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I hope you enjoy a little EPOV!
Chapter 8 - The Diner
"Have fun at Jake's?" a disembodied voice calls from the dark living room as I'm attempting to creep toward the stairs.
Clutching at my racing heart, I turn to face the couch. "Shit, Mom. You scared me."
She brightens the dimmer switch on the lamp next to her and levels me with that one raised eyebrow that always makes me spill my guts.
I deflate with a heavy exhale. "Can we just skip to the part where you tell me what you know?"
"I got an interesting text from Renee," she says.
Shit.
Shouldn't moms not know how to text, for fuck's sake?
With a gulp, I stuff my hands into my pockets and rock back on my heels. "Renee was cool with it, though. I mean, she even gave Bella a con—" I cut myself off with a cough as her other eyebrow rises up. "Are you pissed? 'Cause, uh… you look a little pissed. But you like Bella, so…"
I might act like a cocky ass at times, but my mom has a way of making me nervous. And I really don't like upsetting her.
"Of course I like Bella," she says with a sigh. "But I didn't raise my son to go sneaking into a girl's room to do God knows what with her while her parents are in the house."
"So I should wait until her parents are gone?"
She gives me the exasperated head-tilt she's perfected over the years.
"Kidding. I'm kidding, Mom. I'll try not to make a habit of it. It's just that she left Jake's upset tonight, and I needed to talk to her and… girls like that romantic shit, right?"
"Just…" She blows out a breath and pinches the bridge of her nose just like I do when I'm frustrated. "Be careful, Edward. You and Bella have been friends for so long, and I know you'd hate to lose that friendship. If you're just messing around with her…"
"I'm not. I…" Running a hand through my hair, I walk toward her and sit in the recliner next to the couch. "I'm... in love with her, Mom."
She sucks in a breath, and tears spring to her eyes. Laying a hand on her chest, she shakes her head. "Oh, honey. Thank God. I suspected, but I wasn't sure, and I didn't think you'd realize it yourself any time soon." She sniffles, so I move to the couch and sit by her, slinging an arm around her shoulders. "Does she feel the same? You two have always been so close, but I've never been able to get a good read on her."
Something sits heavy on my chest, a weight that won't budge. Bella didn't say she loved me back, and although I didn't expect her to, I was sure as hell hoping for it.
"She… Well, I think she's coming around. I hope she is. I've been trying to give her time to process everything, but it's hard to stay away now that she'll let me tou—" I clear my throat forcefully because what the fuck? "I mean, uh…" Pulling my arm back to my side, I wallow in discomfort and mentally curse my broken filter.
Was I really about to talk about touching Bella to my mom? And with my arm around her, no less?
Kill me now.
Mom pats me on the leg. "Quit while you're ahead, son," she says with a soft laugh. "I don't want details, but I'm glad she's open to something more with you. Unrequited love is torturous. And of course I understand desire. Your father and I still en—"
Standing abruptly, I slap my hands over my ears. "LA LA LA LA LA, good night, Mom!" Running up the stairs, I drop my hands and hear her giggling behind me.
Yeah. Scarring your son for life is hilarious.
.
.
Dragging my ass to work the next morning is brutal. What the hell possessed me to get a summer job at the diner? Which opens at seven in the morning.
Ugh.
I skid into a parking space at 6:58 and tie my apron on as I walk through the back door, taking in the familiar smells of bacon grease and coffee.
"You're late, Cullen."
Why do bosses always say that? Like I don't fucking know I'm late. Like that isn't the reason I risked getting a ticket to speed here. Like that isn't why I'm sweating when it's not even hot out.
"Sorry, Harry!" I call out as I blow past him. "I overslept." Because I was in Bella's room until almost one in the morning.
Worth it.
Rushing around, I load my apron pocket with an order pad, pens, and straws, readying for the Sunday-morning rush.
I'd hoped Bella would get a job here for the summer too, but she's not exactly a people person. An image of her dumping a soda over some jackass's head because he didn't tip her or something plays in my brain, and I chuckle as I grab a pot of steaming coffee.
Bella got a job working with Emmett at his parents' feed store, and she seems to like it so far. Hunters and farmers don't give a shit about what she wears or if she's cussing like a sailor, so it works. Plus, she and Em don't have to work Sunday mornings.
Lucky bastards.
This obviously isn't my dream job, but it's tolerable, and I make great tips, especially from customers of the female persuasion. I guess I was blessed with a crooked smile that just opens those wallets right up.
Can't say I'm sorry about that.
Around 9am, a familiar head of strawberry curls bounces through the door.
Tanya always sits in my section, which I normally wouldn't mind, but today, an uncomfortable flush creeps up my neck as I trudge over to her booth.
"Hey, Edward," she says sweetly.
"Hey, Tanya. Rosalie," I say with a nod to her sister, who sits across from her, sporting her usual bored expression.
Tanya gives me coy smiles and basically eye-fucks me as I take their order, and for the first time, it bothers me. Not that I've ever acted on her flirtation before, but I've never straight up rejected her, either. Rosalie smirks at me as I shift on my feet, and I guess my discomfort is obvious, at least to her.
I hope they don't stay long.
After writing down everything they want, I can't get away fast enough.
Our head server, Jessica, lifts an eyebrow at me when I do what could only be described as scurrying to the order window.
Pretty sure I've never scurried before in my life.
Tyler's on the line cooking today, and as I clip their order on the ticket holder, he asks, "You okay, man?"
"Uh…" I'm about to tell him I'm fine, but then all the tiny hairs on the back of my neck stand up, and I shift my shoulders, trying to dispel the sensation. It's not exactly unpleasant, but I usually only feel it when—
"Hey, Bella!" Tyler shouts, waving with embarrassing enthusiasm through the small window. Tyler's thirty-six years old, but he plays Call of Duty with us sometimes, and he seems to love getting his ass handed to him by a teenage girl on the regular.
At his greeting, my head whips around so fast I strain my neck, and I don't register anything but her dark eyes on me in that short glimpse before I turn to face Tyler again and roll my head to stretch out my sore neck muscles.
It's not unusual for Bella to come to the diner, but it's just my luck that Tanya's here too, flirting her ass off.
"Edward," comes a voice from behind me.
It's not the one I wanted to hear, but I turn around anyway because it's my job, and I'm already on thin ice with Harry.
Tanya has her tits on display for me, perched right up on the high counter that stands between us. Her hands grip the counter, framing the stretched material of her small t-shirt, and of course my eyes betray me and land right where she wants them because well… they're tits, and I'm a guy, and fuck, I hope Bella didn't see that.
Glancing around, I search for her, and my stomach does a fucking backflip when I see she came in with Emmett, and they're sitting with Rosalie and…
Tanya purrs my name again, and I clear my throat. "Yeah, sorry. What's up?"
She smiles once I make eye contact with her, and her grin gets scary-wide when my eyes dip to her cleavage again.
Why can't I control my fucking eyes?
I think I stare a little too hard into her eyes after that, like some creeper because I'm so determined not to look at her stupid giant boobs again.
"Sorry. I forgot to say no cheese on my omelette," she says. "Cheer camp starts soon, and I can't have any extra poundage going on."
This girl can't even have cheese on her damn omelette? How fucking sad.
"I think we have some low-fat cheese," I tell her, scratching my eyebrow. Jesus, am I sweating? I can feel Bella's eyes on me again, but I don't let my gaze wander, lest it stray to the mounds of flesh in front of me for a third fucking time.
"Oh, really?" Tanya replies, her whole face lighting up again. "That would be awesome. Thanks, Edward!" she practically squeals.
Damn, she's chipper. She's probably a morning person, and morning people can suck it.
I had to guzzle two cups of nasty diner coffee-sludge this morning when I got here just to function.
"Yeah, sure," I say with a shrug. "It's no problem."
She beams at me like I've just proposed to her, so I turn abruptly to let Tyler know about the change, hoping she'll go back to her table.
Except… Bella's there too, and I have no idea how this is going to play out.
Bella and I aren't anything official yet, but I laid it all out there for her last night. It probably wasn't the smoothest thing in the world to just blurt out that I'm in love with her instead of maybe actually declaring it in some romantic way. But I don't think full-blown romance is really our style.
Or it won't be our style when… if I can convince her to be my girlfriend.
God, I want her to be my girlfriend.
I still can't believe she let me get her almost naked and let me make her come last night. That was fucking surreal, and when I woke up this morning, I was afraid it had just been an insanely good dream. But I'm one lucky fuck because it actually happened.
And she can claim to not be sexy all she wants, but that girl is dead wrong. Maybe it just took the right pair of hands and lips or whatever, but the way she responds to me? Holy shit. I have never seen anything hotter than naked Bella Swan writhing under my touch.
Never.
Aaand fuck me, I'm hard now.
Damn it all to hell.
Thank God Tanya's back at their table now, or she'd probably think I pitched a tent for her. That'd be all I fucking need.
After letting Jessica know I'll be right back, I practically sprint to the bathroom and adjust my erection to where it's tucked up into the waist of my jeans. Not the most ideal situation, but it's gonna take a minute to go down. If I can get my mind off of Bella and all that soft skin and those sweet little nipples and that wet…
Still in my Bella-induced lust-haze, I run right into her when I walk out of the restroom. Literally. She must've been heading into the women's bathroom because she smacks right into my chest with a gasp. Wrapping my arms around her to keep her from falling makes my predicament that much harder, and before I realize what I'm doing, I have her pressed against the wall, and I might be grinding on her just a little bit as I run kisses down her long neck.
"Um. Hi?" Bella says, sounding surprised and maybe pissed off. But she can't hide the way her breath hitches, which only encourages me, and I nip at her earlobe. "Is that your dick you're rubbing on me, Cullen?" she asks, gripping my biceps.
It takes me a second to realize she's trying to push me back with her hands on my arms, and I put a little space between us. Her hands drop to her sides.
She looks turned on—flushed cheeks, hard nipples, hooded, fiery eyes—so assuming she's just being playful, I glance down and back up to her with a nod. "Uh, that is, yes. That's my dick."
Flashing her a cocky smile was not the right move because what I expect her to do is roll her pretty brown eyes at me but then throw her arms around my neck and kiss me senseless and maybe let me rub up against her some more.
She was pretty damn receptive to all of that last night.
But what she actually does is scowl and raise her knee up, and I instinctively cover my junk. Instead of trying to rack me, though, she stomps on my foot, which doesn't hurt as much as she probably hoped, before marching into the women's restroom.
Dumbfounded, I stand there and stare at the door she pushed open with the force of a charging elephant, hoping she'll come back out and tell me what the fuck just happened.
I run through the events of last night in my head, which again, doesn't help, but I do my best to ignore my twitching erection and remember how sad she looked when I was leaving her room. I remember her telling me how different it felt with me versus that asshat, Garrett.
How could things have changed so much overnight?
Jessica yells to me that she needs help, so I have no choice but to leave the small hallway in the back of the diner after another few seconds of staring at the door through which Bella disappeared.
I go on auto-pilot, refilling coffee and dropping off plates and hoping to all that's holy that I didn't just fuck everything up.
"Yo, Ed. You okay?" Emmett asks as I drop off coffee for him and a Pepsi for Bella. I don't have to take their orders. They've ordered the same meals for years.
I glance toward the bathrooms, and Rosalie's eyes are narrowed on me when I look back to the table. Tanya is smiling her flirty smile, and Em is waiting for my answer. "Uh, yeah, man. Everything's cool."
I hope.
I put in an order for a Belgian waffle with extra bacon for Bella and a Denver omelette with blueberry pancakes for Em, and I turn from the order window and almost knock Jess on her ass.
"Sorry," I mumble.
"It's okay. You all right?"
Embarrassed that everyone keeps asking me that, I clear my throat and straighten my shoulders. "Yeah. I'm fine. Just tired is all."
A few minutes later, Bella still hasn't come out, and I'm kind of lost in my head again, trying to figure out what I could've done to piss her off so much. By the time I almost drop an entire tray of food on an unsuspecting couple, Harry comes up and lays a heavy hand on my shoulder.
"Why don't you go take a break, Cullen?" He tips his head toward where the bathrooms are, and I realize he must've seen what happened between Bella and me.
"Yeah, okay," I agree, handing the tray off to him. He gives me an encouraging smile. "Uh, thanks," I tell him and then beeline straight for the women's restroom door, laying both hands on it but not pushing it open because it's ingrained in me that I'm not allowed in.
"Bella?"
She gasps out a curse behind the door, and my arms ache to push the offending piece of wood out of my way.
"Bella, it's Edward."
Silence.
The door doesn't open, not even a crack.
Fuck it. If she's not going to come out, I'm gonna have to go in. I haven't figured out what freaked her out, but I can't let her keep stewing and most likely talking herself out of what's finally started to happen between us.
I want her, dammit. I've wanted her for so fucking long. And after last night, I'm positive she wants me too. If I'm right, I'm not going to let anything come between us—especially not this motherfucking door.
"Bella… I'm coming in."
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