"Right now you are sitting in what a lot of people call a living room, but Alice prefers to call it a thriving room since…well, you've met her," I joked, starting off our tour of the cabin. Thankfully, Bella laughed at my lame joke. "But you're already familiar with this room. Let's move on to somewhere else."
Bella lifted herself up from the commodious leather couch and moved to my side. I began to lead her down the nearest hallway.
"We don't really have a main bathroom, which is pretty unique. We all have our own bathrooms. It's really better that way since we never had to share. So, in place of the main bathroom, this room is just a huge linen closet. So if you ever get cold…this is where you need to go." I continued down the hall. "The first room here is…"
"Oh, this is the room I'm staying in," she revealed to me.
"Seriously? This is Alice's room."
"Really?" she asked. "How funny that I should choose it. Wait a sec-how does Alice manage to get her little butt in that huge bed?"
"Hmm…I'd never thought of it. I'd say she probably takes a running start."
We both laughed at the mental image that produced.
"Do you like it in there?" I wanted to know. "Because you could always move to a different room." There's plenty of room in mine for instance…
God I am such a pervert.
"Oh, I love it. It's nice and cozy. What's that room over there?" she gestured at the room door across the hall.
"I don't think you'd believe me if I told you."
"Try me. Come on! I want to know."
"Well, when we stayed here as teenagers, Alice's luggage never really fit in her closet. So this is kind of a…second closet," I told her as I opened the door. It wasn't an enormous room really, but it was big enough to be a shocking size for a closet.
"Geeze. The saddest part about this is that I completely believe you," Bella giggled staring wide-eyed into the room.
"Over here is Carlisle and Esme's master bedroom…please tell me you don't want to go in and look around."
Bella turned to me with a curious expression on her face.
"Why? You don't want to go in?"
"Well, it's just weird, you know? Snooping around your parents' bedroom-it still seems so forbidden, even when you get older. Plus-we might discover something we don't want to see in there."
My mind flashed back to the time I was eight and Emmett described what our parents were doing in their room when they made so much noise. It wasn't extreme wrestling as I had thought at the time.
"Something we don't want to find? Like what?" Bella asked. "Whips and chains?"
"God, I would hope not. But please- let's not risk it," I begged her.
Thankfully, we moved to the room diagonal from the master bedroom.
"This is Emmett's room. Did Alice ever mention him to you?"
"Oh, sure. Alice talked about her family all the time. Emmett is the big teddy bear, right?"
"I suppose he is now, but I still have scars from our childhood to prove that wasn't always the case."
I thought about how Bella said Alice talked about her family all the time. Did Alice talk about me? I worried momentarily about anything humiliating Bella might already know about me, but then she started to open Emmett's door. My hand jumped out to stop her.
"What? Are there S&M toys in here too?" she asked innocently.
"Not exactly…Just hold on a second," I cracked open Emmett's door to make sure that those NC-17 posters weren't still on full display. That would be past mortifying. When I was certain the walls were all clear, I allowed Bella to open the door.
"What was all that about?" she wanted to know.
"Emmett was…uh…rather enthusiastic about his poster collection when we were teenagers. I didn't want you to see them if they were still up."
"How considerate of you," she said, stepping into the room to look around. First sweet and now considerate! You're racking up some pretty nice adjectives there, Edward.
Emmett's room was pretty simple-just like its occupant, so there wasn't much too see except a bed and a dresser. I suggested we continue our tour.
But when I saw the next room, I wanted to punch myself for mentioning it. My bedroom door loomed ahead of us like some kind of menacing omen. I'd never had a girl in this room before. I didn't even know if it was clean enough for company. What if there were some old toys from my childhood still hanging around that I hadn't noticed? Had I left all my clothes lying on the floor when I'd changed?
I should have made sure it was neat before I started the tour. I didn't want Bella to think I was some type of slob. But…if it was too neat, she might think I had OCD or something. Maybe I should peek in and make sure it's just the right amount of untidy. Yeah, great idea!
I was about to follow through with this idea when Bella stopped me.
It all seemed to happen at once. We were just standing in the hall, and I was coming up with ideas on how to make Bella like my room. Then before I could stop her, she was opening the door and walking in! I had no time to make anything perfect. My room was completely on display to her chocolate eyes.
I tried not to wince when she asked, "Hey-whose room is this?"
"This? Uh…well…I…this is mine," I stuttered. Great job! Impress her with incoherence!
"Yours, huh?" Bella turned to smirk at me mischievously. "Then where are your whips and chains?"
My eyes bugged out, and I coughed out of shock.
"Edward-I'm totally kidding. Relax," she said soothingly.
"Sorry. You just caught me off guard," I admitted trying to muster up a weak laugh at her joke, but I was still too shocked.
It didn't help matters that she had begun to look around thoughtfully, inspecting every inch.
"Whoa! Is this your sound system?" she questioned, gesturing to the far end of my room where my advanced stereo was settled.
"Yeah. Music is a huge passion of mine. That thing has great acoustics."
"I'll bet. What kind of music do you listen to?"
"Uh…" I wanted to know what her favorite genre of music was, so I could just tell her that, but I knew it was better to be honest. "I generally prefer classical music. Debussy is my favorite. But every so often I'll listen to a little jazz or oldies or indie music."
My mind abruptly replayed all the reactions girls had when I told them my listening preferences. Classical and jazz? But that's so boring! Don't you listen to any Lil Wayne or Nickleback? The answer was always no. No, I don't listen to any pop music. No, I don't want to keep talking about it if you're going to be rude. No, I do not have any interest in you whatsoever.
My body tensed for Bella's reaction.
"Debussy… my mom used to listen to Claire De Lune all the time when I was little. It's pretty great. But I always listened to Haydn when I studied for my finals. It helped me concentrate more."
Bella listened to classical music. Bella didn't scoff at me. Bella was…different.
"I like Haydn too. In fact…" I walked over to push some buttons on my stereo, and a particularly moving symphony began to play.
Bella laughed at my preparedness and walked further into my room, looking around. Her eyes took in my dresser, my luggage, the bathroom, the blue curtains, the golden walls, my oak nightstand, until they finally rested on my bed.
"Your bed is even bigger and fluffier than mine! Do you mind?" She inquired, looking into my eyes. I was about to respond with some kind of phrase, but before I could even put it together, Bella performed a little hop and landed on my bed.
For the second time that day, my lungs let out a little gasp. She was on my bed-my bed-shifting around, patting down the mattress as if she was testing it for purchase. Then she laid her chestnut head on one of my pillows.
Some far away part of my mind thought that this would have been obnoxious and forward if anyone but Bella did it. But it felt like Bella and I had known each other for years even though we'd just met yesterday. Our naturalness with each other was astounding.
But as you'll remember that was the far away part of my mind thinking. The dominant part of my brain screamed GOD YES! at the sight of such an exquisite and feminine creature snuggling in my bed.
"You know," Bella said casually, as if she wasn't currently testing my self control, "I really like the beds you guys have here. I might get one for myself once I get back to Phoenix."
Why bother? You can take mine. It's incredibly comfortable, and I come with it for free. Hell, I'll even help you break it in. What a bargain!
Something was seriously wrong with me. A woman simply sits on my bed and all I can think of is to pin her down and never let her up. Where has the civilized, self-possessed part of my psyche gone?
I cleared my throat.
"We'd…better get on with the tour. There's a lot of other stuff to see," I said hoarsely.
Bella arose reluctantly, or so I told myself, and walked to my side.
"Alright. Where to next?" Bella wanted to know.
