Thanks to Fairusa for her help, and to everyone who has been supportive and lovely over on Twitter, you ladies know who you are : )
Love's Little Book
Chapter 8
I decided the only way to stop the thoughts running wildly through my head was to get on with what I had come in early to do.
I could have spent hours standing there, questioning why I wanted him to touch me, if our relationship had changed, and whether Edward would ever get over it, but it wouldn't change a thing. In fact, thinking too much about it would only make the situation worse.
It was clear to me that I was the stronger person in our relationship, whatever it was. Not in a horrible way, but I was just more open to people than he was, which had never been the case before. I was normally the quiet, shy one. I was slightly nervous at the prospect of being the dominant person, but at the same time found it all exhilarating as well. I had asked for change in my life and I was getting it. I could hardly complain.
I really liked Edward, I liked the ease I felt around him, the quiet companionship he provided and the softness of his nature. I could not lose that and I wouldn't let that happen.
Whatever state Edward came back in, I would deal with it and make sure we stayed exactly the way we were before, which was moving forward and not backward. I was pretty sure that he needed someone as much as I did, and I wanted to be that person for him.
With that decided I moved on to the bigger task of sorting out the shop.
I decided the best place to start the shop's renovation would be in the back room. The room where I first met Edward, when I was looking for something, anything to help me out of the life I was living. It seemed like a fitting place to start.
I started by moving all the books off the book cases, then I moved the cases themselves. After that I moved the desk and tried not to lose or ruin all of Edwards unorganized and rumpled papers. By the end I was pretty much blocking off the entrance of the shop with all the books and clutter I was moving out. I knew that the chances of anyone coming into the shop would be slim, and just hoped that this would not be the day that someone needed a book.
After I had moved everything out I swept the floor, making it ready for what it was about to endure.
I dragged the sander over, plugged it in, and took a deep breath.
"Come on Bella, it can't be that hard," I said out loud in the hopes of calming myself down.
I turned the machine on and all thoughts of Edward fled my mind as I was dragged across the shop. I let out a little yelp that would not have been heard over the roaring of the sander.
It had a mind of its own, and turned into some kind of raging beast. I was pulled diagonally across the room and the sander wedged itself into the corner. It seemed to move back and forth trying desperately to get through the wall. I was panicking, my hands slipping on the handle, trying to turn the damn thing off. I was scared that I was going to sand a hole right through the floor. The constant banging noise it created as it headbutted the wall both reminded me of the seriousness of the situation I was in, and made it impossible to concentrate on turning the damn thing off.
Eventually, to my great relief, I found the off-button and the machine died in front of me I let out a shaky breath and looked around nervously praying that nobody had witnessed my embarrassing display.
Thankfully there was no one there, and I sighed in relief.
I was so happy that Edward had gone to meet his mother. If he had been there to witness me wrestling the sander and losing, I would have been beyond mortified. I was pretty sure I would have never been able to show my face at The Boston Book Exchange again.
Although my first try at the sander had not gone so well, I was undeterred. I was determined to get the job done and I would be damned if I let a sander get the better of me. I was not a quitter anymore, I was the new me and I would not be defeated by a silly machine.
I wheeled the contraption away from the corner and grimaced when I saw the state of the floor. The sander had done its job pretty well. There was a bright, light, perfect circle marking the floor, surrounded by a sea of deep, dirty, brown.
I knew that there was no way I was going to be able to sand the whole floor to the same extent as that little patch. It would have taken me weeks!
I came to terms with the fact that when Edward came back I would have to explain why there was a perfect circle scratched into his floor, and I hoped that he would not be too angry or upset with me. I wanted to prove to him that I was a good person to have around; damaging his shop was probably not a good way to do that.
I decided not to think about that as well, and moved back to the middle of the room. I was becoming the queen of avoidance.
I took another deep breath and prepared to start again. I turned it on, and again it tried to drag me across the floor, but knowing what to expect, I was wise to its tactics. After a little while and a lot of struggle on my part I finally got the beast under control. It took a lot of concentration and time, but it worked.
Every time I pushed the machine over the floor a new, paler piece of wood was exposed to me. The grime and muck was stripped off the old boards and was replaced with a bright, gleaming youthfulness.
My heart seized up slightly as I watched the transformation that I was causing. It was beautiful, it was new and it was all because of me. I had made change and if I could do it to the scarred and abused flooring I could do it for me.
I was pulled out of my proud thoughts when I heard a disturbance at the other side of the shop. I turned off the machine and quickly went to investigate.
I looked through the gaps between the piled up books and furniture to see if someone was there, or if the noise had come from something falling or shifting off the precarious castle I had built. I peered through and could only see the normal brown and grey of the shop, with the normal dust dancing in and out of the shafts of light coming from the windows.
Suddenly a flash of colour zoomed past my view and then I was staring into the sea of green that were Edward's eyes.
I jumped slightly but remained where I was, a smile playing at my lips. Edward's gaze shifted to my lips and he offered a crooked smile in return.
"Bella?" he asked softly.
"Yeah," I replied in almost a whisper, waiting for what he had to say.
"I can't get through." My smile dropped and I internally scolded my self for blocking him out of his own shop.
"Oh my god, sorry, just give me one second," I replied nervously.
I hastily started removing things from the pile of books and furniture and more and more of Edward became visible as my tower was dismantled.
There was only the table left between us. I was about to pull it out to let Edward through when he did something that surprised me.
He put his arms on the table and pulled himself on top of it, swung his legs around and jumped off the other side, landing next to me. I watched him as he manoeuvred himself over the table. He handled it with grace and a light footedness that I didn't possess. I shocked myself when I realised I was staring at the way the muscles of his arms clenched and stretched as he moved across the furniture.
I quickly removed my eyes from his arms and looked around the room just as he was doing, pretending that moments ago I was not arm-perving.
"Bella, the floor looks great!" he said honestly.
I felt pride swell within me and I agreed with him, the floor did look great. Instead of the old, decrepit and uncared for floor from before there was a new tanned and untainted base to the shop. Then I remembered the over-sanded part.
"Edward, I had a little accident," I said, grimacing.
He instantly turned to me and frantically searched my body for a sign of injury.
"What happened? Are you ok?" he asked in a panic.
I smiled and lowered my eyes to the floor under the endearing weight of his concern.
"No, I am fine, nothing happened to me. It's just, when I started I was not prepared for the sander to be so strong and it kind of dragged me across the floor...and then...um...it got stuck in the corner and I couldn't turn it off and...ah...I may have damaged the floor ever so slightly," I said with a grimace.
I looked at him nervously, waiting for his reaction. I didn't want him to be angry at me, or worse, disappointed. He had trusted me in his shop on my own and I had gone and damaged it.
"Are you sure you're okay, though? You didn't hurt yourself? If you got hurt trying to help me I would never forgive myself," he said sincerely.
My eyes widened in surprise. "You're not angry at me?" I asked quietly.
He grinned, "No, of course not, I should have been here to make sure everything was okay, or I should have asked you to wait until I came back. I am just glad you didn't hurt yourself."
I nodded again and looked at him in awe. He never ceased to amaze me, he didn't care that I had made a bit of a mess of things, didn't care that I may have damaged anything; he was just concerned for me and my safety.
My heart clenched dangerously in my chest. Who was this man who was standing in front of me? Where did he come from? Why was he the way he was?
I was becoming more and more determined to get to know Edward better, I wanted to know what made him tick, why he was so shy and I wanted to help him with it.
Suddenly it dawned on me: I wasn't just there to change The Boston Book Exchange, or myself. I was there to help Edward as well. I was going to help him out of that shell that I was sure he had been living in for most of his life.
With a new sense of purpose I headed over the ruined patch of floorboard. It didn't look as bad as it did before, because the rest of the floor around it was also sanded, but it was still noticeable. Edward followed me over and we both stared at it in silence for a while.
I snuck a look up at him and noticed that he didn't seem upset. in fact, if anything, he seemed amused.
"I was thinking that maybe we could cover it with one of those big flower pots or something. It's the perfect size for that, and...you...know, a plant would brighten the place up a little bit," I said.
"A plant seems like a great idea," he said with a devastating smile.
"Well okay then, if you are not angry at me and are still prepared to let me loose on this place I suppose I should get back to work."
"Before we carry on I want to talk to you," he said nervously.
"Okay, is this a bad conversation? Do I need to sit down for this?" I asked worriedly.
He smiled again, "No Bella, this is not a bad conversation and we can't sit down; there is no where to sit," he said looking at his furniture that was still half stacked at the other end of the shop.
"I am more than prepared to have you do whatever you think is needed to this place, but what I am not prepared to do is have you pay for it. This is my shop and although you are doing a lot of work, it is my responsibility, at least financially, so if you could get me the receipts by tomorrow I would appreciate it and I will of course reimburse you," he said confidently and without stuttering once.
I looked at him with surprise. I had never heard him that confident before. In that moment he was like a different man. He had spoken clearly and directly, something I hadn't heard him do before. I felt an overwhelming surge of pride for him at his sudden flash of confidence. It was great to see him that way.
"Of course," I replied, trying to stop the smile from appearing on my face. Despite my efforts I smiled anyway and he returned it. He lowered his head slightly and blushed.
"Shall I carry on now?" I asked.
He looked up at me again and nodded. "How about I finish the sanding and you can get on with the next part of what you would like to do?" he asked gently, clearly implying that I shouldn't do any more sanding for the day, which in turn caused me to blush.
"That's probably a good idea." I replied. I was pretty sure I had finally figured out how to work the sander but the last thing I wanted to do was embarrass myself in front of Edward. I would have been a lot more on edge doing it with him around, and whenever I was nervous my clumsy nature seemed to intensify.
"I will start to varnish the floor. If we can get all the sanding and varnishing done in this part today, we, or I, can start on the walls tomorrow."
He nodded lightly and walked over to the sander that was sitting in the middle of the room. There was only a small amount left to do and it wouldn't take him long.
"Are there any specific instructions about how to use this?" he asked.
I walked over to him.
"This is the on/off button," I said pointing to the small red switch. "Um, it is pretty easy to work out. Just hold on tight though, like I said, it has a mind of its own." He nodded and smirked.
"Yeah, I will look out for that," he said, sending a cheeky smile my way. I couldn't believe that Edward Cullen was teasing me, I enjoyed it and was glad that he felt comfortable being that way with me.
I playfully raised an eyebrow at him before I walked away towards the table. The varnish was in the other part of the shop which meant I had to get over the table to retrieve it.
I sent a silent prayer to anyone that may be listening to help me get over the desk with ease, because the last thing I wanted was to fall on my face again.
I clambered over the hardtop of the desk with a lot less grace than Edward had displayed earlier. I could feel his eyes burning a hole in my back, but didn't turn. He seemed to be in a playful mood and I didn't want him to see how humiliated I was with my lack of elegance, yet I also didn't want to scare the mood out of him.
I walked to the other end of the shop and picked up a couple of cans of varnish. I had gone for a light brown, because I didn't want to make the floors dark again. The Boston Book Exchange should be an inviting, warm place and dark didn't convey that message.
I heard the roar of the sander come to life and started heading back to the other side of the shop. I heard a crash and a loud yelp come from the back of the building. I rushed back, stumbled and fell across the table.
The sight in front of me stopped me dead in my tracks. My mouth fell open in shock. Edward was stuck in the corner of the room, opposite the corner that I had already marred. The sander was charging at the wall and it was clear from the panic on Edward's face that he had completely lost control of the machine.
His eyes were wild and panicked, his mouth was slightly agape as he tried to turn it off, he was being thrown backwards and forwards towards the wall as the sander made a desperate attempt at freedom, his head bouncing with the sander's every charge.
Finally his fingers pressed down on the switch and the sander stopped. He turned around and saw me standing there. A look of pure horror passed over his features before he blushed so violently I was scared he was going to turn purple.
He ran a hard through his wild hair nervously. "I...um...think we are going to need another flower pot," he said.
I couldn't stop the laughter that was building up in my chest from erupting from my lips. I tried to halt it, but it was impossible. The sight of Edward wrestling with the sander was one of the funniest things I had ever seen.
He looked at me and I was terrified that I had offended him. I didn't want to upset him but my hysteria couldn't be controlled, tears leaked from my eyes and crawled down my cheeks. I tried to apologize but I doubted he could hear me. I leaned over and gripped my stomach as it started aching.
Edward looked at me, then the sander, then back to me again. His lips raised in a smile and a giggle escaped him. It wasn't long before both of us were crying with laughter.
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I hope you liked the touch of funny in this chapter, let me know what you think.
As always reviewers get a teaser and I will try and make it a good one : )
Thanks for all your reviews and alerts it makes me happy to see them.
As usual I have recs:
The Tour: A light hearted, funny and different romance. I really like this it is great fun and easy to read.
http:/www(dot)fanfiction(dot)net/s/5524324/1/
Accidental Atonement: This is an Edward/Leah fic and so far I really like it. I know that it is not a common pairing and I know that some people do not like anything non canon, but I think you should give it a shot.
http:/www(dot)fanfiction(dot)net/s/6372221/1/
Enjoy
x
