasper arrived at her school he was pretty much smitten with the little theatre girl from day one and while that may not have won Alice any points with the other girls in her grade she was too much in love to care.

Edward was in university when Alice met Jasper. Never wanting to be too far from his sister or adopted parents he stayed in town and attended the local university. After hearing Alice go on and on about Jasper for weeks Edward was ready to either gag her or run the boy out of town. However, when he finally did meet the object of his sister's affection (obsession) he couldn't help but like the guy right away.

With a couple really good friends and a sister he adored Edward never made much effort with women. If he was being honest with himself they kind of scared him. He tried to date in university but most of the girls he met were into partying and he was too focused on studying. Tanya and her friends were big partiers for the first couple years and while Edward found it annoying he was so used to Tanya and her antics that when it came to her it didn't bother him. However, her friends were way too aggressive for his tastes. After university he had a couple girlfriends. Nice girls from good families who were about as boring as they sounded. Those relationships inevitably fizzled when the women realized Edward was putting the least amount of work into it – and that he wasn't going to change.

Truthfully he just didn't know what he wanted in a woman and so for the last couple years he avoided them all.

It was getting close to lunch hour and Edward was hoping his phone call to Japan was going to end soon. He was starving. As he listened to the interpreter go on and on, and taking surreptitious glances at Miss Swan, he noticed his mother walk into the outer office.

"What the hell," he mumbled quietly to himself.

He knew for a fact that he didn't not have an appointment or a lunch date with his mother.

Esme Cullen hadn't been in the office of Cullen Incorporated in over a year. She used to be a regular fixture there when Carlisle was CEO but now that they were both only board members they mostly stayed away. She felt it important to not appear to be coddling her grown son who was fully capable of running the company on his own. So when she wanted to meet her son for lunch she usually just sent him a text. She never bothered with his assistants – she was his mother after all.

Today Esme Cullen couldn't resist marching herself into the office and taking a look at the girl she had eavesdropped on last week. She had seen how flustered her son had been at the charity dinner the night before she had overheard Bella and Rosalie talking in the restaurant. While she knew Edward didn't like surprises she made up the excuse that she hadn't seen him all weekend and was wondering if he was free for lunch.

Edward's eyes were glued to the window as he watched his mother sit on the edge of Miss Swan's desk laughing about something. Miss Swan had looked a little shocked at first when his mother had come in but whatever they were talking about must have immediately put her at ease because now she was laughing at something Esma had said.

Edward could hear her laughing through the door to his office. Her head was thrown back and her laugh was low and throaty and Edward wasn't sure he had ever seen anyone as beautiful as Miss Swan in that moment.

Then his mother looked up and winked at him as she caught him staring through the window. Edward was busted and he knew that some how his mother wasn't there to see him today. Not really.


A/N: Enter Esme and all that entails. (Alliteration for the win!)

Thanks to everyone for reading. I can't believe how many followers I have for this little story. A big thanks goes out to A Different Forest for mentioning my story and sending some more readers this way. I'm blown away by your comments and your kindness. I had a really hard time writing this chapter, partially due to the move and partially due to the fact that it just wasn't cooperating with me. I hope you enjoy it.