The moment I sat down in the car I began to seriously rethink my acceptance of Edward as a form of transportation.
It seemed that I had forgotten my body's natural reaction to him. It was not like those of other humans, although parts of it were the same as any other female. My heart rate sped up although it was not in fear, my breathing came in sharper and quicker, and I suddenly couldn't remember my own mother's name.
He turned to me with his glittering smile, laughter in his eyes, "Is everything alright Bella?"
It took me a moment to remember that I was Bella, and that he was inquiring as to my physical state rather than the general amazingness of the moment. "I'm fine, everything's fine." He had the decency to let it go after that instead of continuing to question my physical response to him.
We drove in silence until he leaned down to turn the CD player on. Country western music started blasting out of the speakers, and I turned to look at him curious as to his recent change in musical taste.
He winced, "Sorry, this is Jasper's car, I don't usually take my siblings' vehicles for just this reason, and they all seem to have deplorable taste in music. I would have thought better of Jasper, but I guess you can take the boy out of the country, but you can't take the country out of the boy."
I laughed and he turned the radio on instead, choosing a smooth jazz station that he put on low. After five minutes passed with nothing but the music to break the silence Edward spoke again.
"Bella I wanted to apologize for the other night, my actions were deplorable, and I'm sorry if I scared you at all."
"Its fine Edward, you came into your home and found someone you didn't expect to see there, couple that with the fact that you explicitly told your family to stay out of my life, and I'm sure anyone would have reacted the same way. And for the record if you didn't scare me when you told me you were a vampire who wanted to kill me, what makes you think that you would scare me by getting a little angry?"
I was bluffing to a certain extent, he had scared me, but not in the way he thought he had, I was never scared of being hurt in the Cullen house, at least not physically. I had however been beyond frightened that I was going to lose the closest thing I ever had to a real family for the second time.
"Yes, about that, I want you to know that I asked my family to stay away from you for your sake. I thought that it would be harder for you if they were around or calling you, but none of them wanted to stay away, even Rosalie thought that I was being harsh."
I was a little annoyed by that and the emotion seeped into my voice when I replied, "You don't have to explain yourself Edward, I already talked to your sister and your mom about it, and they filled me in on your reasoning." Although I still had my doubts about how much of their information was accurate. They both said he left to make things easier on me, but I still thought that there was a part of him that wanted to make sure I didn't crop up unexpectedly in his life.
Although if that was any part of his reasoning it had certainly backfired on him.
Edward must have sensed the emotion behind my words because he didn't say anything after that until we pulled up in front of my house. As I was getting out of the car he grabbed my hand, and the sensation of his cool fingers on my warm ones made me turn to him in surprise.
"Bella, Alice mentioned you were planning a shopping trip in New York next weekend?"
"Yes, unfortunately that's the plan."
"I was wondering, would it be possible for me to join you? I mean if you don't want me to that's completely fine, but I'd really like to come."
This confused me, "Why Edward? I mean you spaz when you find me in your house with your family so what do you want from me?"
He looked down for a moment and he seemed to wage an internal battle before he finally spoke, "Bella, I'm planning on being with the family for a while and it has been made clear to me that you will be spending time with the family as well, and no one would have it any other way. I guess I just want to have a positive relationship with you, rather than walking on eggshells every time you're around."
I considered that. Could I possibly have any relationship with him that wasn't romantic? Would I… could I be happy with that relationship? The answer was very clear to me, no I couldn't ever be entirely happy without him, the effects of the band-aid that was the Cullen family had intensified to an extreme extent from the first moment that he walked into the Cullen household.
"Sure Edward, you can come."
He smiled, "Thank you Bella!"
It was probably just wishful thinking, but I could have sworn that as I walked away Edward was watching me with a strange look in his eyes, almost like longing.
The week-end finally came.
Despite my previous objection to shopping with any Cullen, though more specifically Alice, I was actually excited for this trip. It wasn't that I enjoyed shopping more now, but rather that I realized how much I actually missed the time I'd spent with Alice.
I'd originally only planned for a day trip, but Alice had managed to convince me that it made more sense to go on Friday and stay through Sunday afternoon since I didn't have to work anyway.
Since I'd agreed to let Edward come Alice insisted on bringing Jasper claiming that it was "just to even up the gender count" when I'd pointed out that I was in no way romantically involved with her brother the way that she clearly was with her husband.
So at six on Friday evening I went over to the Cullen house for our usual night of fun, but it was a shortened version of our usual evening due to our impending trio. I was only there for about an hour when Alice announced that it was time to leave and we left for Edward's recently acquired car.
"Another Volvo, huh?" I asked.
"Yes, I've found that messing with a good thing isn't the way to go," he gave me a strange look as he said this.
Not knowing how to react I said, "Yes, but this one isn't silver, it's blue."
"Well, I've also been told that variety is the spice of life." He grinned at me.
I made my way towards the back seat of the car, but before I could open the door Alice was in front of me.
"Bella, why don't you sit up front? Jasper and I can take the back."
Knowing resistance was futile I made my way to the passenger's seat, and buckled up. Once we were on the highway Edward started to allow his foot to rest a little more liberally on the gas and I realized that the trip, which usually took a couple hours, would probably take less than one if we didn't hit gridlock traffic. Even though I knew that I had nothing to fear about Edward's driving skills I felt myself tense involuntarily. Edward gave me a look, but I just nodded to the speedometer and he chuckled softly.
There wasn't too much conversation during the car ride, Alice chattered excitedly about where she was going to take me shopping. I just let her name the expensive sounding stores and reminded her that she was allowed to buy shoes for me, and one outfit and that was it. She laughed in my face and told me I was free to attempt to stop her from getting me whatever she wanted to.
My estimate was a little off, and we reached the city in just over an hour pulling up to the Waldorf-Astoria.
"Alice, what did you do?" I cried, knowing full well that the cost of a weekend at the famous hotel was beyond ridiculous."
"I didn't do anything Bella, we have a permanent residency in the towers, so we're just staying at a place we already own."
As I silently fumed Edward came around to open my door and hand the keys to a waiting valet along with, what I assumed was, an exorbitant tip for moving the car.
We took the elevator up to the suite of rooms the Cullen family owned and I tried not to gawk too much at my decadent surroundings. The apartment that we soon entered wasn't much better and I had to bite my tongue as Alice directed me to one of the rooms that I could use for the stay.
I entered, with Edward right behind me carrying my suit case which he placed on the bed for me.
"The bathroom is right in there, and the kitchen is fully stocked if you need a midnight snack later. I'll let you get settled."
He left and I collapsed onto the overstuffed bed, and despite the early hour, I fell asleep.
When I woke up again I looked out the window to see that it was still dark out. A quick look at the clock on the bedside table told me it was three in the morning. After taking a moment to wake up, I realized that I was starving and went into the kitchen to find the midnight snack Edward had mentioned earlier.
As I walked towards the kitchen I saw Edward sitting alone in the living room with a book in hand.
"Good morning," he said, a lopsided grin playing on his mouth.
"The same to you, where are Alice and Jasper?"
"You know what they say, New York is the city that never sleeps, I believe they went out to put that saying to the test. I elected to stay behind rather than be subjected to loud, melody less music and hot crowded rooms."
I laughed, "Well, I'm just gonna go grab something in the kitchen, I'll leave you to your book."
I turned to leave, but he stopped me, "I'll come with you, it seems that The Count of Monte Cristo doesn't gain anything when written in Chinese."
I laughed again and went to see what vampires defined as a 'fully stocked' kitchen with Edward following behind me.
Unsurprisingly there was more food than I could eat in a month in the room, let alone the two days I would actually be here. I grabbed some ice cream and sat down at the table.
"So…" I said, unsure of what to say to Edward. We had never really had a "friend" phase in our relationship. I had disliked him then loved him with no in between phase, and I found myself at a loss now.
" So," he repeated back to me, "how long do you think you'll actually be able to hold Alice back from buying all of Bloomingdales for you."
"Honestly? I figure I'll be able to put up a decent fight for about ten minutes before I'm forced to give in, it just seems like the best idea."
With that question the ice was broken, and Edward and I continued to talk until I'd finished my ice cream. When I was done he invited me back to the living room, claiming he was going to put on an old movie, and asking me to join him. I agreed.
About an hour in I could feel myself falling asleep once more and I slumped against his shoulder with my eyes closed, he shifted to make me more comfortable, but the position we were now in was one of those in love, not just friends. I was not going to complain, and I was too exhausted to move, and as I fell asleep I could have sworn that I felt Edward's arms wrap around me and pull me closer to his body, leaving me in my own personal heaven.
A/N: Don't shoot!! I'm so sorry about my lack of updates recently, I know that there is really no excuse that anyone who reads this will want to hear, but I've been completely preoccupied with school stuff lately, which this semester actually demands that I be somewhat creative! I'm going to do my best to get some writing done this weekend so I can post chapters more frequently. Sorry again, and as always drop me a review if you feel so inclined!
