A/N: Please read A/N at the end Thanks.
==ooOoo==
Chapter 8
Bella woke with a start. For a minute, she was disoriented, reaching out for the nightstand and grasping at air, opening her eyes and expecting to see her dresser, instead finding a door.
"What the…"
Mumbling, she sat up in bed, squinting as she grabbed her phone. Two-thirty. London.
She was in her hotel bedroom in London. It had been a dream.
A dream so intense she was sweating and shaking.
It had been Edward, her acting student, her green-eyed boy, and in the dream, he had been above her, kissing her, whispering.
Bella sat up and switched on the bedside lamp. She poured herself a glass of water and drank it slowly. She got up and went to the bathroom, used the toilet, and washed her hands.
Her face in the mirror was sleepy and flushed. It was a warm night, but she knew it had been the dream that had put the rosy colour on her cheeks.
Returning to the bedroom, she stepped in front of the huge windows, opened one and looked outside. The Thames was black, lights glittering on the surface. The street below was quiet. There was a little breeze.
She needed to talk to someone, to soothe her frazzled nerves.
It was only nine-thirty in New York.
She got her phone and sat in one of the armchairs by the window.
"Bell!" Emmett's voice was enthusiastic as always, but it also and immediately put her heart at ease.
"Em! It's so good to hear your voice!"
"Um, thanks? You realize we only spoke earlier, right?"
"It seems so much longer," she said sheepishly.
"What happened?" Now, he sounded worried. "Was the date bad?"
"No, not bad at all." She got up and stared out the window once more. In a low voice, she added: "It was perfect, actually."
"Tell me about it, babe."
"We went to see this fantastic play by a friend of his. Em, he is so charming and perfect! And so, so funny!"
"Hey!" Emmett growled playfully. "I'm the funniest man in your life!"
"Of course you are, you big baby." She laughed lightly.
"Go on."
Bella went on to tell him about the play, and the refurbished music hall. Emmett wanted to know what Edward had been wearing, and she was almost drooling as she recounted how he'd looked in that blue suit and black button-down. Emmett hummed appreciatively.
"Afterward, we went to have dinner at a cute little restaurant. Turns out, he used to work there! And he models, Em! And he was an au-pair in Vienna, and studied journalism, well started to, anyway, and he went to Australia, and –"
"Wow," Emmett interrupted her. "And he's what? Twenty-four?"
"No! That's the thing, Em." She took a deep breath of night air and sat back down again. "He's almost twenty-nine."
"Oh my God," Emmett exclaimed. "That's… you were worried for nothing, it seems."
"Was I?"
"So? What happened? Did you…"
"We didn't do anything. Well, there was some hand-holding…"
"Wooo!"
"He told me his age," Bella said, getting up once more and walking to the mini fridge. This conversation called for a gin and tonic. Thank God she wasn't scheduled for the next day.
"I must have been giving off some major vibes of, I don't know, being a commitment phobic?"
Emmett chuckled. They both loved Bridget Jones.
"And he, he just grabbed my hand and asked me why I was hiding from him…"
"Wow."
She heard the creak of Emmett's patio door. And the unmistakable sound of a lighter.
"Emmett McCarty-Edelstein! Did you seriously light a cigarette just now?"
"Isabella Marie Swan!" She heard him blow out smoke. "I did. Go on."
Bella humphed but went on.
"He is so, so sweet, Em. He just saw through me and asked why I didn't give us a chance."
"Us?"
"He said there was something between us, and that he could tell I felt it too, but that I was hiding. That I was building a wall around myself, and that I was hiding, and…"
And suddenly, that was her breaking point, and she burst into sobs.
Maybe it was the stress of filming, or of being away from home. Maybe it was the damage that Austin had done, and which she still hadn't quite gotten over even one and a half years later. Maybe it was the fact that her dad had left them when she was five. Maybe it was just being overtired.
Maybe it was that Edward was right.
"Oh, Bell, Bell-Babe," Emmett soothed.
"I'm sorry, I just… I don't even know." Furiously wiping at her eyes, she gulped down the last bit of Gin and Tonic. "He's so sweet, Em. So young, and talented and…" Another wave of sobs overtook her.
"Sweetheart." Em's voice was steady and he sounded quite grown-up for a change. "Bell. Take a deep breath, okay?"
"Okay," she hiccupped. "I think I'll have another gin and tonic."
Emmett chuckled.
"Why does everything have to be so difficult, Em?"
She fixed her drink and blew her nose.
"But is it?"
"What do you mean?"
Being difficult, being a whiny person was one of her greatest horrors. She'd always been the tough girl, the one to pick up the pieces of her shattered self after dramas and losses.
"Is it difficult?"
"Um… Yeah?"
The second drink was beginning to warm her insides and relax her thought-process.
"Why?"
"Because he's ten years younger than me? Lives on another continent? Is just starting his career?"
"Nope." Emmett sighed audibly. "Nope, Bella. Nope, nope, nope."
"So it's me, yeah?"
"Yeah."
Emmett was the only person in the world – apart from her mom – who knew Bella Swan. The real Bella Swan.
"Em…"
"Bell. Just fucking live a little, will you please?"
This was not a conversation they were having for the first time.
"I don't know what you want from me." She threw her legs over the arm of the chair. "I'm happy."
"Yeah, right. Bell…" She could hear him draw a deep breath. "You are a beautiful woman, okay?"
Bella considered her red toenails.
"And an amazing actress."
She snivelled.
"You have a big heart. You're a wonderful person."
"Em, you're making me cry again."
"I know."
She knew how he'd look right now, the dimpled grin.
"Just, go with the flow, Bell."
She snorted.
"I mean it." he insisted. "So, how did you part ways?"
Bella groaned.
"We finished dinner, which, by the way, was amazing. The English cuisine is quite underestimated. But somehow… I don't know. I think I scared him away. We made small talk and it was nice and very amusing. It wasn't as relaxed, though. We took a cab back to the hotel, and it was a bit awkward. He got out with me and he said thank you, and I said thank you, as well. And he… I could tell he wanted to ask for another date, but he didn't. He kissed my cheek, and we said goodbye."
She snivelled again.
"Oh fuck," Emmett exclaimed quietly.
"Exactly," she whispered.
"You do want to see him again, right?"
"Yes." This whisper was even softer.
"Then we'll think of something, babe. I have a good feeling about this."
"One of your hunches?" Despite everything, she had to smile.
"You bet your sweet ass, Bell."
"Okay," she agreed softly. "Let's cook up a plan."
Emmett wooted.
==ooOoo==
Thank you, dear, dear readers for the lovely response to my story! I realised that I can't really guarantee you an update every Sunday. I'll try my best, but I can't promise it will happen. I've been worrying about this quite a lot… What do you think?
Hugs from Harper
